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

here via daily_snitch

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

Until HBP, Lupin didn't strike me as much of anything. He read to me as the sort of reserved character where he could have been into anything from kinky!sex, to having a wife with 10 kids stashed around somewhere, to being a 40 yr old virgin. Whatever he was into, no one but he and the person(s) he was involved with would know about it.

IMO, the Remus is gayer than a tree full of monkeys on a sugar high thing is meant as a facetious joke amongst slashers. That's how I've always read the, "S/he's so gay it's obvious," jokes. I take it in the same light as jokes about how the subtext is so obvious it's canon. At least, I hope that it's basically an old inside joke that's become so overused even outsiders know the punchline. Though sometimes I wonder.

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.)

Re: here via daily_snitch

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

Lupin didn't strike me as much of anything. He read to me as the sort of reserved character where he could have been into anything from kinky!sex, to having a wife with 10 kids stashed around somewhere, to being a 40 yr old virgin.

Me too. I like slash, which is why I write him in male/male pairings, but that's a question of personal preference. I'm not convinced that novel!Remus is teh gay.

At least, I hope that it's basically an old inside joke that's become so overused even outsiders know the punchline. Though sometimes I wonder.

See, in the wake of HBP especially posts there have been many enraged readers who felt cheated upon by Rowling for "taking a perfectly gay character" and giving him a girlfriend. I took the expression "heterosexism" straight from some post I've come across. So obviously, there is something about Remus' characterisation that strikes some people as inherently gay. I don't see it, obviously, and I'm glad to see that there are so many readers who don't see it, either.