The Dumbledore Effect
I remember when a number of Christian groups went a little crazy when J.K. Rowlings announced, perhaps foolishly and definitely unnecessarily, that her character Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Wizardry, was queer.
Perhaps a scene such as this was part of what these Christians feared:
The Dumbledore Effect – Scary, Very Scary
Yeah, I can see where that might have scared them. The plots of the later books and movies were odd enough without adding that sort of love triangle sub-plot to the mix. 😉
Tags: Books & Reading | Christianity | Harry Potter | Homophobia | Homosexuals | Humor | Rowlings
January 28th, 2011 at 11:20 am
Haha. I didn’t read Harry Potter until I was 16 because my parents, being just a little bit old fashioned methodist, were so adamantly against it. Finally, I just went out and bought all the books and now I’m a Harry Potter fanatic. Apparently Dumbledore was supposed to be in love with Grindelwald.
January 28th, 2011 at 11:30 am
Yep. And, supposedly that infatuation went so badly that Dumbledore essentially became asexual and led a celibate lifestyle – at least according to Rowlings’ commentary on the character’s background.
So Dumbledore was a homosexual that chose to not engage in homosexual sex acts. Isn’t that what these Christian groups want?
BTW – Welcome back. It’s been a while since I’ve seen you here.
January 28th, 2011 at 3:02 pm
I never understood why she bothered to make that statement either. It was so completely irrelevant after the fact. If she’d wanted a gay character, why not just write him that way? It felt like some superfluous after-thought to announce it after all the books were out and no one had any inkling.
January 28th, 2011 at 3:14 pm
Frankly, I always assumed that it was nothing more than a petty bit snark aimed to further outrage those Christian groups who already hated the books because they showed magic in other than an evil and Satanic light.