"JK rowling and Dumbledore being gay" What's your take on it?

Question

Was it necessary for her to politicise or add a sexual touch to a children's book?

Mickael P: get out of your books and read the news... there is a life out there. Dumbledore being gay isn't a theory, it is a fact. Follow the link:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20071020/tts-uk-rowling-bed299d.html

Answer 1

Well, I'm glad she never wrote it in the book. But, according to her they were going to add a scene in one of the movies where he is reminiscing about a girl he liked so I guess she had to out him so they wouldn't put that scene in. I never saw him as gay, I always saw him as an extreme scholar who never had the time or interest in love relationships. If he's gay, so what.

Answer 2

It stinks!

How dare she introduce such an adult theme in books peddled as children's literature. And then she did it after the fact, which make her not only a git, but a gutless hypocrite.

Why a gutless hypocrite? Because she knew the books never would have have sold had parents knew from book 1 that the beloved Hogwarts headmaster was gay and he was the dean of a school of innocent boys and girls. So she chose to leave that part out about Dumbledore.

No guts, no glory. So she outing Dumbledore now is completely pointless.

Answer 3

If she always thought that Dumbledore was gay, then yes it was necessary to reveal the fact - it's her book and she can say what she wants about it. She hasn't added anything to the book, just expressed her opinion about Dumbledore's sexual preference. It doesn't say in any of the books that he's gay, so what's changed? She's hardly going to revise them all by having Dumbledore announce 'By the way, Harry, I am gay'.

The Potter books are politicised enough as it is, what with all that public-school-story nostalgia. Rowling giving her private opinion that one of the characters has an unexpressed sexual preference adds an interesting twist to how we think about the books but if you have a problem with the very existence of homosexuality, and would rather gay people never came out, then the problem is entirely yours and I advise you to get over it.

In fact, you have the same problem as the earlier questioner, who clearly believes that a gay person can never be a 'nice old man' who doesn't have some sort of designs on Harry, or whatever. That's bigotry.

Answer 4

Dumbledore is gay, and him being outted has what to do with the books? Pretty sure the books are still called Harry Potter, not Albus Dumbledore. So what does JK Rowling have to with it? All she did was answer a fan's question honestly!

Answer 5

Gay Groups Praise Dumbledore's Magic 'Outing'

Yes oh yes for god's sake you're gay and you desperately want total public recognition & acceptance, you got you're precious rights & laws changed now you can freely be as gay as you want! But bloody hell, leave the Harry Potter story alone! So yes ok JK Rowling admitted that proffesor Dumbledore was gay after she finished the award winning novels. What purpose and or point would it of made if she added his sexual orientation in the childrens novels? Just to make extremist gay rights activists happy I suppose? These stories are about fictional fantasy and magic etc even if there is a bit of a love story thrown in there! Gay love stories is not something many children or most adults want to be reading about in the Harry Potter novels or watching where the movies are concerened. Most people are totally satisfied with the novels and movies as they are! JK Rowling has give the majority of the public exactly what they want hence all the awards!

Answer 6

as a writer you don't have any choice about the type of person you write about, or any aspect of thier personality, including sexuality.
I always envisioned Dumbledore as a Leonardo Da Vinci type genius and as such him being outed is no surprise to me.

I penned an idea for a trilogy and in the last half of the last book I found out my main charecter was a lesbian. I'm staight, I know a lot of gay people but I didn't do it to get a gay vote in the unlikely event my story is ever published, that's just the person the charecter was. She fell in love and that was that. I had no choice.

that's what a really good charecter does, they take control of thier fate whether you, as the writer likes it or not.

I'm glad she outed him, even if it is belated. x

Answer 7

I have nothing against gay people whatsoever, but I think it was unnecessary. Dumbledore isn't that kind of character. He's just a nice old man. I never envisioned him as straight or gay. In my opinion, JK Rowling is seeking attention, because she has stopped writing books and for the past ten years of her life, everyone has been talking about her books and what will happen. Now we know everything and she's not as publicized anymore. I personally am going to disregard the comment, because I never saw Dumbledore that way and I don't think she did either. To me, everything she's said since the last book (except for filling the holes right afterwards) isn't important and isn't part of the series.


PS. I never said that being gay couldn't allow you to be a nice old man. All I said was that referring to Dumbledore's sexuality doesnt fit the series in any way. I just think it's a non-issue and that everyone should picture him as they want. I personally didn't and still don't picture him as anything but scholarly. To me, Dumbledore's love for people extends beyond sexual preference, whether it be straight or gay. In my personal opinion, Dumbledore loved people in the way that philosophers define love, "love of the mind." I am in no way bashing on gay people. Don't twist my words, please.

Answer 8

I don't think that JKR either is politicizing or "adding a sexual touch" to the series. According to the story I read, she had told the writer of the screenplay for HBP that Dumbledore was gay because there was mention of a female love interest in the screenplay and she had to set them right. Having done that, she might as well have made it public, since it would have eventually come out anyway--she could control when and how it was done.

Throughout the series, we know Dumbledore as a tireless and seemingly single-minded fighter against Dark Wizards (at least from Harry's perspective; we do have to remember that Albus is also a great teacher, an alchemist, and important theoretical Wizard--remember the tools and instruments he made himself). But how did Albus become that way?

We learn much about this in DH, with Arianna's story, Aberforth's story and the story of the friendship between Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald. In reading DH, it was clear that Grndelwald seduced Dumbledore on a number of levels; intellectually, ideologically, and, by JKR's new revelation, emotionally. We don't know if that seduction was sexual as well, and I'm not sure it is important for us to know.

The revelation completes the picture for us of a man who felt betrayed, injured by one he loved, ashamed at how far he went from rational thought and behavior, how far he really was from what he thought he was.

The up shot is that we now know more completely Dumbledore's motivations for fighting Dark Wizards--his shame at his own tangential contribution to Grindelwald's career, his reluctance to fight him, and, when Voldemort rose, his determination to not to repeat his prior mistake of inaction and to fight Voldemort from the start.

So in summery, It was part of the way JKR viewed Dumbledore and understood him. I don't think it was something that would have come out voluntarily--more likely something that would have made a scholarly article 50 or 60 years from now after she was gone and literary scholar had access to her full notes (assuming she left them to be investigated).

BTW, there is some inkling of this in DH, where Rita Skeeter talks about devoting a chapter in her book about Dumbledore to the Dumbledore/Harry relationship. This is not to say that there was anything improper--but that JKR did put out a hint.

wl

Answer 9

I think it's perfectly OK for Dumbledore to be gay. It is fitting, given the progressive and accepting tone of the books.

While not necessary, I don't think kids will be harmed with knowing about gay people this way. Much better than through MTV or ill-crafted cinema.

Answer 10

I don't exactly care, but at the same time I think its really weird to announce it after the series was over. I don't think its necessary in terms of developing the harry potter universe, and it might not be something parents want their kids to know about. Jk Rowling is gonig to get into more trouble from Christian groups.