Sexuality in Harry Potter | Harry Potter Month

Throughout July, Micheline @ Lunar Rainbow Reviews and Faith @ GeekyZooGirl are hosting Harry Potter Month. You can find out everything you need to know about it here! 

As much as we love the Harry Potter series, I think we can all agree that it isn't perfect. I like names with meanings as much as the next person, but considering Remus Lupin's name basically translates to Wolf McWolf it's no wonder Fenrir Greyback bit him.

In recent years I've seen more and more people eager to know more about the LGBT* community at Hogwarts, which I think is wonderful. We've become much more aware of diversity in the literary world, and though we still have a long way to go we've certainly made some improvements.

I totally agree that when it comes to diversity, authors need to start saying that their characters aren't white or straight instead of just hinting at it. However, I can understand why sexuality isn't really discussed in the Harry Potter books: because it's not relevant to Harry's story.

After J.K. Rowling announced that Dumbledore was gay, something I think most of us picked up on upon reading the seventh book, there were some people who were disgusted because they're gross and homophobic, and there were some people who were angry because they felt as though she was simply jumping on the LGBT* bandwagon.

Though I could understand the anger amongst some members of the LGBT* community I wasn't sure it was entirely justified. In what way was Dumbledore's sexuality important to Harry's story? More to the point, what did J.K. Rowling have to do to 'prove' that Dumbledore was gay and that she wasn't just lying for the sake of a publicity stunt? Did people want her to be horribly stereotypical and portray Dumbledore wearing sparkly robes and gushing over musical theatre?

Dumbledore's sexuality wasn't at all important to Harry's story. In fact no one else's sexuality was important to the story which was why, in my opinion, J.K. Rowling never openly discussed anyone's sexuality in the books. That doesn't mean the books are perfect, but I don't think their lack of openly discussed sexuality makes them terrible books.

But just because a character's sexuality wasn't discussed doesn't mean they weren't there! I know that's completely contradictory to my earlier point, but I'd like to refer to the wise words of Cosima Niehaus:

When it comes to sexual diversity I think we need to see more characters outside of the straight and gay spectrum. I've never read a book in which a character has identified as bisexual, not for lack of trying, and I've certainly never read a book in which a character has identified as asexual, demisexual or pansexual. If you have any recommendations, I'd love to hear them!

So I've made a little list of some of the Harry Potter characters who I believe aren't heterosexual.

(I also really hope I don't end up offending anyone with this post. If you're part of the LGBT* community I'm not trying to portray non-heterosexuality as 'cool' or 'quirky', I genuinely read the characters below as queer.)

Albus Dumbledore

Okay, so this one we already know. Dumbledore is gay which, like I said before, is something I think most of us picked up on while reading Deathly Hallows. I've started to like Dumbledore less and less as I've gotten older because I'm really not sure he was the best teacher (or the best human being), but his and Grindelwald's story was heartbreaking.

Sirius Black

Personally I think Sirius is pansexual. Pansexuality is described as sexual attraction, emotional attraction and/or romantic love towards people of any sexuality or gender identity. Sirius has always struck me as an 'if I like it, I like it' kinda guy. He does his own thing, and always has done, that's why he ends up in Gryffindor and eventually ends up living with James after his own family disown him. Out of all the Marauders, I certainly think Sirius was the one who was most experimental with his sexuality.

Remus Lupin

I've always thought of Remus as bisexual. In the books we know he marries Tonks, but because J.K. Rowling herself has openly stated that werewolves are treated in much the same way that AIDS sufferers have been treated I refuse to believe that he's straight. The AIDS virus devastated the LGBT* community, particularly during the '80s and '90s, and Remus was a young man in the '80s. On a much less serious note I like me some Remus/Sirius just as much as I like me some Remus/Tonks...

Charlie Weasley

I have a huge crush on Charlie Weasley, and I'm also pretty sure that he's asexual. I'm not trying to say that people who never get married or have kids must be asexual, but J.K. Rowling once said something along the lines of 'he's more interested in dragons than women', and I've read him as asexual ever since. Perhaps he's also aromantic, though a person can be asexual without being aromantic and vice versa!

Luna Lovegood

This one I have no 'evidence' for, it's simply what I think: I read Luna as demisexual. People who are demisexual only feel sexually attracted towards people they already have an emotional and/or romantic bond with; it's often described as the 'grey area' between asexuality and bisexuality. There's something about Luna - she's serene to the core - that's always made me think of her as demisexual. I don't think of her as sexually experimental in the same way that Sirius is, but I can see her falling in love with a woman as easily as she'd fall in love with a man.

Do you read any of the Harry Potter characters as queer?

Be, Room, Cliff | Harry Potter Month

Harry Potter Month continues! Hosted by Micheline @ Lunar Rainbows and Faith @ GeekyZooGirl, Harry Potter Month is taking place throughout July - you can find out everything you need to know about it here!

I'm a little bit behind schedule with my posts; this post was supposed to go up last Friday, but last Friday I was in Italy and I completely forgot to schedule anything because I'm a moron. So let's try that again...

Today I'm doing something that's just plain, good ol' fashioned fun. Many of you are probably familiar with the Marry, Kiss, Cliff Tag, and the Be, Room, Cliff Tag is much the same, only it's more along the lines of bromance than romance.

So, if you're a heterosexual lady you'd talk about some fictional fellas for Marry, Kiss, Cliff, but for Be, Room, Cliff you have to decide between three different female characters. Pick one to be, one to be your roommate, and one to throw off a cliff.

My favourite wizarding family in Harry Potter is the Black family so, naturally, I thought I'd do Be, Room, Cliff with Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa!

