Why I Dislike Straight!Harry Fics

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

In my opinion, Harry is a character who can be written convincingly as gay, straight, or bisexual. I've noticed, however, that I tend to dislike fan fiction that features Harry in a heterosexual pairing. For a long time, I believed that this was simply because I just generally prefer to read slash romance stories. But after reading several Severus/Hermione fics that I thought were absolutely wonderful, I decided to take a closer look at my distaste for straight!Harry fics.*

I realized that my aversion to these stories has less to do with Harry being in a het pairing and more to do with how these stories tend to treat certain other important characters. More specifically, I really dislike how Ron, Draco, and Severus are treated in many of these stories.

Ron is usually quickly discarded as a friend because he is too much of a whiny, jealous prat and too slavishly devoted to Dumbledore. "Ron bashing" is often even specified in the summaries of these stories. Draco is often flattened into a totally irredeemable wannabe death eater. His harassment of Harry is generally far more vicious than anything he ever does in the books. Severus is regularly turned into a verifiably dreadful teacher (there are records proving low test scores, extreme Slytherin bias, high injury rates, etc.) who is usually either still secretly loyal to Voldemort or unquestioningly obedient to an evil!Dumbledore. Regardless of his current allegiances, he deserves to die.

Certainly not all straight!Harry authors (mis)treat Ron, Draco, and Severus in these ways, and there is certainly character bashing in other types of HP fics. Nevertheless, I do not think I'm completely imagining a correlation between straight!Harry and such negative characterizations of these three men.

So why is the character bashing of Ron, Draco, and Severus so especially predominant in straight!Harry fics? It could be simply because the authors of such stories have been influenced by each other's writing. But the fact that the three characters are so often reviled in the same stories that emphasize Harry being in a heterosexual relationship(s) leads me to speculate that it might have something to do with attitudes about male sexuality.

Ron, Draco, and Severus are all rather submissive men. And many people are uncomfortable with the idea of a submissive man because they associate submissiveness with femininity. Severus and Draco are, additionally, both very sensitive men, and sensitivity is another character trait that is strongly associated with femininity. And, of course, feminine equals WEAK, and weakness in men is BAD.

Interestingly, Harry also has some "feminine" traits. He is definitely less sensitive than Severus or Draco, but he sometimes comes across as very submissive in canon. So, really, it isn't all that surprising that the same authors who so despise Ron, Draco, and Severus also make a great deal of effort to make Harry more "manly." For instance, canon Harry is pretty inept when it comes to dating girls, but straight!Harry easily gets himself a girlfriend--sometimes two or more girlfriends---proving his sexual prowess. Straight!Harry becomes independent!Harry, rejecting most offers of aid and mentorship from the adults in his life, because, after all, it's good for men to be self-reliant. Straight!Harry also becomes powerful!Harry, because men should be strong and powerful. In these stories, Dumbledore is often portrayed as manipulative or evil, not so much because of his callousness towards others in general, but because of how he treats Harry in particular; Dumbledore has been manipulating Harry all his life because Harry threatens his position as top dog in the wizarding world. In other words, Harry isn't naturally so submissive. No, if Dumbledore would just stop interfering, then Harry would become the most dominant wizard of all!


As a side note: Many straight!Harry fics also have a fair amount of Molly Weasley bashing, perhaps because those who are uncomfortable with submissive men are also uncomfortable with dominant women.


*To be clear, I'm referring mainly to fics where Harry's relationship with a girl (or sometimes multiple girls) is a major part of the story, not stories where Harry happens to get a girlfriend along the way.

Comments

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

Very interesting. :)

[the-bitter-word.livejournal.com]

I don't seek out stories featuring Harry, so I can't really respond as yours isn't my experience. I wrote a story once where Harry was straight and powerful, but he was also pretty much dangerously imbalanced, the living legacy of Tom Riddle's and Albus Dumbledore's influences. In other words, the story was totally canon! But that was a long time ago, pre-DH.

