Posted by Helen on: 10.22.2007 /
Benjamin Ady sent me this link on Saturday: Rowling lets Dumbledore out of the closet. According to the article
After reading an excerpt from the seventh installment of her series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” one young fan asked if Dumbledore had ever loved anyone.
“Dumbledore is gay, actually,” replied Rowling.
She was initially met with a surprised silence but ultimately the audience erupted in cheers for several minutes prompting Rowling to add, “I would have told you earlier if I knew it would make you so happy.”
This is the only part of the books I can remember which even hinted at Dumbledore being gay
Rowling went on to explain that Dumbledore fell for Gellert Grindelwald, his childhood friend with similarly brilliant wizarding skills, who eventually went over to the dark side and became the predecessor to the infamous villain Voldemort. That love, explained Rowling, was Dumbledore’s “great tragedy.”
Evidently JK Rowling had to mention this issue once before to avoid the sixth movie implying otherwise
Rowling explained that the issue of Dumbledore’s sexuality came up in the making of one of the Harry Potter films.
“In fact, recently I was in a script read-through for the sixth film, and they had Dumbledore saying a line to Harry early in the script, saying, ‘I knew a girl once, whose hair–’”
The crowd laughed.
“I had to write a little note in the margin and slide it along to the scriptwriter — ‘Dumbledore’s gay!’” she said.
I find this fascinating. I don’t think anyone could have known for sure from the books that JK Rowling had this in mind. Why do you think she choose to share it now and not make it clear in her books?
Later in the same article JK Rowling says she ‘considers her novels as a “prolonged argument for tolerance”‘. Do you think this disclosure about Dumbledore will improve tolerance towards gay people? What do you think her choice to make Harry’s mentor and one of the wisest and most important characters in the book gay – is it good, bad or a non-issue?
Comment by: Luke Allison
1This actually is a bit of a trend in literature and film. Replacing the “wise and/or noble savage” stereotype is the “wise homosexual” stereotype. Read Clive Barker’s “Imagica” (or anything else he’s written), watch As “Good as it Gets” or even “Best In Show”, and you’ll see prime examples.
Is this bad or good? I suppose when any sort of people group is deemed innappropriate or powerless by earlier generations, it’s only a natural reaction to try and empower them through unrealistic and archetypal characters.
I guess I would prefer for characters in fiction to be like real people and not walking types, but that’s just me.
Whatever the case, I’m sure there’ll be even more uproar now that Satan’s favorite nerdy wizard is being mentored by one of Satan’s favorite showtune enthusiasts.
With tongue planted firmly in cheek,
Luke Allison
Comment by: seekingsomething
2I am not a Potter fan (for reasons related to sheer bemusement by fantasy….).
Can’t help feeling , somewhat cynically, that this may have emerged now simply so as to continue the interest in the now-complete story and in so doing, to ensure JK and her publishers keep raking in the profits.
It will be interesting to compare the interest in this story on both sides of the Atlantic. I expect that there will be much less interest in the UK, broadly speaking, as there are fewer folk proportionately who tend to get worked up about ‘anti-Christian’ agendas…..
Comment by: David H
3It seems to be fairly Ok with her base of fans and, as Luke rightly notes, those from the consrvative Christian block couldn’t hate the books much more. Soooo, why not.
However, as someone who has taken writing classes and read quite a bit written by writers about writing, I am familiar with the concept of unwritten back-story. Stephen King has written quite convincingly about how the author will frequently know everything about the main characters, but there just isn’t a need for much of that exposition to go into the stories. It can still inform actions/plot even though it is never mentioned. I don’t know Rowling, but given all I have read about her writing style it would be my guess this isn’t a recent invention. As to why bring it up now? It probably can’t hurt sales of the books at this point.
Comment by: Karen
4I rather doubt that J.K. Rowling needs to invent some marketing hype to ensure continued sales of the books that have made her one of the richest people of all time in publishing. ;-)
My guess is that the question of Dumbledore’s sexuality has simply never come up, and so she’s never mentioned it in the past. In fact, most of the Hogwarts professors’ personal lives are never addressed, and most of them seemingly are unmarried. The books are written from the students’ perspective, and most students don’t much want to know about their teachers sex lives, so I guess that’s why it didn’t get written about.
I actually guessed that she was hinting at this in the last book. It was fairly clear that Dumbledore was infatuated with Grindelwald, but I wasn’t sure if the relationship went beyond the friendship stage or not.
Comment by: Helen
5Karen, when I thought about it it seemed to me that most of the professors at Hogwarts were unmarried – so were they all gay? My daughter said she doesn’t even know which of her schoolteachers are married and which aren’t. So maybe it’s a non-issue to students.
Which is interesting given the fears of some people that children might be enticed into the gay lifestyle if they have gay authority figures in their lives.
