So this week J.K. Rowling went on a bit of a Twitter tear answering fan questions. And the question of representation an diversity in Hogwarts came up. She confirmed that people of every religion/belief/non-belief system are represented in Hogwarts (except Wiccans – aw, no Willow?) As far as individual affirmations went, she confirmed the presence of a Jewish wizard. And she also affirmed the presence of LGBT students. I mean, there’s a gay headmaster already.
This news is glorious, obviously. I respect Rowling, her work and the universe of good it has created immensely. But, and sadly there is almost always a but, I sure do wish she had made that representation more front and center in her actual work instead of clarifying in her after-publication addendums. What can I say, we humans tend to be a stubborn bunch and unless shown something directly we tend to not believe it. It’s sort of like how people who actually know a real live LGBT person tends to hate them less than those who only think of LGBT people in the abstract terms.
Anyway, like I said, it’s a quibble amid an ocean of good. Also, bonus points for the big gay graphic.
.@claraoswiin But of course. pic.twitter.com/Galu47MT4X
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 16, 2014
Yeah, I have *mad* love for JK Rowling, and *mad* respect for her work. She deserves a lot of credit for the diversity (and other important issues) that she *did* include within the series, not to mention getting millions of people (young people!) reading. But at the end of the day, HP was ahead of *its* time, not ahead of the present day. What she's doing feels to me like retconning some extra diversity into the series, and that... just doesn't feel that significant.
ReplyDeleteIt would have been easy to include the info about Dumbledore being gay into Rita Skeeter's book but oh well... Love love love Jo Rowling now and forever
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