Is Dumbledore Gay?
Categories: News
Written By: Mark Casey
According to Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, beloved Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore is gay.
Now, I’ll be the first to point out that pretty much everyone involved with those stuffy British private schools is enormously repressed in one way or another. From the mincing, discipline-obsessed faculty members to the foppish dandies that take classes from them, there’s something about them that just makes you think “I bet that guy is a murderer,” or any number of other hidden secrets.
And we’ve all discussed the apparent tendencies of professor Dumbledore, on this site and others (See Meltcast #1: Harry Potter and the Sodomite Teacher).
But this “admission” from Rowling poses an interesting literary question which is sure to be endlessly debated in the halls of English literature classes for no reason at all.
And that question is: If a character is thought to be something by the creator, but never actually manifests that trait in the creation itself–is the character more like what the author considers him, or more like he appears to the audience?
It’s a chicken and egg situation. I’m not suggesting that Dumbledore isn’t gay because I don’t think he should be–quite the contrary: I could care less. But I don’t really think anything in the fiction warrants a definitive sexuality for the character. So the question must be asked: Is he really gay?
It’s the sort of question that has no answer. Fiction is “magical” strictly because the audience can decide whatever it wants about the characters and events that happen. Rowling might as well have said that Dumbledore has an eccentric brother who made millions of dollars in the New York Stock Exchange. It may very well be the case, but it has little to do with the story–and even less evidence for it.
That’s why I have a bit of a problem with Rowling’s deadpan assertion. Don’t get me wrong–she’s free to have creative domain over all her characters. But for her to say something about a character that isn’t backed up by her creative work, it just undermines the very relationship between the reader and character that makes fiction so magical.
That’s all.
If You Hated This, You Will Also Totally Hate:
- Filthy Harry Potter Comedy
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- J.K. Rowling: Sort of a Liar
- Pre-Potter Ponderings
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
October 21st, 2007 at 6:42 pm
Here’s what I say about this whole sit’ation.
Nothing in the text of the books says “And then, old Professor Dumbledore took the Buttplug of Gargalfathon and inserted it deeply into the anus of his boyfriend, Cidgroc the Fop.”
So Dumbledore is definitely not canonically gay. That is to say, he doesn’t have to be. If in your mind, he’s gettin’ all the bitches, then that’s correct. If in your mind he love the cock, then that’s correct, too. Once a work of fiction is out there, it is more the “property” of the readers than the author. It’s not up to the author to fill in the blanks for you. That’s definitely the privilege of the reader.
And that’s what makes fiction enjoyable. When something isn’t spelled out for you, you get to decide what’s going down (and on whom! Ba dum bum!). This idea that “Dumbledore’s gay cause the writer said!” is a whole cartful of horse apples. If it’s not in the book proper, it’s my call. If I wanted every last detail explained to me with no room for my own thought, I wouldn’t be reading fiction, I’d be reading a textbook.
But still, that whole eating jelly beans in bed with Harry was pretty gay.
October 24th, 2007 at 10:48 am
Having only a loose knowledge of the Harry Potter story, I decided to google “Dumbledore” to find out who this fellow is. The first link revealed the main literary clue that Dumbledore was gay: all the letters in the name “Albus Dumbledore,” it turns out, can be rearranged to spell “male bods rule, bud!”
How did so many readers miss this? What do the names of other Harry Potter characters reveal? How does google always manage to give me exactly what I want with the very first link?
Travis
October 16th, 2010 at 1:30 am
The title Voldemort is derived from the French terms which also means “fly from death,”