Smash the heterosexual orthodoxy

[donnaimmaculata]

Following the confirmation of the Remus/Tonks canon and the subsequent - to use a polite term - discussions about whether or not Rowling has merely submitted to society's heterosexist pressure, I would like to ask a question that's always interested me: What makes Remus gay?

I am asking this, because there are many readers who read the character Remus Lupin as gay. And I don't mean the character's being coded as representing the idea of homosexuality on an allegorical level, which is quite a different thing. (A worrying one as well if people assume that making someone a vicious man-eating monster means that they stand for homosexuality, but this is neither here nor there.) What I am interested to know is what, exactly, about Lupin's characterisation makes readers think he's as gay as a tree full of monkey.

Because, as much as I like writing and reading Remus in slash pairings, I've never read the character in the novel as gay. (He reminds me far too much of my ex-BF for that, but this, again, is neither here nor there.) He's polite, understanding and witty, which, I realise, are qualities that are often contributed to gay men, because they are oh so full of understanding for us women, quite unlike their rude, insensitive, grumpy straight counterparts.

This is a serious question. I'm honestly interested.

Comments

Re: here via daily_snitch

[i-am-badger.livejournal.com]

That's how I have been taking it, too. I never got the impression that Rowling was giggling and writing in were!kink subtext or anything close into the character of Remus (or anyone else, for that matter). I think she's intelligent enough to see the similarities between the lycanthopy and homosexuality narratives, but used the analogy as a characterization device, not as a neon pointing sign and a wink-nudge joke for the big kids.

I have always taken the jokes to be just as you said--facaetious, good-natured slef-deprecation, etc. And I'm sorry, as much as I see subtext splashed all over the SW Prequal like buckets of...paint, I highly doubt ol' Georgie was thinking the same things as I do.

Re: here via daily_snitch

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

I always got the impression that Rowling was writing about bigotry and persecution. So Lupin's lycanthropy fit in with: Hagrid's half-giant descrimination, the Mudblood/Pureblood thing, and the house-elf liberation, and the Dursley's anti-magic stance. Just cases of how the Wizarding World is screwed up. So the wizarding prejudice could be applied to any type of RL prejudice against minorities, because the fictional situations were meant to be broad and allegorical. This includes homosexual narratives, though I'd think that Lupin would best fit descrimination against the chronically ill. (Getting sick in stages, being infectious, expensive meds with the Wolfsbane, spotty work history, etc.)