Aspies For Freedom

Today's good news!

J.K. Rowling has confirmed, for those who had their heads in the sand, that Professor Dumbledore, the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had, was gay.

Let's hear it for yet another ND character in the superb Harry Potter series.

It is just a shame that most people have to have the differences pointed out to them.

I'd hazard that most of the men in that place were gay but that's just me.

Or is it the robes?

A lot of the men were married.

I thought that it was the wizards in the Discworld novels that were mostly gay.

Surely marriage was forbidden and if they did so they'd be forbidden by the order =p

Did you even read the Potter books?!

I don't know about gay, I'd guess asexual for most of them. Rincewind seemed interested in women but his attempts at er.. intimacy seemed to have been almost uniformly unsucessful.

That is the point. Everyone in the books is accepted for who they are, native, immigrant, black, white, asian, aspie, gay, male, female, magical, muggle, mixed species - the whole point of the books is to show the bigots as the 'wrong' side, and the accepting, tolerant generous people of all kinds as being the 'good' side.

As in real life, the 'good' people aren't perfect, the 'bad' sometimes repent, and some are shown as having been bullied or coerced into joining one side or the other just as much as others have joined willingly.

But, as in all morality tales, good finally triumphs.

However, the description of each character's origins (e.g. Hagrid's mixed species parentage) is barely touched upon. The author wants us to read into each according to their behaviour, not the prejudice of the reader!

The clues are there, but what the books teach us is that we should accept everyone else 'blind', just as, in its own way, this forum does.

Until the 'post your pic' thread we each had only our imaginations to guide us as to the ethnicity, gender, species etc. of the other posters.

Well, probably not species, unless DocMartin's cat Shnitzel can really use its mouse!

Queen Mogs caught her a mouse at court <3

Aw, cute schnoosity!

There is Hermione Granger (intellectual Aspie), Ron Weasley's ADHD twin brothers George and Fred, Luna Lovegood and her father (I'm not sure what 'label' would fit them, but definitely not NT) for starters - I could go on, but I believe you'll have more fun finding them for yourself ; Then the whole 'us and them' premise of the (minority) magical people and the (majority) 'Muggles' - ordinary, 'normal' people. Joanne shows that there is bigotry on both sides towards the other, and also within each group between various 'factions'.

I read into the books a desire to show that we should accept and celebrate differences; that variety contributes positively to society and that at various times and in different situations we each identify with an assortment of 'goupings'.

I personally identify with many sets and subsets, my autism is only one sub- set: I am also female; white; British; a foreigner; tall; a mother; a grandmother; a motorcyclist; someone with several rare disorders; a walking-stick and occasional wheelchair user; a sister; a daughter..... the list could be almost infinite! Each grouping sets my experience apart from people not in that group - the point is that it shouldn't isolate me.

Personally, after reading all seven books in the series, I've come to conclusion that Severus Snape, who is a pivotal character, was another intellectual Aspie.  He's the one character whose motivations and actions I could really understand completely, and when he's "nasty" it seems to me he's merely telling it like it is, and the NTs he's forced to deal with have a problem with the bluntness.
I never much liked Harry; he was too much a self-obsessed little prawn for me.  Although Hermione had potential.
Alison

Personally I don't think Hermione is an Aspie. Her behaviour towards Ron in book 6, like, for instance, trying to make him jealous by going out with other boys, sounds very NT to me... She is very insecure and tries to hide that by being very smart. I do agree with what you write about George, Fred, Luna and her father though. But of course, I could be taking this way too seriously...

What does ND stand for?

And, in hindsight, how could we not have known Dumbledore was gay? The clues began in chapter one of "Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone"!

- high heeled, buckled boots
- "I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my   new earmuffs"
- Supreme Mugwump (chocolate frog cards)
- extravagant plum velvet suit

Really...? Gee, I had NO idea!

Dumbledore is a very stereotypically camp character - the other older wizards in the series are not so camp. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is up to your viewpoint. i.e is it good that a character is obviously gay by virtue of being camp or very bad?

As for hermione: stereotypical geek, but in female form and a social element thrown in. One should be cautious of diagnosing fictional characters for obvious reasons but hermione definately has traits which JK Rowling would have picked up on from someone she has met in real life. Many fictional characters are a synthesis of multiple people the author has met in real life.