It might be helpful to understanding your perception if you gave some examples or linked to fics where you've perceived these phenomena.

Generally, though, I've noticed that an author's bias towards a certain character can influence the writing of other characters. It's not just how they perceive the characters. It's an advocacy kind of thing, I guess. I had a (wonderful) beta draw me back sharply recently because of the way I wrote Charlie Weasley, who is all but a cipher in canon, but who is majorly loved by HP fans. I realized I was on a roll in making my main HP character, Severus Snape, seem even more hard done by... which really wasn't fair to Charlie Weasley. I'm immensely grateful that the beta questioned this impulse.

Also, I think you are right that fanfic writers exist in communities where the same stories are told multiple times and there is a sort-of consensus as to character dynamics. It's sometimes quite startling to me when a writer breaks out of the molds. I probably read more slash than not these days (and now I'm thinking I should analyze why that is -- maybe it is how other characters are treated, but maybe it's just the circles I've become part of).

You do have me wondering how the straight!Harry stories treat Hermione or Ginny, both of whom, with the exception of their extreme deference to Harry, have the potential to be dominant women. Maybe madderbrad will weigh in, as he seems to have experience with the Harry-Hermione pairing.

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

----It might be helpful to understanding your perception if you gave some examples or linked to fics where you've perceived these phenomena.

I think Partially Kissed Hero (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4240771/5/Partially_Kissed_Hero), The Potter Conspiracy (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4902420/1/The_Potter_Conspiracy), An Inconvenient Truth (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5084287/1/An_Inconvenient_Truth), and Harry Potter and the Temporal Beacon (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6517567/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_Temporal_Beacon) are probably good examples of the type of story I'm talking about. Be warned that they're all very long stories, though.

----You do have me wondering how the straight!Harry stories treat Hermione or Ginny, both of whom, with the exception of their extreme deference to Harry, have the potential to be dominant women.

It depends on whom Harry is paired with in the story. If the pairing is not Harry/Hermione, then Hermione is often depicted as something of a shrew who is too hellbent on following the rules and obeying Dumbledore. If the pairing is not Harry/Ginny, then Ginny, often with Molly's help, is usually trying to trick Harry into marrying her with the use of love potions and marriage contracts.

[harpsi-fizz.livejournal.com]

Fans that aren't well rounded are very guilty of this kinda crap, and it makes me just insane. Ron gets designated to being the bad guy in most fics. The reason I won't read Harry/Draco (aside from the gratuitous amounts of R/Hr in them) is because they always make Ron into The Homophobe Ignoramus.

I guess what you're teaching me is that it's universal. Ron gets used by everyone as a convenient prop. The opposition in everything.

I'm guessing that in these stories, the girlfriend isn't an OFC- is she? 'Cause if she is, my guess is to immediately write them off as Step-on-me meyer syndrome of taking a crush and upping his manly!ness for the Self insert OFC.

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

----Ron gets designated to being the bad guy in most fics. The reason I won't read Harry/Draco (aside from the gratuitous amounts of R/Hr in them) is because they always make Ron into The Homophobe Ignoramus.

You're right about Ron getting bashed in Harry/Draco fics, but for different reasons. Ron is interesting because he's quite submissive but he's also clearly heterosexual, at least more so than most of the other male characters in the series. Perhaps many writers aren't quite sure what to do with a straight, submissive man.


----I'm guessing that in these stories, the girlfriend isn't an OFC- is she?

No, I usually don't even give Harry/OFC stories a chance. :)

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

These are all very interesting observations, I have to say. I've always been rather uncomfortable with the idea that people associate "submissiveness" with "femininity", because that's kind-of like saying that feminine people are somehow weak or helpless, which is a dangerous stereotype to fall into. It's one of the points I enjoy toying with and deconstructing in my own fanfiction.

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

----I've always been rather uncomfortable with the idea that people associate "submissiveness" with "femininity", because that's kind-of like saying that feminine people are somehow weak or helpless...

