[ SECRET POST #2216 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2216 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.


__________________________________________________



02.


__________________________________________________



03.


__________________________________________________



04.


__________________________________________________



05.


__________________________________________________



06.


__________________________________________________



07.


__________________________________________________



08.


__________________________________________________



09.


__________________________________________________



10.


__________________________________________________



11.


__________________________________________________



12.


__________________________________________________



13.


__________________________________________________



14.


__________________________________________________



15.


__________________________________________________



16.


__________________________________________________



17.













Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 05 pages, 120 secrets from Secret Submission Post #317.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 2 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - personal attack ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I excuse JKR on the Dumbledore thing because seriously, if she had put it in the book, that would be the only thing people who read the book would talk about. No one would care about the plot, just "OMG DUMBLEDORE'S GAY". Hell, even when she broke the news after the fact, it was STILL the only thing people talked about. That's what really bugged me: that a gay relationship/reveal can't just be slipped into a story like it's nbd. Nooooo, people have to throw a shitfit over it and retroactively completely redefine the character based on his sexuality.

Plus, I kinda loved how the way she broke the news showed that it WASN'T a big deal. Dumbledore's love for and relationship with Grindelwald was an important but minor plot point when it wasn't confirmed as romantic, and it being romantic didn't really change anything important about it. The belated reveal kind of throws a light on how awful and hypocritical people are, making a big stink out of something that they had accepted as perfectly normal before a small inconsequential detail was revealed.

[(Anonymous)]

A+

[(Anonymous)]

THANK YOU OH MY GOD SOMEONE IS SANE ABOUT THIS.

I am seriously a hair-trigger queer activist who verges on SJW sometimes and even I was cool about the Dumbledore thing.

[(Anonymous)]

I love you for this comment.

[(Anonymous)]

+1. It wasn't relevant to the plot in some huge way, and she wrote a character. People always complain about how homosexuals in media are just stereotypes and "well why can't they be X and just happen to be gay?"

And she wrote that. And now they complain about how there wasn't enough visibility because obviously Dumbledore would have talked to Harry about his personal love life at some point, right? Right?

Sigh.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not really mad or bothered by it, TBH, I'm just baffled that people think that by mentioning that small detail, it somehow makes her a queer activist. If she's done other things for the queer community, then I retract my statement, but as far as the "Dumbledore is gay!" reveal is concerned...meh. She's not a bad person, she's just...also not the face of gay rights activism. And apparently some people think she should be.

[(Anonymous)]

The more people talk about it, the more visible it becomes, and the more people shrug it off. We don't yet live in a world where being gay is about as exciting as eating potatoes for dinner, which is why it needs to be there and in your face for a while, until it becomes so normal that nobody gives two shits anymore.

[nyxelestia]

Came here to say pretty much this.

And that JKR is not an activist. She isn't some saint of gay rights, but she isn't some kind of failure of a gay rights activist, either. Making Dumbledore gay wasn't an attempt at gay visibility or perpetuate gay rights. It was a part of his character, and one that she likely recognized early on as being problematic in terms of things like sales and parents letting their kids read the books.

I think people forget most of the books were written and planned in the 90's and early 00's. Gay visibility and gay characters in books primarily intended for young children were a very different thing back then. Quite frankly even just half a decade ago, when the last book was coming out, it would've been a very different thing than how people view a gay character in a children's book today.

[cloudsinvenice]

This. And that social landscape is also the reason she couldn't just, as some have suggested, slip in casual references to character A or B and their boyfriend/girlfriend. Because sadly, at most UK schools in the period when the books were written/set, an out teenage gay couple would NOT be a minor detail. It would be a huge topic of unkind gossip. When I was at school we had blackmail over sexuality in our year. A kid whose parents would've thrown him out if they knew he was bi. And even now, I keep seeing articles about the problem of homophobic bullying in schools.

So it wasn't a time when she could just casually mention, say, Lavender dating Parvati. It would've left questions in the minds of readers and required more expansive and responsible exploration.