Why J.K. Rowling’s Latest Apology Is Even More Meaningful Than It Seems
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Queering Hogwarts
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It’s no secret that fanfiction is used to explore romantic pairings between characters. In fan communities. This is called “shipping.” Regardless of whether these relationships appear in the canon, fans explore different romances between many characters. While these romantic stories feasibly can be about anything, slash, a term that references the “/” between two character names (ex. Draco/Harry), has been used almost exclusively for homosexual or queer pairings. Slash was a major discussion point for many early fanfiction scholars with the Kirk/Spock pairing, discussing the implications of such a prominent queer pairing in a subculture (Tosenberger, 2008, 186). Slash has come to signify gay male relationships so much that queer slash involving two women is referred to as femslash even though the term slash never explicity excluded relations between two women.
In the Harry Potter fanfiction community some of the most popular pairings are between male characters despite the general consensus that there are more women who write fanfiction. Early fan studies academics studying Kirk/Spock fanfiction, pointed to a level of “equality” or androgyny between the two men that was not possible within heterosexual pairings in the show (Frazer Lamb and Veith; Russ). Others are more critical, suggesting that straight women who write about gay man are engaging in fetishization (Brownworth; Foster). Often left out of these discourses, however, is what Tosenberger describes as “the potential to encounter and experiment with alternative modes of sexual discourse, particularly queer discourse,” (2008, 186). While slash often focuses on canon characters, aspects of the self can be seen in the exploratory aspects of slash fanfiction through engaging in the non-canon pairing of characters.
The looming shadow of the Mary Sue may explain, in part, why authors choose to write about men in romantic stories. The genre of romance is one that is typically gendered female and, in an effort to steer away from these stereotypes (or to avoid accusations of a Mary Sue), the authors focus on men. Slash then, is a way to perform romantic and queer possibilities while insulating oneself from ridicule, shame, or discomfort. For some authors, femslash simply may hit too close to home.Queer Characters at Hogwarts
Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindlewald are the only two characters that are explicitly labeled as queer in Harry Potter. After the confirmation of Albus Dumbledore’s sexuality by the author herself, one would think that there would be a fair amount of fanfiction about the couple. Instead, what we see is the continued popularity of non-canon (or not explicitly canon) pairings such as Draco/Harry and Remus/Sirius. In fact, in Archive of Our Own, Remus/Sirius and Draco/Harry slash boast a total of 15,000 and 32,000 stories, respectively. The Dumbledore/Grindelwald slash tag only contains 3,000 stories (Archive of Our Own). This evidence suggests that representation within the stories may not be the sole reason for writing slash fanfiction.
Many fans would (and often do) argue that there is evidence within the canon for their pairing (Tosenberger, 2008, 196-197; Willis, 6-8). In the case of Remus Lupin, both fans and actors believed that there was sufficient evidence within the text to classify Lupin as queer. Actor, David Thewlis, admitted that he played Remus Lupin as a gay man and that the director of the third movie, Alfonso Cuarón, actually told David Thewlis that Remus was gay “without J.K. Rowling’s knowledge,” (Robinson). To many, Lupin’s lycanthrophy serves as a metaphor for the stigma and social exclusion experienced by queer individuals. Some even go as far as to discuss lycanthropy as a metaphor for HIV/AIDS (Tosenberger, 2008, 197).
“The insistence that slash must transgress the existing canon rather troublingly assigns to the canon a heteronormativity it may not necessarily possess,” explains Tosenberger (2008, 187). Fanfiction does not necessarily seek to represent queer romance for the sake of representation. Often, slash offers an intervention that is not inherently transgressive, but rather exploratory, “supplement[ing] stories in response to what fans view as ‘gaps’ within the canon, offering up an interpretation of what is already in the canon and ‘making space’ for the exploration of topics not expanded upon in the books (Willis, 6).
Through slash, fans have been able to “carve out a space for themselves where they are free to tell the narratives they wish,” (Tosenberger, 2008, 190). The focus on space that both Willis and Tosenberger utilize in their essays on slash, is helpful when conceptualizing fanfiction as performance within this space. Returning to my earlier discussion of the dynamic of fanfiction authors and original producers as that of a playwright and director, slash functions as the venue and supplies the audience, giving a space for writers to explore these relationships and people willing to read these explorations.
