My Daughter on GoF
Mar. 18th, 2017 01:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fantasyfiend09I'm reading Goblet of Fire to my 7 year old (in the hopes of finishing the series before her friends give away everything). I question her as I read to see if she's understanding. I read her the part where Ron is furious with Hermione at the Yule Ball and asked my daughter what she thought was going on. She said that Ron was jeaous. I probed more, and she said she thought Ron wanted to go to the ball with Viktor.
I had never considered that. I am so proud of her for not making the heteronormative assumption, and I realized that her assumption actually has more support from the book than what I had assumed and JKR intended. We see Ron obsessing over Viktor, following him around, wanting his autograph, and even having a doll of him. My daughter interpreted that (quite sensibly) as a boy with a crush.
I wonder how many queer youth read it the same way as my daughter and thought that this beloved series was providing them with a gay or bi main character, only to have their hopes dashed. I ship Ron/Hermione, but in that moment I was sad to know that Ron would choose Hermione and rule out any same sex pairings.
All the more reason to take my kids to the new Beauty and the Beast before they come to assume that all male characters will want only women.
I had never considered that. I am so proud of her for not making the heteronormative assumption, and I realized that her assumption actually has more support from the book than what I had assumed and JKR intended. We see Ron obsessing over Viktor, following him around, wanting his autograph, and even having a doll of him. My daughter interpreted that (quite sensibly) as a boy with a crush.
I wonder how many queer youth read it the same way as my daughter and thought that this beloved series was providing them with a gay or bi main character, only to have their hopes dashed. I ship Ron/Hermione, but in that moment I was sad to know that Ron would choose Hermione and rule out any same sex pairings.
All the more reason to take my kids to the new Beauty and the Beast before they come to assume that all male characters will want only women.
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Date: 2017-03-18 07:19 pm (UTC)We went to the Universal Studios in California, and she loved everything! I would have held off on reading the later books, but her classmate already gave away that Cedric dies (on accident), and I fear her finding out about Sirius and Dumbledore!
My son (who is five), sat through the illustrated version of the first book, but is clearly too young. He hears parts of each book as I read to my daughter. I tend to think he's not listening, but then there will be a mention of a place that was at Universal Studios and he'll call out, "Three Broomsticks? We ate there!" I figure it's only a matter of time...