Dumbledore is gay!!!

[sigune]

YAAAAAAAAAYYYY! Dumbledore is gay!!!!

...I'm sorry, I should not perhaps be all whoopee about this, it's a bit childish... The thing is that Dumbledore is the one character in canon who has always given off a gay vibe to me. I have read slash with Snape, with Lupin, with Ron and Harry and Draco - just about everyone. But none of these characters ever seemed gay to me. Dumbledore did. He always did. Seriously. I'm not sure I can explain why, but it was just there.

Because I am into Queer Studies, and many of my favourite artists were/are gay, and I actually like to write about gay characters, it troubled me a little that I could never see that in Snape or Lupin or James or Sirius or whoever. I mean, it's sort of my job to detect that sort of thing. But Dumbledore... Ha! What a relief! Finally Rowling said something in an interview that makes me really, really happy. Happy because she did include a queer character, and supremely happy because I spotted it :D.

I wish I could refer you to a post or a comment as proof of my long-standing belief in Gaydore, but I'm afraid I no longer remember where to look for one. You'll just have to trust me to speak the truth :-).

Yay! Yaaaaayyy!!

*goes off to celebrate*

Comments

(part 2)

[sigune.livejournal.com]

The elements I mentioned so far were present from book one; but I guess I got my confirmation in book 5. There is something about Dumbledore's discussion and confession to Harry at the end of OotP that made me think, "yep, I knew it." It's Dumbledore's attitude towards and feelings for Harry. Don't get me wrong: I don't think Dumbledore is in love with Harry. What I do think is that in this passage, and subsequent interactions between the two of them in HBP and DH, show that Dumbledore's relationship with Harry is - well, let's say that he doesn't behave like a general towards a soldier (because he cares too much about Harry for that); but neither does he behave like a father or a grandfather (because he does not care the way a parent or surrogate parent would; I think the difference with Sirius is striking), who would refuse to sacrifice their (grand)son, like Lucius and Narcissa will do everything to keep their son alive. Harry is dear to Dumbledore as a young, plucky, and reasonably good-looking stranger. He's Dumbledore's type. And it is clear to me that Dumbledore doesn't understand how Snape (whom I perceive as a little effeminate, but very straight, as opposed to Dumbledore, whom I don't think effeminate at all) can look at beautiful, spirited Harry and not like him.

I am not at all sure that when JKR created Dumbledore, she thought, "Well, he's gay and I'm going to write him like that"; I think it quite probable that she wrote him with all his quirks and his strange affection for Harry and no family life and then thought, "Hey look, he's actually quite gay." Dumbledore's feelings for Harry seem to be to a large extent JKR's own, and she is a straight woman who said in the same interview that she married Harry - her husband is like him. Dumbledore's attraction to Harry is JKR's attraction to Harry; therefore Dumbledore is homosexual. The point is, for me, that homosexual Dumbledore is on the whole plausible. The characteristics she has given him didn't need to point at homosexuality, but Dumbledore's homosexuality is not hard to believe in view of how he has been pictured.

Re: (part 2)

[ellecain.livejournal.com]

Dumbledore's attraction to Harry is JKR's attraction to Harry

Oh, please, please write a psychoanalytic reading of this? A la Taming the Price? You know you want to... She even said Dumbledore's detachment was a quality of her own that her ister pointed out to her. And the part about Dumbledore -as -author pulling the strings of the plot and standing in for JKR's exposition half the time. I think it's ripe for a psychoanalytic reading. :-)

Re: (part 2)

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Aww. Well, to be honest, I don't really have the right background to do Freudian readings. I'm not really into that angle; mostly I avoid it. In the case of Rowling it definitely strikes me as useful, but I don't think I could do it myself... Sorry!

I do remember that quote of JKR's sister's very well, and it does fascinate me. It may explain a lot of my problems with the Potter books. To me many of the principal characters seem cold, insensitive and even a little inhumane. If JKR is as 'cold' and reserved as her sister said she is, it goes some way towards explaining why she doesn't feel the need to somehow mend or explain the 'unnatural' (to me) detachment of a Dumbledore, a Harry or a Hermione. She just doesn't see it that way. To her that detachment is probably a mark of strength, or something.

Re: (part 2)

[sander123.livejournal.com]

Very intersting thoughts about love - Dumbledore makes now more sense to me. I was clinging to tight on the grand-father-concept - and judged by that he was too cruel, but I couldn't see him as the cold-hearted general some like to see him.

"And it is clear to me that Dumbledore doesn't understand how Snape (whom I perceive as a little effeminate, but very straight, as opposed to Dumbledore, whom I don't think effeminate at all) can look at beautiful, spirited Harry and not like him."

Fascinating! They speak completely different languages in the "Prince's-tale" then. I try not to start again about Snape. But it's very important for me, that effeminisation (and I completely agree about that, concerning Snape) has nothing to do with gayness.

Thank you very much again for spending so much time in writing out your thoughts for me! :)

Re: (part 2)

[purpleygirl.livejournal.com]

Dumbledore doesn't understand how Snape can look at beautiful, spirited Harry and not like him.

I'm sorry, but that is just so insightful and clinches it for me! I think deep down I wondered why Dumbledore was unfriendly toward Snape for him not liking Harry... even though Dumbledore accepted that Harry had to die. It's not fatherly, neither is it overt attraction as in paedophilia. It's just kind of... blinkered admiration, I guess. Which really could explain why he treats Snape like dirt sometimes for his stubborn Harry-hate.

You know, I wonder if this is one reason he was so tolerant to the Marauders? Because they did attempt murder ...

God, I'm freaked out that this all makes a kind of sense. *g*

Re: (part 2)

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Hee! I'm really glad you found this helpful :D.

I do think Dumbledore's tolerance towards the Marauders was mainly due to the fact that he was really conducting a war and couldn't be bothered with 'trivial' problems like a couple of Gryffindor berks bullying a Slytherin. But yes, I wouldn't be surprised if the fact that Snape is unappealing didn't help matters. Snape never at any point charms Dumbledore. Dumbledore takes him back because he thinks it is the right thing to do and because he recognises a useful tool when he sees one, but he never seems feel for Snape the way he feels for, and connects to, Harry. This last thing is something that I wouldn't have guessed until "The Prince's Tale", though. Previously I thought that Dumbledore really cared about Snape and understood him.

Re: (part 2)

[purpleygirl.livejournal.com]

Blinkered admiration again, I suppose... ::sighs on behalf of Snape::

The one thing that still bothers me is that in DH we had an entire book within the book (and long extracts from, to boot) on Dumbledore's life -- a 'tell all' no less -- and nothing, not even the tiniest rumour, among all those malicious rumours, about him being gay.

OK, DH is a kids' book, it's not important to the story... But seriously, it was a blatant opportunity for her to hint at it... Yet JKR feels the need to tell us this fact only after all the books... for what reason other than pure sensationalism, I wonder? :s