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

[a-t-rain.livejournal.com]

I have to admit that I used to consider the "Remus is So Totally Gay" thing to be an example of the worst kind of stereotyping (because quiet bookish men who aren't overtly macho must be gay), but I changed my mind about it after somebody on a non-HP-related message board pointed out that his speech about how his friends found out he was a werewolf is, in essence, a coming-out narrative. So I think people may be picking up on the similarities and over-literalizing them.

In any case, my own position has always been that he doesn't need to be gay because he's already a werewolf. JKR has already presented him as a member of an invisible-but-discriminated-against minority, and she's done it in a way that fits into her world and the story she's telling; there's no earthly reason for her to do the same thing twice over. It would be like making all the Muggle-born students at Hogwarts Jewish.

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

that his speech about how his friends found out he was a werewolf is, in essence, a coming-out narrative

Yes, I don't deny that. Remus as an allegory for homosexuality (or, for me, rather for a dangerous disease) works quite well. But that's not what I was driving at. See, I think that the characters work on different levels: they can represent something on an allegorical level (Remus could represent a homosexual man or an AIDS patient or a mentally ill person), and they also work as, well, characters. As people. And I wonder that there seems to be something about his characterisation that makes people think he's gay - not merely an allegory for homosexuality. (Of course, they can be intertwined; Remus can be gay. But he doesn't have to, and for me, nothing about his characterisation screams "teh gay"!)