“People have to take a moment and acknowledge the gift that Jo Rowling gave us by writing one of the greatest characters in literary history, one of the most beloved characters across the whole spectrum of civil society, and the beliefs and ideologies there; one of the most beloved characters; and then, at the end of writing that series, was like, ‘Oh, yeah, and he’s gay. What? Step to me.’ She is forever a god for that.
It’s a funny idea to me that every form of representation has to look the same. For me, personally, I find Dumbledore’s queerness extremely explicit in this film.
I mean, all around. He sees Grindelwald, his young lover who’s the love of his life; he sees him in the Mirror of Erised. What does the Mirror of Erised show you? Nothing more than the most desperate desire of your heart. If that’s not explicitly gay, I don’t know what is.
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I think it’s also really powerful to have characters who are fascinating, dynamic people, doing magical works in the world, and that the story does not only pertain to their sexuality.
Why don’t you wait until you see the film before you start talking shit on Twitter? Or wait to make up your own mind about something for once in your life. Do your own research. Make up your own mind. Follow your heart, and really, really investigate situations before you identify yourself and pick a side, and start throwing things at the opposition. Because that’s what’s totally screwing everything up right now. And it polarizes us. We’re all human, and there’s a lot of things we can agree on.”— Out Fantastic Beasts actor Ezra Miller speaking to Total Film about the media attention paid to whether or not Dumbledore will be portrayed as explicitly gay in the popular Harry Potter spinoff film franchise.
jakejacob
Good lord. Ezra is so beautiful with short hair.
mr guy
I love how dat super masculine jawline developed seemingly out of nowhere, but alas I remain too psychologically scarred by the infamous image of his toenails—I’ll never get past that trauma. Hard pass
MacAdvisor
Not to be a contrarian, but Dumbledores gayness is extremely subtle and never demonstrated. He never dates a man in any of the main books, is never shown having sex of any kind, never expresses any longing for a husband. Nothing. He is like most supposedly “gay” characters of modern books and movies: entirely sexless.
PinkoOfTheGange
Well they are books aimed at children and no one but the younger characters show any sexuality; unless the fact that they exist show their parents had adult relations at some point is included.
And Hogwarts has the least amount of sex than any prep school I went too.
MacAdvisor
I agree they are aimed at children, but couldn’t Dumbledore mention to McGonagall he is looking forward to seeing so-and-so again at the Wizard’s Conference as they used to date? Or see a young gay wizard couple holding hands in the hallway? All the families are heterosexual. Everyone guy has a girlfriend, every girl has a boyfriend or they are all seeking that. Cedric Diggory couldn’t express his secret crush on Viktor Krum or nice he looked in that uniform? There are seven books and there are so many heteronormative scenes and not one, single gay scene in the lot of them.
Donston
It is kind of strange that he took this moment to get all politically sentimental. He also forced a not so subtle analogy of finding identity problematic and the importance of knowing who you are and what you want before decisively saying that you’re something. It just seems like he wanted to rant about something else entirely.
Anyways, JK sort of shot herself in the foot with this Dumbledore’s “outing”. She dealt with nothing of the sort in the books and in the movies, didn’t even drop hints. But she claimed that she always saw him that way and that he had boyfriends when younger. Ultimately, it came off then and still does come off as late-stage pandering. I agree that seeing the movie is key, but it’s very unlikely going to be “explicit”. Hell, there probably won’t even be any real signs of affection. It’s likely to be one of the “if you look hard and see what you want to see” type of scenarios. However, I don’t see this a reason to completely attack the woman or the character.
Donston
It’s just so weird to me that he shoehorned a not so disguised rant about the importance of being careful and patient when it comes to identity and coming out and also about people not understanding and supporting each other. I don’t see why he had to go there in this discussion. It’s also weird that he’s talking like a romantic. Just a couple years ago he spoke on his distaste of romanticism, and he seemed to view the idea of being with a guy as merely about partying and hookups for him. You have to wonder if he’s merely placating and being pc and defending the film, or have things changed for him.
I do get people’s frustrations. They’re sick of the gay-baiting and sick of Hollywood’s empty or often times problematic messages and depictions. They want to see some actual same-sex passion/romanticism in a movie that is supposed to be a broad appealing blockbuster. And JK did make a big deal about Dumbledore’s gayness. No one forced her to go that route. Still, the social media crybabies are doing too much, especially since the movie has yet to be seen.
Donston
Having said this, I am getting a lil’ tried of straight people, non gay-identifying and folks who aren’t about legit relationships with people not of their opposite cis gender constantly telling gay people how to think and feel, how they should want to be represented and constantly hinting that they’re the only real problem within the “queer community”.
DCguy
All of this.
nitejonboy
God I want to marry Ezra Miller!! Did you guys see him in WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN ? If not watch it, he is brilliant and beautiful!!
DCguy
“It’s a funny idea to me that every form of representation has to look the same. For me, personally, I find Dumbledore’s queerness extremely explicit in this film.”
Hollywood speak for “No, there isn’t anything gay about him in the movie, but we’re going to send out the actors to try and claim there is.”
The same way when the movie about Stephen Hawking or the movie “A beautiful Mind” went deep into their marriages or relationships. But then the moie “The Imitation Game” about Alan Touring comes out and we get hollywood saying things like “Oh, gosh, we didn’t cover up anything, it’s just the movie is about a scientist so that is what the movie is about, focusing on his relationships would have distracted from that”.
Same typical Hollywood bigotry and shame on Ezra Klein for running cover for it.
Donston
Hollywood still believes that a project can’t have a leading character who’s overtly gay/homosexual/homo-dominant/homo-leaning unless the project is almost entirely about their orientation/queerness or about characters “discovering” themselves. That’s especially the case with men. And they certainly aren’t going to make an advancement when it comes to a leading character in PG block-buster. No one is asking for a sex scene or a speech about his long lost love. A brief piece of throwaway dialogue, a flashback, a show of affection- something of that nature is apparently asking too much. It’s not really a big deal to me, but Hollywood continues its condescending placating and continues to play it extremely safe. Yet, they always want pats on their back.
RomanHans
If you have to say “I personally found it explicit” then it’s not explicit.