I don’t think I’m homophobic. I believe gay people should have equal rights to straight people in every respect (marriage, serving in the military, etc.) And I think Ross Mathews is the funniest of “Chelsea Lately’s” roundtable guests.
All that having been said …
When “Harry Potter” penner J.K. Rowling announced a couple years ago that Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts, is gay, I recoiled just for a split second. And in Season 8, Issue No. 12 of the “Buffy” comic book, when Buffy Summers is caught in bed with fellow Slayer Satsu, I got just a bit angry, thinking, “That’s totally out of character!” (Meanwhile, when Dawn was turned into a centaur, I just went with the flow.)
Maybe I subconsciously hoped for scenes of Dumbledore taking Harry under his wing and giving him advice about how to deal with young witches. Maybe, as a reader, I feel a sense of ownership of the Potterverse, and I didn’t appreciate Rowling casually adding to the mythology without even writing it into the books (although, of course, she has every right to, especially since she’s not contradicting anything she wrote previously).
And I fully admit I’d like to see a Buffy-Xander relationship someday — suggested since the first episode of the first TV season — so I don’t want Buffy to be gay.
Also, Buffy has been established as being straight, and I don’t like mid-story continuity shifts, where we’re asked to pretend that what happened before didn’t happen. “Buffy” creator Joss Whedon pulled this once before. After Oz broke her heart and split town, Willow hooked up with Tara in Season 4. In interviews about the storyline, Whedon referred to Willow as being gay, as if she had always been gay. The scripts emphasized “gay” whenever possible. “Bisexual” — the accurate term for Willow — was never used on the show.
I think what happened was this: Whedon decided he wanted a gay icon on “Buffy,” which itself had become a cultural icon a few seasons into its run. So he wanted to de-emphasize that Willow was attracted to both men and women, and he rewrote the character mid-stride. It’s my biggest problem with a show that I otherwise love and respect. (On the other hand, Whedon had fun with the issue. The Buffybot’s files on Willow defined her as “Gay — 1999-present.”)
A female friend made this argument when we were discussing the Willow controversy: Everyone is attracted to both men and women in a certain percentage. So Willow is probably 50-50 (although the party line from Whedonville is that she’s 100 percent attracted to women). Buffy is probably 95-5 in favor of men, which is why she was intrigued by Satsu, but couldn’t have a full-blown relationship with her.
“Family Guy” once made a joke/argument about this issue (I get most of my insight about social issues from TV, as you probably noticed). Meg said, “But being gay isn’t a choice.” The other girl said, “Well, for guys it’s not.” The stereotype is that straight women can be attracted to women while straight guys can’t be attracted to guys. But I’m going to leave that one on the shelf pending further discussions with straight women. That “Family Guy” joke was almost certainly written by a straight dude, and we straight dudes assume that since we find women attractive, everyone must.
At any rate, sexuality is not a choice, it’s the wiring in your brain. If I had a choice in the matter, I would choose not to be attracted to anyone. Pining after women has caused me a lot of heartache and misery and very little happiness. And I could get a lot more done in life without society’s stupid (and irrational) emphasis on relationships hanging over me.
Sexual orientation is, however, a choice for the inventors of characters in books, TV shows and comic books. And I like to think that’s where my resistance to the re-invention of Dumbledore and Buffy comes from — I just didn’t like the storytelling choice. Then again, maybe Rowling and Whedon are teaching me, and other pop-culture consumers, something about our subconscious hang-ups.
Any thoughts on this topic you’d like to share? What was your reaction to Dumbledore being gay and the Buffy-Satsu tryst in Issue No. 12?
Comments
John, as Family Guy’s Chris Griffin would say, “AHHH. Get out of my head. Get out of my head.”
This post hit pretty close to home. Jenelle and I went to see The Half Blood Prince last night and we brought up the same issue. On a side note, Jenelle yearned for more action but I appreciated the humor and romance of the story, building up to what should be a great finale. Anyways, waiting for the previews (by the way, Where the Wild Things Are looks like a must see), I casually reminded her that Dumbledore was gay. Her response was similar to mine in thinking it was a weird addition. My reply was, ‘well yeah, but it’s not as bad as Willow’s coming out of the closet in Buffy.’ She missed the reference, but after getting back to the apartment and watching some classic season 1/2 Buffy episodes, the issue resurfaced.
Not because I’m homophobic (isn’t this the time that I mention Iknow a gay person or my father’s gay?), but because we pride ourselves on learning the character’s persona and empathizing and sympathizing through their character development. To have a surprise just for the sake of a new plot twist or a last-second throw in is disconcerting and doesn’t give the viewers or readers enough credit.
Willow, who since the pilot episode had been crushing on Xander, being deemed gay, which I take with a grain of salt, really hurt the series and the whole Tara lesbian romance took away from her central character. Oz was the perfect love interest–he was in a band (aptly named “Dingoes Ate My Baby”), was Willow’s intellectual equal and he was a werewolf for Christ sake! It was all the makings for a great romance, if not for Seth Green’s eventual leave for bigger Hollywood, with Willow and Xander’s sexual tension maybe creating an issue down the line.
But I digress. This is the first I’ve heard about Buffy’s lesbian “experience,” which is also disheartening. Again, not because it alludes to her possibly being gay, but because it draws from no reference point and undermines her relationship with Angel. The age-old stereotype of men enamored by the sight of two women kissing is off base and overrated. I love plot twists but sexual preference is not a gray line to be tiptoed.
Dumbledore being gay is a different pill to swallow. I’m still on the fence. But the Potterverse doesn’t hinge on his preference of men or women, it’s just an interesting tidbit. With Willow and Buffy, it’s enough to make past seasons viewings a bit uncomfortable and awkward–Willow more so than Buffy.
The Buffy-Satsu tryst, Willow-Tara relationship and Dumbledore’s coming out all rate differently. Even in comic book form, I’m hoping this is the last of Buffy’s “explorations” and it doesn’t evolve into something more. Hopefully she’ll keep “it” in her pants around the same sex from now on.# Posted By Seth Stringer | 7/21/09 5:51 PM
I could have just summed it up by saying, ‘I agree with you.’# Posted By Seth Stringer | 7/21/09 6:13 PM
Exactly. Buffy’s not gay. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I love gay people. Many of my best friends are gay. But Buffy’s not gay. And Willow’s bisexual. I don’t know why it became so important for Joss to label Willow “gay,” but he definitely became obsessed with it starting in Season 4 (after dropping hints in Season 3’s “Dopplegangland,” where Willow noticed that her alternate vampire self was “kind of gay”). It was like if you said, “But wait a second … Oz … Xander …” then Whedon and other fans would be like, “She’s gay. Get over it.” I don’t why it’s a point of pride to be gay rather than bisexual. It’s like some ridiculous form of team spirit, and it actually suggests that being gay was a choice for Willow, and of course that’s not how it works. In a way, Willow’s turning gay was a disservice to the gay community and cause.
And it’s because the Willow being gay thing was handled so poorly that I was scared when Buffy had sex with a chick. You will be glad to know that they are now on Issue No. 26 and it’s been pretty well established that Buffy is not gay. It was just a one-time experimental thing.
Interestingly, Rowling didn’t go out of her way to label Dumbledore as gay. A fan asked her about Dumbledore’s past relationships, and Rowling mentioned that she saw Dumbledore as being gay. Otherwise she wouldn’t have even brought it up; it’s never mentioned in the books, and there’s no reason for it to be.# Posted By John Hansen | 7/21/09 8:25 PM