An upsetting thought about the new HP

[valarltd]

This talks about a minor character and his story, and lycanthropy as a metaphor for gayness.



Throughout PoA and the other books, Lupin's lycanthropy can be read as a code for him being gay. I won't belabor the point. It's there to the point my 13, who is just starting to get subtext, can see it.

Now, we are introduced to the werewolf that bit (read: molested) Lupin when he was a child. We're told he prefers children so he can poison their minds against the wizarding world that casts them out.

If this isn't code for pedophilia, and the ugly notion that gays recruit children, I don't know what is.

We're told the wizarding society is so lycan-phobic it would send its children to live with werewolves rather than raise them, even with wolfsbane potion. We're told that werewolves are against civilization and actively working to destroy it.

And we're shown that the love of a good woman (Tonks, Fleur) can fix the gay lycanthropes and make them civilized. (OK, Bill probably won't transform, but I bet he'll go all wolfish)


I'm disturbed and starting to get pissed off. I'll see what Bunny thinks after she reads it, without saying anything about my ideas to her.

Comments

[kc-anathema.livejournal.com]

I hadn't even thought of that (I'm so wrapped around the wheel about dark magic that I was blind to the werewolf thing), but that's a damn good point. There's a ton of stuff getting whitewashed and covered over in these books. A lot seems to be made of "shame" or "family name's" so that the wizarding world seems obsessed not just with blood but with reputation and how they're seen by everyone else. It's like the wizards on the "good" side are made up of mostly cowards. No wonder a handful of death eaters can wreak such havoc.