More on Dumbledore (ooh, that rhymes!)

[darcydodo]

With all of my replying to other people's Dumbledore posts in comments, I thought I should collect my opinions here. (All of these are culled directly from comments, so some of the context shifts may be a little abrupt, and there may be repetition.) More to potentially be added as I reply to comments further

Comments

[tigupine]

Without adding anything productive to this discussion, I'm going to point out that I immediately took this line out of context:

But Snape's love-life is important because it deals with Harry

[tigupine]

As for my actual opinions, I entirely agree with Darcy - I don't see a single point that I would dispute - and anyone who has spent time around both of us knows that that means something

[tigupine]

Also, in anticipation of certain rebuttals - all children's books push the dominant ideological agenda to some degree already, queer youth desperately need positive role models, etc. - I can't resist adding: so write your own damn bestseller. Or inspire someone else to.

actually...

[once_a_banana]

Here is a post dealing with precisely this issue. Turns out we've had queer characters in young adult fantasy since at least the early 80's, but obviously these books never received real fame in the manner of HP. The person who wrote this post concludes with the same remark you do, that, goshdarnit, we need more people to go out and actually write these things.

[elemy]

I can totally see Dumbledore as gay but hiding it, if that's the way JK Rowling wants it; if the wizarding world is anything like this one it seems all too plausible. But I'm a bit perturbed by the love interest she's chosen for him - does it strike anyone else as wierd that although the major love of his life has turned out to be evil incarnate and he's killed him with his own hands (/wand), he still retains an attitude of "love is the ultimate force for good" and preaches it to anyone who will listen (i.e. Harry) at every opportunity?