Grrrr!

[bubosquared]

Technically, I suppose this should go in the Harry Potter group, since it's off HP4GU, but I think it's universal enough to be of interest to you all. Does this sound logical to anyone else?

Folks, the third best selling author of all time has a responsibility to the tens of millions of children who are her readership, as well as to the parents that buy the books. Magic, as far as anyone can tell, is not real. Heterosexuality is, and has been around forever. It has also been spurned, attacked and whatever else for forever. If JKR validates it by engaging two of the favorite characters in a different-sex tryst, she is doing more than putting it on the level of magical fantasy. She is telling impressionable kids its okay, a judgment that should be reserved to their parents, at least until they are old enough to make a judgment for themselves.

Sounds insane, doesn't it? So why did some dipshit think it perfectly okay and logical to write the following?

Folks, the third best selling author of all time has a responsibility to the tens of millions of children who are her readership, as well as to the parents that buy the books. Magic, as far as anyone can tell, is not real. Homosexuality is, and has been around forever. It has also been spurned, attacked and whatever else for forever. If JKR validates it by engaging two of the favorite male characters in a tryst, she is doing more than putting it on the level of magical fantasy. She is telling impressionable kids its okay, a judgment that should be reserved to their parents, at least until they are old enough to make a judgment for themselves.

Yes, I am pissed. Another individual said:

Still, I'll be damned if I'd ever put something in front of my kid that validates that kind of lifestyle [homosexuality] and tries to portray it as normal.

And continued to be extremely rude and snide and just ... argh in response to being told off by the mods. (Maybe he was right. Maybe they mods are a bit biased pro-'PC'. But frankly, anyone using the argument "You're just saying that to be PC" and adding "You can throw me off the list if you want, see if I care" gets very little credit from me. I'm weird like that. Never fails to piss me off.)

Just ... razzafrazzamuttermumblegrowl!

Why is it that the mere mention of homosexuality in anything but a really negative light is considered as us 'forcing our lifestyles' on people? Why is any occurrence of a ((positively' -- read: 'normal') gay character in the media met with cries of "They're validating this lifestyle! Make them stop! This is a decision only parents should get to make for their kids!"? Why?

This is not a rhetorical question. I really, seriously want to know what is going on in these people's heads, because I'm at a loss here, and without understanding how they come to this conclusion, it's hard to dislodge their reasoning.

The reference to JKR's "responsibility" pissed me off as well. No author has any responsibility towards her readers save to write the best story (s)he can. Writers should not be responsible for raising kids or instilling morals in them. They should tell a story. If a writer wants to sneak her/his own morals into that story, that's fine (unless it screws up the story), but education and 'the greater good' should not be the entire goal of a story.

This rant brought to you by Caffeine, Inc. I'll get back to work now.

Comments

Parents should fucking parent

[partly-bouncy.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with you... Parents should fucking parent. I'm sorry, if she wants to write Harry shleping Draco in the story or introducing a homosexual character and portraying that as normal, go for it. She shouldn't be obliged to censor herself for the sake of a few parents who don't want to do their jobs and monitor what their kids read and watch on television. Parenting isn't something that should be done by people who don't want to be parents and too many parents are more than willing to turn over their children to pop culture and let that set the moral and ethical compass for their children. (These are the same parents who wonder why society is all fucked up and why there are school shootings.)

JK's obligation is to the characters and to herself. Herself could include her own experinces as a parent but she is on record as saying that she didn't think it was appropiate for her daughter to be reading them at her age.

(I'm a tad senstive on this because I saw a GMA report a few days ago where they had 6 year olds talking about how they wanted to look sexy, how there parents were buying them imitation leather pants, shirts that showed belly buttons, fish net stockings and those cluky shoes. They wore shirts with "Playboy" on them. They had the boa type things and they wore this stuff to school. The kids didn't always know what that stuff meant but still it disgusts me that parents would let their children dress like that at that age. The parents say they see britney and want to dress like her. I can tell you that parents who buy into that shit obviosuly aren't trying because you can remove britney's image from your house and still allow your kids to dress like Britney.)

Re: Parents should fucking parent

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

Exatcly. I'm not here to raise your kid. My parents let me read a lot of semi-disturbing stuff, and I think I managed to get away with a fairly good moral system.

And yes, yes, yes! No one should ever tell a writer what to write. Ever. At all.

(I know what you're talking about. I read an interview with a child psychiatrist a week or so back, who talked about the number of girls who wear Britney-type stuff and get confused because of the way men look at them. The psychiatrist said that it's okay to let kids wear this stuff every once in a while, as long as it's in the context of 'dressing up'.)