Be

I thought long and hard about this one. Now obviously I don't want to be Bellatrix - she's cray - but I like both Andromeda and Narcissa. Ultimately, however, I think I'd have to be Andromeda. Now obviously out of her and Narcissa we could argue she gets the short straw, she loses her husband and her only child while Narcissa does not, but I don't think I could live with the few prejudices Narcissa has. That's not to say Andromeda isn't prejudiced - obviously she has no problem with muggleborns because she marries one - but I've never been fond of the fandom's way of her painting her as this saintly figure who loves everyone for who they are on the inside. We know from the way Tonks talks about her that she's not always easy to live with. But that's one of the reasons I love her despite the fact that we see so little of her; Andromeda, like Narcissa, is on no one's side but her own.

Room

If I'm not going be Bellatrix then I'm sure as hell not going to share a room with her, especially if I'm the sister who married the muggleborn. I like to imagine that Narcissa would be quite a fun roommate; maybe not in a 'let's eat Ben & Jerry's and watch Bridget Jones's Diary' kind of way, but certainly in a 'let's judge the rest of the world together' kind of way. And frankly most of my friendships have been formed over a mutual dislike of other people. I'm painting a lovely picture of myself, aren't I? Plus I really love Narcissa, I think she's a fantastic character, and considering how much of a neat freak she is I think I'd go mad if Andromeda was my roommate. I like a bit of organised chaos.

Cliff

Don't get me wrong, Bellatrix is another fantastic, fascinating character, but out of the three she's the one I'd have to kill. I don't want to be her, I certainly don't want to live with her, and ultimately she killed my favourite character; if she's going to go around throwing people through suspicious looking upholstery, I'm going to take pleasure in throwing her over the side of the cliff. Besides, knowing her, she'd probably be fine.

So what would you do?

Why I Love The Order of the Phoenix | Harry Potter Month

It's Harry Potter Month!

Throughout July Micheline @ Lunar Rainbows Reviews and Faith @ GeekyZooGirl are hosting Harry Potter month, and I just couldn't resist signing up and joining in. I mean, come on, it's Harry Potter!

I'm a very proud Ravenclaw this month, and if it weren't so warm I'd be wearing my Ravenclaw scarf to show off my House pride, but if I put it on now I think I'd spontaneously combust.

So this month I'll be posting several Harry Potter themed posts. For those of you who aren't fans of Harry Potter or who just aren't interested in it, I will be posting other things as well but I'm not going to apologise for my Potter enthusiasm. I really love this series.

Within the Potterhead fandom there are a few questions that tend to arise quite regularly, one of which just happens to be: Which of the books is your favourite?

Though I love all the books - I don't dislike any of them - I do have a favourite: 

The Order of the Phoenix.

As much as The Goblet of Fire is the book in which the series begins its descent into darkness, it isn't really until The Order of the Phoenix that shit gets real. Harry's coping not only with Voldemort's return and Cedric Diggory's death, but with PTSD, being attacked by dementors, being subsequently expelled from Hogwarts for repelling said dementors, having to go through a trial led by a mentally unhinged politician, being called a liar by the media and half the school when he's cleared of all charges, being tortured by the latest DADA teacher, thinking he and Voldemort might not be so dissimilar after all... Basically, the kid struggles with a lot.

I've seen a few people over the years saying that The Order of the Phoenix is their least favourite of the series - which is fine, by the way, we're all different and we all have different tastes! - but it's always been my favourite. Despite the fact that it's the book in which my favourite character dies.

I'm still not over it.

So, why is The Order of the Phoenix my favourite?

I'm not sure I could sum up everything I love about this particular book in the series in just one blog post, but there is one person in this book that meant it was inevitable it would be my favourite:

Now before you start to worry about my sanity, I can whole-heartedly assure you that I do not like Dolores Umbridge. In fact in terms of villains I probably hate her more than I hate Voldemort, and that's saying something.

What I love about The Order of the Phoenix is how the students fight back when Umbridge takes over Hogwarts. There's something so satisfying about seeing Harry and co. take justice into their own hands, especially when it's clear that nobody else is going to help them, and when I was 15-16 -around the same age as Harry and his friends in Book 5 - this story was just what I needed.

I don't want to turn this into a sob story, but when I was in school I was very lucky in that I was never bullied by any of my fellow students. During my GCSEs, however, I was bullied by a teacher. To this day I still don't know what I did to irritate her so much, and looking back I wish I'd been brave enough to stand up to her and tell her that how she made me feel was not acceptable. It got to the point where I would pretend to be ill so I didn't have to go into school on the days when I had her lessons. It wasn't good.

She seemed to take pleasure in belittling me in front of the rest of the class. She'd punish me for things other students did, knowing that other students had done whatever it was she was dishing out a punishment for, and she never passed a chance to snap at me and make me feel like an idiot. I already had low self-esteem during my teens, and she made me feel so unbelievably small.

The worst thing was there was no one I could tell. Who would the school believe, me or one of their teachers? Eventually I couldn't take it anymore and I broke down in front of my dad, and though I initially didn't want him to for fear it would only make things worse, he rang the school and spoke to my Head of Year. After that she left me alone, to the point that she just passed me on to another teacher, but not before she'd made it seem like it was the lessons I was struggling with, and not her, in front of the whole class.

In summation: she was vile, and I don't know why she became a teacher.

Real life isn't like books. Sometimes the people who wrong us pay and sometimes they don't. I didn't have enough confidence to stand up to that teacher, but Harry and his friends did have enough courage to stand up to Umbridge, and for me reading The Order of the Phoenix feels like justice. When Harry fights his Umbridge, he fights mine, too.