Comment by: Siamang
6I was thinking Rowling brought this up because people were confused about Dumbledore’s relationship with Grindewald.
Or maybe I’m projecting. I didn’t for a second guess that it was a romantic emphatuation because, quite candidly, I don’t think Rowling writes her characters with much of a sexual drive at all.
This is fine when your characters are 11 years old… but by the time Harry was 17 he seemed to not have a hormone in his body… all descriptions of female characters from harry’s point of view seem to be obsessed with how the light plays on their hair. Their HAIR for crying out loud. That’s not any 17 year old boy I know!
But back to Rowling. I think by avoiding the statement that Dumbledore was romantically involved with Grindelwald in the text, it gave a perhaps bad impression of Dumbledore’s politics, rather than a tragic impression of his falling in love with a dark wizard and coming to regret it.
After reading that part of the book, I came away feeling that Dumbledore had been a young political radical. The missing piece of the puzzle made this part of his history make sense again with the person I know Albus Dumbledore to be.
Comment by: benjamin ady
7It’s intriguing that some of the reaction in the blogosphere is from parents who are wondering things like “So now what do I tell my children? Homosexuality is hardly a subject for 8 to 10 year olds.”
What do ya’ll think about that? My experience growing up in the conservative christian right was that sexuality was something no one really wanted to talk about in any terms. Now I’m a ton more comfortable, and I don’t have any trouble with the idea of talking to my kids about what homosexuality is, and what it might or might not mean that Dumbledore is gay.
I mean the thing is, dumbledore is dumbledore, and he’s pretty kewl, and his being sexually attracted to a guy really doesn’t affect that too much, IMNSHO. It just means at one level that his genes died with him.
Comment by: Siamang
8My child is four, and she herself has noticed that her grandmother is married to a woman.
No big whoop.
Comment by: Karen
9Like Siamang noted, the books are pretty much asexual. Though there are romantic storylines for the main characters, they are pretty chaste, which I think was because she initially set up them very firmly as children’s stories and didn’t want to “go there” even when they became teens.
I guess we’re not meant to wonder about the other teachers’ sex lives, though I did at times. It makes for some interesting pondering now… did Minerva McGonagal and Sybil Trelawny have a little love shack somewhere in the forbidden forest?!? ;-)
Those people, who think kids are “enticed” into homosexuality by some kind of recruitment committee, are frankly nuts. (apologies to those who think that!) It’s like imagining that kids are lured into heterosexuality if they have favorite teachers who mention that they’re married to people of the opposite sex. That ain’t how it works. ;-) And authority figures who work with kids and are gay tend to keep it very quiet, at the risk of losing their jobs.
My kids have a gay aunt and a gay uncle and we’ve always been matter-of-fact about it. As a result, they’re accepting of gay people, including gay kids their own ages. Around age 3, the older one asked if their aunt was “a girl or a boy” – she’s a very butch lesbian and he wasn’t sure!
Comment by: Kathleen
10I did, too. I know kids don’t usually know much about their teachers’ personal lives, but I’m pretty sure that’s a little different at a boarding school where teachers live on campus, too. I assume most of them do, because heads of houses are always getting people in trouble for being in the corridors at night, but then again, Snape does have that house at Spinner’s End. I’m pretty sure Moody and Lupin, though not head of any house, were also involved in after-dark adventures, so presumably, most if not all teachers do live on campus, and yet we’ve never heard hide nor hair of a spouse or partner for any of them. They only ever danced with each other and visiting teachers at teh Yule Ball, and most seemed to spend their holiday dinners in the Great Hall. That’s not saying it’s impossible that Professor Vector or Sinistra might not have a cozy little house in Hogsmeade with a spouse and 3 kids, but it seems unlikely.
However, in that same interview…oh shoot, have you all read the 7th book? Do you all know who becomes a professor at Hogwarts? Anyway, same interview reveals who that person marries and where they end up living, and it’s not at Hogwarts. I don’t want to go leaking spoilers, so google it!
It’s not hard to find, but it does really point out the fact that the media really grabs onto the “outing” of Dumbledore and won’t let go. None of the news articles mention all of the other information in the interview – and there was lots – because, of course, the only important bit was about Dumbledore’s sexuality.
Although, honestly, I don’t really feel like she answered the question, which was, “Did Dumbledore ever find love?” He falls in love once, with a megalomaniac, when he’s 17, and then what? Because he’s gay, that’s all there is to his romantic life? Or maybe because he’s afraid of love after seeing where it lead him that time? But then why was he always love’s biggest proponent?
Comment by: David H
11Those who make the biggest mistakes in that department sometimes recognize that whatever failure occurred wasn’t a failure of love. They may, as a result, spend much time championing the real deal because of a belief that they have special insight to the mistakes people may make for what they hope will be love.
