In 2007, writer of the iconic Harry Potter books J.K. Rowling shocked the world by revealing that beloved mentor and Headmaster to Hogwarts Albus Dumbledore was a homosexual man all along.
This LGBTQ+ community rejoiced, and the revelation put a whole new spin in the text that they had grown to know and love. It was just a shame that, at the time, there was no more Harry Potter material to make it more than just subtext.
Since then, new Harry Potter material has come out. A spin-off Broadway play, more movies and still no explicit mention of the sexuality of Dumbledore.
This led many to accuse Rowling of queerbaiting, or the act of hinting at, but not actually depicting, a same-sex romantic relationship between characters in a work of fiction.
With many other instances of problematic inserts to her text, Rowling has gone from a beacon on how to write representation right in a time when there was none, to being a laughingstock and the pinnacle of doing it wrong.
The joke seems to have peaked with it recently being reported that in the special features of the upcoming Blu-Ray release of the latest film, Rowling claims, “Their [Dumbledore and Grindlewald’s] relationship was incredibly intense. It was passionate, and it was a love relationship.”
She went on to describe that she “…believes there is a sexual dimension to this relationship,” and the internet was not going to take it lightly.
Jokes making a mockery of this news began trending on Twitter. Many of them emulating the way Rowling adds sexualities and races to her characters seemingly at random with no attempts to make it real representation. None of these jokes were products of homophobia, or an audience that is not ready for gay characters.
They are a result of an audience that is desperate for representation of their group and for someone to do it right.
Rowling continues to perpetuate an ongoing trend in media that wants to appeal to the LGBTQ+ community, so that they may go see their product, without representing them in a substantial way. This is not representation as much as it is tokenism and a simplification of actual humans to a simple accessory that can be added later.
Many of the fans are done with Rowling to the point of anything she says will almost certainly be met with ridicule, and the ridicule will not stop until proper representation is given. Seeing how awful these movies have been up to this point, I don’t see that happening any time soon.
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