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

[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. ;-)