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:

Hermione I Have a Confession
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. 😉

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4 Responses to “The Dumbledore Effect”

  1. Joshua Brandt Says:

    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.

  2. jonolan Says:

    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.

  3. Digital Dame Says:

    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.

  4. jonolan Says:

    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.

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