The Harry Potter universe still n't translate s gay subtext to text. It's a problem. - Vox

Contents:

• DRA MALFOY ACTOR TOM FELTON RPONDS TO POPULAR THEORY HIS HARRY POTTER CHARACTER WAS GAY
• HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD IS A GAY LOVE STORY, DON'T @ ME
• IS TOM FELTON (AKA DRA MALFOY OM HARRY POTTER) GAY?
• HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD HTS AT GAY RELATNSHIP BETWEEN ALB SEVES POTTER AND SRPI MALFOY
• HARRY POTTER AND THE POSSIBLE QUEERBAG: WHY FANS ARE MAD OVER A LACK OF GAY ROMANCE
• FEATURED STORI
• FEATURED FANFICTN
• THE HARRY POTTER UNIVERSE STILL N'T TRANSLATE S GAY SUBTEXT TO TEXT. IT'S A PROBLEM.

DRA MALFOY ACTOR TOM FELTON RPONDS TO POPULAR THEORY HIS HARRY POTTER CHARACTER WAS GAY

”Felton's character has been the source of plenty of fan-fictn over the years, wh many imagg Dra to be eher gay or love wh Hermne (Emma Watson) – but now, he's thrown his support behd the former year, Felton, 31, claimed he’s never re-watched any of the Harry Potter films – and revealed a rather touchg reason for choosg not to.

HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD IS A GAY LOVE STORY, DON'T @ ME

Every time a csh on a girl is allud to, feels like JK Rowlg is shoutg “no homo! Which is a shame given that Rowlg was so keen to pot out that Dumbledore is gay after publishg seven novels whout even the fatt whiff of homosexualy.

Even the Fantastic Beasts film seri – which featur Dumbledore nflict wh a man that Rowlg says he was love wh – Rowlg avoids makg the character “explicly gay”. We’re not entirely sure what “explicly gay” means. However, Alb and Srpi' close iendship upsets both of their MORE: Harry Potter director wants to make a Cursed Child movie wh the origal stIs Alb Seves Potter gay?

Yet, once was revealed at Rad Cy Mic Hall, that Dumbledore was fact gay, ma more sense that perhaps McGonagall was gay as well. While Dra and Harry have often been embraced fanfictn as a gay uple, Alb and Srpi act much more like a uple on the stage than their father's ever did. Queerbag is a term that exists mostly fan muni, and refers to the wrers or creators of a world (whether of a movie anchise, a book seri, or a TV show) g jectns of homoeroticism and romance to draw an dience seekg LGBTQ reprentatn, while not alienatg a wir dience who may not want to see a gay relatnship picted.

IS TOM FELTON (AKA DRA MALFOY OM HARRY POTTER) GAY?

”) a manner remblg the mon trope “Hot Gay Huggg”: a hilar tle for the ls-than-funny absence of sual timacy allowed between homosexual characters.

HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD HTS AT GAY RELATNSHIP BETWEEN ALB SEVES POTTER AND SRPI MALFOY

Hetero upl get to kiss, the gays are limed to a (hot gay) hug. Sce Rowlg outed Alb Dumbledore as a gay man – retrospectively, once the books were fished and the character ad – rears have been impatient to see a gay character troduced Harry Potter’s Srb got well ahead of the Cursed Child: there is a rnupia of Srb fan fictn onle, wh some stori datg back to years before the play was even announced.

“The wrers of the Cursed Child tentnally clud this fan theory to draw , but cid to change jt enough so that they wouldn’t have to adm that they ma two 11-year-olds gay, ” Jamon Ortiz, an LGBTQ mpaigner and Harry Potter fan, told me. “It’s queerbag bee they knew exactly who they were reelg and why, but still cid to leave out the ma attractn for all the fans they hooked, choosg stead, like so many others, to set up the gay romance, ht at nstantly, make believable and ep and perfect, and then force out of the story.

”Put asi sexualy for jt one moment – regardls of whether you are gay or not, is extremely important to see portrayals of ep, emotnal, non-sexual romantic male iendships popular culture.

HARRY POTTER AND THE POSSIBLE QUEERBAG: WHY FANS ARE MAD OVER A LACK OF GAY ROMANCE

Any emotnal or physil closens is bshed away as “gay” a pejorative sense. This isn’t to say that queerbag isn’t real – but there’s a reason why we see closens between men as almost trsilly gay. I'm not pag Augt 5, 2012 Sara Kegan is 15 he is popular and has a girliend but he is havg some weird feelgs about his iend, Liam, who is gay.

(I don't own where you left knew he was different his father is homophon. Rowlg sually tossed off one of the biggt announcements the history of her landmark fantasy phenomenon: Dumbledore, Harry’s mentor and the greatt wizard the world until his dramatic ath book six, was gay.

FEATURED STORI

The iendship between Harry’s son, Alb, and Dra Malfoy’s son, Srpi, the play has drawn much media mentary that’s mced few words cricizg the way the script spends s time buildg evince for a nonilly queer relatnship between the two boys, only to btally yank away at the end wh a flimsy "No Homo" exce.

Those books, which are wrten for adults, all nta diverse sts and sthg social mentary on everythg om class issu to homelsns and homophobia.

FEATURED FANFICTN

Even more bafflg on the subject of queer inty is that a 2007 terview, Rowlg herself ma clear she don’t thk ’s a major issue to be gay the wizardg world:. So I thk you uld be gay, pureblood, and totally whout any kd of cricism om the Luci Malfoys of the world. Aga and aga, the poorly wrten women of the play are ed as shamels props for the giant, flashg "NO HOMO!

By self, this is a troublg versn of the "wear the girl down" trope; upled wh the play’s homoerotic subtext, ’s a tra wreck. In short, they have none of the specific homoerotic hallmarks of Alb and Srpi’s relatnship.

Dumbledore and the curse of offscreen homosexualy. By outg him after his ath, Rowlg effectively placed Dumbledore wh the longstandg, problematic "ad gays" trope, stead of showg him livg out his queer inty — or, even better, givg kids exampl of queer characters Harry’s own age that they might be able to more effectively relate to than a 150-year-old sock-lovg school prcipal. Rowlg: A Year the Life, Rowlg rpond the negative to a fan’s qutn about whether Charlie Weasley was gay: "It’s jt, he's more terted dragons than women.

THE HARRY POTTER UNIVERSE STILL N'T TRANSLATE S GAY SUBTEXT TO TEXT. IT'S A PROBLEM.

Fans famoly celebrated the news that the pair had given Harry a jot Christmas prent the fourth book; what uld be more symbolic of a gay partnership than givg their surrogate kid a prent together? The tentnal clu on the part of wrers and actors arose wh the ntext of Hollywood’s homophobic "celluloid closet, " and beme a subterranean practice of "dg" characters as queer. It’s this dg of plot and athetic clu that has allowed queer fans to read the tentnally ployed homoerotic subtext that mak up films like Ben Hur and Rebel Whout a Cse.

In sence, many fans believed Rowlg had taken the two queert characters the seri, -gayed them, and stuck them together a child-producg heteronormative unn. That one of those characters is named after Alb Dumbledore — th far the only not-que-nonilly-gay character the entire wizardg world — is the fal dollop of irony.