Agreed, though being submissive is not the same thing as being weak or helpless; it's more a relational style.

[harpsi-fizz.livejournal.com]

he's also clearly heterosexual, at least more so than most of the other male characters in the series.

Oooh. You accidentally got close to a big nerve point of mine. Could you explain what you mean by that? I don't want to assume anything or fly off of the handle when you Prrrrobably didn't mean that the way it looks at first glance.

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

Oh, sorry! Hopefully I can respond without digging myself in deeper....

I think it's easier to imagine that most other male characters could be gay or bisexual simply because we don't know enough about them. We don't know their relationship histories; we don't know whom they're attracted to. We have a fair amount of freedom to fill in the blanks. We do know a fair amount about Ron's relationship history and whom he's attracted to. Since, from what we know, Ron has been consistently interested in girls, I think it's harder to imagine him as gay or bisexual.

Harry is the only male character about whom we know more than we do about Ron. And there are little things about Harry that we can use as evidence that he could be gay or bisexual that we don't have for Ron. Unlike Harry, Ron is quite susceptible to Veelas. Unlike with Harry, I don't think we have examples of Ron noticing attractive boys.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/The reason I won't read Harry/Draco (aside from the gratuitous amounts of R/Hr in them) is because they always make Ron into The Homophobe Ignoramus./

True, but I've noticed that a lot of Harry/Draco fanfics (H/D doujinshi in particular) portray Draco as very weak and submissive to the point of outright portraying him as the uke stereotype. Which is why I found it interesting that danny_sparks said that Straight!Harry is often made more "manly" in some fanfics, when he also often cast as the seme stereotype in a lot of H/D fanfiction and doujinshi (sometimes to the point of becoming a blatant sexual predator *shudders*).

[harpsi-fizz.livejournal.com]

Relief. I knew that asking for clarification would make everything better. Everything you said is the truth and could certainly lead to someone thinking "Ron is displaying a lot of Heterosexuality in those moments". Of course, everything is in Harry's P.O.V, so we wouldn't get to notice him imagining the looks of males.

I hope I didn't give you a mini-heart attack. Please let me explain. On a thread in FictionAlley Park, right in the slash section (http://forums.fictionalley.org/park/showthread.php?s=97356ab536ca1801b02947fea86d10c1&threadid=91258&perpage=20&highlight=&pagenumber=1), I've heard people say that Ron is way too boyish to be gay. The sentiments are sprinkled here and in the previous thread. As a slasher, I'm sure you know how infuriating that statement is, not to mention sexist, homophobic, and... well. So that's where I'm coming from personally. Particularly from Darth_Gojira, there's a lot of "Gay is not just about love, but an entire personality" sentiment. I didn't mean to imply that you were one of those narrow minded people. I was asking for clarification to confirm and quiet my own automatic response.

Me, I have a little stock pile of "Ron is ambiguous" arguments. Viktor Krum worship and the talk of him being majestic on the broom. The way Ron's complaints about girls don't have much substance. The fuss he put up with about taking that one girl to the dance because "uh... her nose is crooked. Yeah. That's why." Biology, too! Ron, being the youngest male in the family- look at the studies showing how the more males a woman has, the more likely the younger ones will be gay.

Of course, some of those "Ron is never ever possibly gay" people are just jerks and you can't reason with them, can only troll them. To troll the mean people, there's troll statistics. Seven Weasley Kids + 2 Parents + Harry = 10. If one in ten people are gay... :3 (Or you can split it and say "then two in ten are bisexual", too,).

And one might note Ron's supposed "crushes" (Rosmerta, Fleur) are all on older women. Even Hermione is one year older than everyone in her class. So it wouldn't be much of a stretch to imagine him falling for, say, the pretty blonde older Lucius Malfoy (God, I love that ship...)

[shadefell.livejournal.com]

"I've heard people say that Ron is way too boyish to be gay."