Homosexuality was a great evil in my household when it finally had to be discussed. My brother sometimes claimed to be gay during the onset of his schizophrenia. He may or may not have been, but his claims forced my parents to bring up a subject formerly taboo.
As an adult I saw a mother and daughter try to destroy the church I attend over the subject. They asked the pastor to make a public declaration that gays were not welcome at our church. He said he couldn’t and wouldn’t. They of course left, but also contacted everyone at the church telling them that if the remained they would go to hell simply for remaining. A quote from the mother in one email was: “Homosexuality is an unforgivable sin.”
Part of the issue was also that the pastor of my church is gay. His story has been published in a book, so I think it is OK to share. He has never been a practicing homosexual (that phrase seems wrong, but I’m not sure what else would work) yet never tried to hide his orientation from denominational leadership. Their allowing him to be a pastor is somewhat remarkable since Mennonites haven’t really come to terms on that subject.
All of this is to say, the subject hasn’t been avoidable for my children. They see it on TV, hear about it at school, and are aware of some of the struggles at church.
The upside is we had a baptismal service at our church the week before last. One of the people baptized is gay. He made a remarkable profession of faith, the crux of which was how thankful he was to finally find a faith community that would embrace him, a place that might not endorse but would never condemn, a place that showed him God loves everyone as they are. My daughters were in the church and heard the word homosexuality more than once during the service.
Several of his friends came to the service. They were reluctant to come inside because they had never received anything but rejection from Christians and church communities.
My daughters haven’t asked me about the Dumbledore thing. They missed school today, but it might still be the buzz among rabid Potter fans tomorrow. I’m not sure what they will come home saying, but it should be something about which we can converse. And that has to be better than how it was when I was a kid.
Comment by: Karen
12Here’s a story from Salon.com where the writer questions whether Rowling’s continuation of the Potter saga in Q&As with fans is good or not. Ultimately, she decides she doesn’t like it.
Comment by: Steve S.
13I for one, am glad to see the topic of sexuality becoming more prominent in spiritual conversations…
Sexuality and spirituality are profoundly intertwined, don’t you think?
Comment by: Mike Clawson
14The dead giveaway that Dumbledore is gay was in Book 5 when he escapes from the Ministry goons and Kingsley remarks “You hafta admit, Dumbledore’s got style!” ;)
Comment by: Siamang
15SNORT!
Shacklebolt said it that time!
Comment by: benjamin ady
16david,
thankyou for sharing. I think I am … fortunate to live in a city which has *so* many christian communities which are open to gays. (not that Seattle doesn’t have it’s own problems)
Comment by: Julie Clawson
17Siamang – how could you not read Ron’s comment in book 7 about courting girls not being just “fancy wand work” as having sexual undertones… :)
But in general. Rowling has written out the backstories for all of her characters. I do believe that she was just shocked to see others writing something about Dumbledore that differs from the story she has lived with for so many years. I don’t think it was publicity per se, just telling it like it is so to speak.
Comment by: Siamang
18HA!
Yeah, I got that one.
Comment by: Pete S.
19Siamang wrote:
Normally I would agree, but in this case I think that Harry, Ron and Hermione basically put sexual interests on hold in order to save the world…. The other possibility is that sexual preoccupations is a Muggle-thing. They’re magical, after all, so they can probably bypass sex with a potion or something. Granted Hermione and Ron were snogging by the end of the Deathly Hallows, but Herminone had been raised by Muggle parents….
(tongue in cheek.)
Comment by: Helen
20Responding to Pete and Siamang: as best I understand, the books were at least originally written for pre-teens. If they are the target audience, it doesn’t make sense for the books to include a strong focus on teenager sexual interests. It’s important to write about what is relevant and interesting to the target audience, right? So perhaps JK was trying to include enough not to be completely unrealistic about what happens during adolescence but not to focus on it so much she alienated her target audience. (And evidently according to Siamang she didn’t do enough research on what boys care about to touch on it in the most accurate way)
Anyway there are lots of holes that could be picked in these books – they have a variety of shortcomings: the use of language is so-so, the character development is not subtle, etc. The strengths of them (imo) are JKs wonderful creativity in inventing the Muggle/Wizard world and a multi-book plot that takes place in it, her use of humor, her clever parody of school life in the UK and her ability to write at a level which works for her target audience. I also like the values she promotes through them. They uphold unselfishness, loyalty, perseverance, courage, love, initiative – those sorts of things. So while I wouldn’t say she excells at the subtleties of depicting character development and adolescent issues, she does affirm many values I’d like to see in my children. I don’t think they need to read about teenage sexual interests; they will know all about them soon enough from first hand experience (they’re 14 and 12). Whereas I think it is helpful for worthwhile values to be reflected in what they read and encounter. I care more about that than ‘realism’ in the HP series – which after all is in the fantasy-adventure genre.