Jk Rowling’s recent comments about Dumbledore are proving very divisive
There are some pretty angry people on Twitter.
There are some pretty angry people on Twitter.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows may have come out over a decade ago, but that doesn’t mean that we’ve moved on from the wizarding world.
In fact, us millennials are probably still as hooked as we were when the series was actually still going.
Too many of us own wands, chocolate frogs and clothes emblazoned with our Hogwarts House crest (we’re ALL Gryffindor, OK?) and we can all admit to having debated HP theories deep into the night.
No one knows this more than Harry Potter author JK Rowling, the Keeper of the Keys of HP facts, who despite deserving a long break from Pygmy Puffs and Quidditch, often rears her head to drop a trivia bomb on HP fans.
Her recent insights however have not gone down so well.
In the special features of the BluRay release of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, the author opened up about Grindelwald’s relationship with Dumbledore, describing it as an ‘incredibly intense and passionate love relationship’.
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Going on to explain, JK continued: 'But as happens in any relationship, gay or straight or whatever label we want to put on it, one never knows really what the other person is feeling. You can’t know, you can believe you know.
‘So I’m less interested in the sexual side, though I believe there is a sexual dimension to this relationship – than I am in the sense of the emotions they felt for each other, which ultimately is the most fascinating thing about all human relationships.’
Fans were quick to find issue with the revelations, questioning why none of the characters were outwardly gay in the books and just hidden messages, with some even accusing the author of leaving out gay storylines from the books so as not to affect her profile.
‘JK rowling can log on here and tweet “dumbledore was a dom top” all she likes but the fact remains she actively leaves out any LGBT rep in her books and films so her profit isn’t affected,’ one Twitter user posted. 'It’s performative activism that allows her to present herself as progressive while keeping her films “family friendly” for the bigots that would undoubtedly kick off at the presence of a gay character.’
‘JK Rowling reappearing every 2 months to say something literally no one asked about is me adding more random details to my essay to up my word count,’ another posted.
‘The thing that bothers me most about Rowling going into the “intense sexual relationship” of Dumbledore and Grindewald is that after being criticized for glossing over queer characters except in interviews, she reduced calls for real queer rep to “give us kinky sex details!”’ agreed another Twitter user. ‘Like, way to miss the point and undermine everything you COULD have done to rectify the mistake of leaving Dumbledore’s orientation out of canon. This further reduces queer relationships and queer characters just to sex in media commentary. Which is the last thing we needed.’
Well, no one saw that coming.
Jenny Proudfoot is an award-winning journalist, specialising in lifestyle, culture, entertainment, international development and politics. She has worked at Marie Claire UK for seven years, rising from intern to Features Editor and is now the most published Marie Claire writer of all time. She was made a 30 under 30 award-winner last year and named a rising star in journalism by the Professional Publishers Association.
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