Well, yes, of course, because gay men are all exactly alike with exactly the same traits. Just like straight men! *vomits everywhere*

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

"Me, I have a little stock pile of "Ron is ambiguous" arguments. Viktor Krum worship and the talk of him being majestic on the broom. The way Ron's complaints about girls don't have much substance. The fuss he put up with about taking that one girl to the dance because "uh... her nose is crooked. Yeah. That's why.""

Well... maybe he is bisexual. Maybe he likes men but is still closer to the low end of the Kinsey Scale (see Wikipedia, et al.) than Harry is. Sexuality, after all, is fluid.

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

I suppose that's true. Though I'm currently working on a fanfic which features two powerful men: one more masculine and one more feminine, where the feminine man is in some respects the more aggressive and dominant of the two.

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

That sounds cool! To clarify, I agree that we need to stop associating submissiveness with femininity. What I'm also trying to get at, though, is that the opposite of someone who is "dominant" is not necessarily someone who is "weak." Unfortunately, English-speaking culture places so much value in control and dominance that it's hard to even find words to describe other ways that one can have power in a relationship that don't have negative connotations attached to them. It's sort of like the difference between having power through force and having power through influence. For example, a parent can force her children to do their chores by shouting and hitting them until they're done, or a parent can influence her children to do their chores by promising them an allowance or threatening to take away their video games.

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's definitely that element in a lot of H/D fic. I usually click away pretty quickly when I come across it. What attracts me to the pairing in the first place is that I see each boy being the other's equal in a number of ways.

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

Ugh, the uke/seme dichotomy. Everytime I come across that relationship it makes me genuinely uncomfortable. For one thing, I'm pretty sure (admittedly I'm no gay man, but even so) that that's not how gay relationships work, or any healthy relationships at all for that matter. It always feels to me like a recreation of sexist gender binaries that exist between offensively stereotypical straight couples in porn or whatever, but transposing the weak, helpless, timid qualities onto a feminine man instead of a woman.

Now I'm reminded of a porno I put on the Weepingcock community awhile back. The story was stupid, nonsensical, OOC and possibly glorified abuse at a low level, but the most interesting thing about it was that the "top" was a man about as feminine as the "bottom," and in most of the same ways too. So much so that people started discussing it in the comments.

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

Especially since the exact way in which your sexual orientation reflects your personality is subject to cultural change, just like everything else. For instance, there was a time when fashionable or feminine men would have been considered almost rabidly heterosexual, rather than camp gay as they often are now. So it's not even a stereotype that everyone's always agreed with!

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

"Especially since the exact way in which your sexual orientation reflects your personality..."

Sorry, bad wording. I meant the idea thereof.

one in ten, two in ten

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

But Charlie's clearly gay (why else is he unmarried, off cavorting in Romania [about as far as he can get from Molly's expectations] with other--as far as we can see--all-male dragon handlers?), so that's the one, and Harry's obviously bi, so that's the two!

I've seen the occasional good Ron/Severus story, but mostly... Ron as gay doen't hit my vibes. I've seen a lot more Severus / Bill, Charlie, or Percy that totally resonated with canon, but Ron is a far shot. (I've also read some hot Harry/Bill and Harry/Charlie stories--and a few Harry/Twins, always plural.)


As to your arguments--they're not illogical, but they don't, to me, have much meat.

I mean, for a Quidditch hag to fangirl an international Quidditch star--how many teen boys do hero-worship some star or another of their sport of choice? Only sometimes is this sublimated homeeroticism. The sense I get was more is that Ron wanted to BE Victor, not to screw him. (Not that one can't sometimes want both, or feel that the one might provide the other....)

But that might be just me.

Tell me--is it really that you think canon!Ron IS gay, or might be, or just that you dislike people to assume that he MUST be straight (presumably because that's the default position for everyone in literary canon, especially kiddie!lit canon, and THAT assumption is not fair?)