Navigation |
DumbledoreHarry Potter and the Half-Hidden Subtext?
The trailer for the upcoming Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince is online, and it's already got gay (and non-gay) blogs buzzing. Ever since author J.K. Rowling announced that the beloved Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwart's, was gay, people have been wondering if references would eventually make it in to the remaining films in the series. If the makers of the latest entry were hoping to dispel that, the new trailer certainly doesn't help. We briefly see Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), but most of the trailer is a flashback to a younger Dumbledore (Michael Gambon), and his first meeting with the young Tom Riddle (later known as Voldemort). In an interesting casting note, Tom is played as an 11 year old by Hero Fiennes-Tiffin, who is the nephew of Ralph Fiennes, who plays the older Voldermort. So where is the gay interest? Well, in one scene in the trailer, the young Tom asks Albus, "Who are you?" and he responds "I'm a lot like you, Tom ... I'm different". Well, that X-Men-style remark is enough to get tongues wagging, though one writer is a bit confused. (I guess it is easy to get your iconic wizards mixed up, though.) You can see the trailer after the break, and we'd like your thoughts. Is it much ado about nothing, or possibly a nod to the character's ... um, future history? Or were you too busy thinking "geez, how many more of these movies are there?" Submitted by on Wed, 2008-07-30 12:42. To Make a Long Story Short ... Dumbledore gets campier, NPH spins the wheel, and more!
![]()
Submitted by on Mon, 2007-11-05 13:52. The Week in Gay Geek: YAOI-Con, Wonder Woman, My Sims and more
![]()
Submitted by on Fri, 2007-11-02 14:02. So what does GLAAD think of the outing of Dumbledore?
Harry Potter fansite The Leaky Cauldron has an interview with GLAAD director Sean Lund who discussed JK Rowling's recent announcement that Dumbledore is gay. Lund compares the potential impact of Rowling's revelation to the romance between Willow and Tara on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "Joss Whedon, who revealed in a very gradual way and in a way incredibly authentic for that character that she was gay and introduced her girlfriend Tara, and the two of them became a really wonderful couple on that show. That was a really perfect example of how to do this sort of storytelling and how to create these characters right... I think very much with how J.K. Rowling has brought Dumbledore out, I think that sort of quality of maintaining the authenticity and maintaining the truth of the character really goes a long way in terms of making sure people stay invested in those characters." Lund also finds an optimistic perspective in Rowling keeping the information out of the books, saying that, at this point, it doesn't really matter. Even if it's not made clear in the books, anyone who reads them will view Dumbledore as a gay character thanks to the widespread media coverage:
"...for many readers who are coming into these stories now, they are coming into a series of books where the character of Dumbledore will always have been known to be gay... It sends a message that heroes and people who we respect, and people that we look up to, come in all different shapes and sizes. And I think for the readers of the books, for the people who will see the movies in the future, I think that's a tremendously important message for them to carry forward." Finally, Lund emphasizes one of the greater messages of Rowling's books is one of general inclusiveness, a lesson, that if understood fully, leads to LGBT tolerance: "I think one of the most important themes of the Harry Potter books is J.K. Rowling's message about making sure that we treat all people, whether they are the same as us, or whether they are different than us, with dignity and respect. The comments section is overwhelmingly positive but one commenter made a very interesting observation, one that certainly adds some additional depth to Dumbledore even if that's all based in fan speculation:
"She has now given Albus’ DoB as 1881 (no birthday yet), meaning that the events surrounding Gellert’s visit and the deaths of Kendra and Ariana are conceived of as happening in 1899, when Oscar Wilde was wandering Europe after his release from Reading Gaol before his death the following year. In other words, a very different world from our own, folks. By the time homosexual activity between consenting adults was leagalised in the UK in 1967, Dumbledore would have been 86 and Hogwarts’ headmaster for some years." Submitted by on Thu, 2007-10-25 13:51. J. K. Rowling Outs Harry Potter's Dumbledore as Gay
It's true Harry Potter fans — J.K. Rowling has outed Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts as gay! We've got all the details over on the mainpage! Submitted by on Sat, 2007-10-20 01:53. |
User login |










