My Harry Potter Loving, Non-Heteronormative Kid

[przed]

Ros' Harry Potter love continues unabated, so we were getting deep into The Goblet of Fire while we were on our trip. We'd hit the section about the Yule Ball, and Ros was trying to guess who Hermione was going with. Which led to this exchange.

Ros: Who do you think Hermione's going with?
Me: I don't know. (I honestly couldn't remember from the movies)
Ros: I think she's going with Krum!
Me: Hmm, I think you might be right.
Ros: But that would make Ron jealous.
Me: It could.
Ros: Because he probably wants to go with Krum because he really likes him.
Me: Huh. Well, you're not wrong.
Ros: But that might be hard because they're both boys.

I feel like I'm doing the parenting thing right. Though I'm a bit sad that she realizes two boys going to the ball would be a bit difficult.

I was hoping to put up a London post tonight, but I cashed out right after Ros did. So instead, have a preview, with a Harry Potter flavour.

Ros and me casting spells at the Harry Potter Experience:


I think we make a good wizarding team. *g*

Comments

[dawnebeth.livejournal.com]

Very jealous of your wizarding skillz.

Your story of Roz imagining Ron and Krum made me remember when Demelza was younger and she said she loved me so much she wanted to marry me. I told her she could marry a man or a lady, whomever she wanted when she was over 21, but not her mother!

[przed.livejournal.com]

Thank you kindly. *g* (I really need a HP icon at this point.)

Your story about Demelza is adorable, and totally the way kids' minds work, no? When Ros was just a toddler, she confidently told us "when I be a teenager, I have a baby!" We've spent the years since affirming that while it is fine to have a baby, once should be an adult, with an education and a good job before that happens.

[nakeisha.livejournal.com]

Excellent wizarding skills.

It is a bit sad that she realises two boys going to the ball together would make eyebrows rise.

[przed.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

I was definitely a bit sad that she thought it would be difficult if Ron wanted to go to the ball with another boy. But on the plus side, she's still miles ahead of where I was with those issues at her age. Progress is definitely being made.

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

I think he must not be named would simply shrivel up under your combined attack.

You know, she might not be realising it's hard for two boys for the same reasons an adult or older kid would think. She might be thinking about clothes, or who would issue the invitation, something like that - kids have quirky ways of looking at things sometimes. It might be worth asking her why she thinks it would be hard (after all, in your country and mine same sex marriage is legal so someone somewhere has to be able to ask someone for a date...)and see what she says.

[przed.livejournal.com]

We do look formidable, don't we. *g*

Hmmm, I think I'm going to go with your way of thinking. Because it's not that she's not aware that she can marry a girl or a boy here. There are families in her school with two moms or dads, and our next door neighbours are two lovely gay blokes that she hangs around with constantly. I shall definitely bring it up.

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

And that, of course, was me. Grr - stupid LJ - it won't let me stay logged in!!

[przed.livejournal.com]

I reckoned it was you. Silly LJ.

You're not wrong that kids that age have a completely different set of assumptions about the world that can be quite weird and wonderful.

We're getting close to the end of The Goblet of Fire, and Ros is now convinced that Harry and Krum are also sweet on each other, and they're in a big love quadrangle with Hermione and Ron. I am not disabusing her of this notion. (A shipper is born.)

[halotolerant.livejournal.com]

See, this is why I wish JK Rowling had put even one canonically queer character or couple into Harry Potter, because so many, many kids read them and see adolescence through them, and it would be nice to sort of confirm that sometimes some boys take boys to the Yule Ball and some girls take girls, or whatever. To be fair, I'm sure in Rowling's head that does happen and it's fine, and it just wasn't a priority to her in her narrative, but it would have been so good.

If you've got the right parents, of course, you're not so reliant on books for those messages, so I think Ros will be fine *g*

Excellent spell-casting photos! It's so great that she got into Harry Potter just *before* you came to the UK rather than, like, two months after!

[przed.livejournal.com]

I'm completely with you on that. I saw, I think on Tumblr, that someone's head canon was that Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas were a couple, and so that's totally my head canon now too. I'm sure Rowling is LGBT positive, but it definitely would have been nice for kids and readers of all orientations and genders to see a bit more variety of representation in such a culturally important text. Beyond the assertion after it was all over that Dumbledore was gay. Because by the point Goblet of Fire came out, she must have been writing her own ticket and she would have been able to withstand any objections about canonically queer characters in the books.

I'm pretty sure Ros will be fine. We're pretty LGBT-positive in our house, her school is supportive (there are a number of families with same sex parents, and plenty of LGBT supportive posters all over the place), and Ros' favourite neighbours are the two gay blokes who live next to us. But representation is not an insignificant thing.

I'm sooo relieved she got into Potter before the trip. She was extremely bitter in January to find out we hadn't gone to the Harry Potter park when we were in Florida last year, and the argument "but Ros, you didn't *like* Harry Potter last year" just wasn't cutting it. ;-)

[msmoat.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't it be wonderful if kids never had the thought that it might be difficult for two boys or two girls to go to a Ball together? One day! (I hope.) In the meantime, you are an awesome parent!

And you both are awesome spell casters! Top points for form!

[przed.livejournal.com]

It would be awesome if she hadn't had the thought that it might be difficult, but I am pleased that at least she first jumped to thinking that Ron would like to be going to the ball with another boy.

All that martial arts training has clearly paid off in wizarding form. *g*

[asilia.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of on board with the idea of Ron and Krum going to the Yule ball together - that would have made for an interesting plot twist ;)

Can't wait to hear more about London - the Harry Potter studios are so cool, aren't they? We loved it when we went to visit them!