Below are two examples of characters that fit into the trope of Mary Sue and one that doesn't. These links are modeled like the fanfiction entries in Archive of Our Own and show which stories the characters come from. Click the titles to learn more!Link to Actual Fanfiction, Gender, Harry Potter, Fantastic Tropes and Where to Find Them
By far the most famous pairing in Harry Potter fanfiction, this chapter attempts to explain why and how Draco and Harry pairings got so popular
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Link to Actual Fanfiction, Gender, Harry Potter, Fantastic Tropes and Where to Find Them
How do slash stories function as a space for exploration of queer joy? This famous fanfiction used pictures, drawings, and handwritten letters to tell the story of Sirius Black and Remus Lupin
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Why Write Slash?
We see that slash functions as the stage and provides an audience for writers to explore and play with different possibilities. As such, the reasons for wanting to engage in this exploration are necessarily varied. Which begs the question: can we generalize at all about slash? What insights do studying slash fanfiction offer?
Previous academic research on the topic often focused on the erotic nature of slash, either lauding it as transgressive or criticizing it for fetishizing gay men. Looking at the examples of Irresistible Poison and The Shoebox Project, it becomes clear that we need a better framework. The popularity of pairs that exist outside of the canon even though there is a canonically gay male character in Harry Potter, suggests that queer representation isn’t the only factor at play.
A YouTuber, Sarah Z, gives a possible explanation about the popularity of slash, explaining that heteronormativity can lead to underdeveloped romantic plots in canon. Because of the assumption that “a man and a woman together is naturally going to equal romance.” The burden of developing that relationship is lighter, “but when it comes to friendships between characters of the same gender it seems like a lot of writers accidentally pen quasi-romances between them.” So when fans see a character end up with another just based on the underlying assumption that women always end up with men, they intervene, exploring a possibility that the canon chose not to entertain (Sarah Z).
In Harry Potter, I find this to be a very compelling argument. The top 5 most popular ships on Archive of Our Own , in order, are: Draco/Harry, Remus/Sirius, Harry/Snape, Hermione/Ron, Hermione/Draco. The only pair that is canon in the series is Ron and Hermione. The two, because they started as friends, had a well-developed romantic arc. It was never deemed “inevitable” that they would get together. On the other hand, Ginny/Harry, is the 7th most popular pairing, having less than a fifth of the number of stories that Draco/Harry has. Why would fans so strongly prefer this story to the canon? Ginny and Harry’s relationship both in the books and in the movies doesn’t get the attention that Hermione and Ron’s relationship does. Ginny is shown as having a crush on Harry in the second book, but after Harry saves her from being possessed by Tom Riddle, or Voldemort (Rowling, 1998). We don’t hear much about Ginny until book six, but by then, Harry is obsessively tailing Draco, suspicious that he may be a deatheater. It is no surprise that the Draco/Harry community gained traction after the sixth book (Rowling, 2005). Fans found the relationship far more interesting than the budding but woefully underdeveloped relationship between Harry and Ginny.
Remus/Sirius also demonstrates this trend but with the added nuance of queerbaiting (Sarah Z). The fact that Remus Lupin was played as a gay man in the films and the close relationship the two shared was read by many in the fandom as romantic. Additionally, Remus Lupin is only seen with a romantic interest after the death of Sirius Black (Rowling, 2007) which, for many, is further evidence. The relationship between the two characters, however, is never fully explored, explaining the popularity of the pairing in fanfiction.
Finally, there is an aspect of slash that Sarah Z. mentions that is often left out of the narrative, identity exploration (Sarah Z). According to the survey by Tumblr user centrumlumina, 42.7 percent of M/M writers were bisexual, refuting the claim that the majority of slash readers are straight women. Bisexual women make up the largest proportion of M/M slash writers and readers (centrumlumina). If, as we have seen in the case of the Mary Sue and self-inserts, fanfiction is a way to perform and navigate identities, M/M slash may function as a way for queer individuals to explore their own sexualities anonymously and comfortably while avoiding having to navigate complex gendered debates around female characters.
To Continue on the Sequential Path, Performance Path, or Rowling Path
Continue to "Why are Wizards all (or Mostly) White"
To Continue on the Gender Path
Continue to "Conclusion"
