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But wait, SM, didn't you just do a post about Draco?
Why yes, I did, but I'm afraid![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
black_dog wrote this really interesting post about slash in canon and the distinction between slash-as-canon and slash-friendly canon. That discussion led me to obviously wonder about Draco's sexuality, which I post about today in honor of Tom Felton becoming legal. I'm sure he'd be right pleased if he knew.
My question is:
I read people joking about it alot and you can see why: he's always pulling Harry's metaphorical pigtails, he makes fun of Lupin's clothes, he writes song lyrics, talks about not wanting to be dirty etc. He rather begs you to wonder. But honestly, while I could certainly imagine the character being attracted to men and women as an adult he's never really seemed flamingly gay to me as he does to some others. In fact, I think it's part of what I like about him. Not that I'd dislike a character for being gay; I've always just thought he had a straight-boy...thing that I liked.
Sex God!Draco is one of the most widely disdained conventions of fanon, often thrown in the face of everybody who likes the character in canon. In their effort to deny the fanon stereotype readers tend to go too far in the other direction and claim Draco, in canon, is repulsive. Not so. If "pale and pointy" is the best Harry can come up with, the kid's not stopping any clocks. Besides, attractiveness is more than conforming to a standard of beauty. Draco, imo, is described in attractive, sometimes sexy, ways much of the time. But let me quoteblack_dog here because he really puts it well:
"Although it's true that Harry seems indifferent to Draco throughout most of the OOTP, I still find it interesting that when he does appear, Draco is extraordinarily vivid, not just a lively personality but a striking physical presence, an almost tangible body who moves and darts and spins and tackles and juggles. He has the tiniest cameo in the scenelet where he intrudes on Harry's Occlumency lesson with Snape, but he changes the whole emotional tone of the scene, changing the focus of Harry's hostility from Snape to himself (aside from setting up the Penseive scene). He obsessively attracts your eye in the final scene with Umbridge, as he juggles Harry's wand one-handed and looks on hungrily at the prospect of old-fashioned punishment. All of this, I think, reflects a character who intrudes on Harry's perspective in a way that is compelling to Harry in spite of himself. "
This led to an even better quote fromblack_dog that's leading to my main point, I swear:
"Canon!Draco himself is I think in many ways the opposite of the smooth, refined operator he often appears to be in fandom (much as I love fandom!Draco in all his incarnations). Whatever kind of mama's boy he might have been at 11, at 16 there's a vigorous coarseness about him that's kind of attractive. He makes bad puns and invents silly songs and bursts noisily into rooms. A certain physical poise and agility prevent him from becoming gross, but he's not refined or effete at all."
It's the vigorous courseness. This is one of things I sometimes miss about him in fanfic. Oh, I love a Draco that's got culture as well as bite, who throws himself into something artistic (like Creative Magic ::sigh::) the way he throws himself into Quidditch or whatever. But there just always seems something wrong about the cool, controlled, Oscar Wilde-ish fanon!Draco who plays the puppet master instead of hurling himself into trouble again and again. The one in canon, imo, spent the end of the night of the Yule ball trying to get under Pansy's dress. By the end of OotP he might have actually gotten some good ideas about what to do there. He's also probably managed some serious peeping in the Slytherin dorms (Chamber of Secrets indeed). When I think about the bitch slap scene from PoA I usually have to remind myself that he didn't respond to the slap by laughing and making a seriously crude suggestion about exactly how Hermione was going to make Hagrid feel better after losing his hypogriff. That's just what I expect him to do.
In canon Draco often comes across to me like a scrappy little tough-guy-wannabe. He's drawn to power, trying to get in with the older Slytherins as a kid. He deals with people by pushing them and if they push back, like Harry, they command attention and even respect. He knows how to fight even if he doesn't always win. He's totally galvanized by conflict. His own aggression brings out the aggression of everyone around him and he likes it. He's completely shameless. Of course those particular qualities could easily belong to someone who was gay as well, but I feel like when people say he's gay they mean he's prissy and I just don't think he is. Carson Kressley and Draco can both be insulting, but Carson is bitchy while Draco is obnoxious.
Does this description seem completely foreign to people?
Why yes, I did, but I'm afraid
black_dog wrote this really interesting post about slash in canon and the distinction between slash-as-canon and slash-friendly canon. That discussion led me to obviously wonder about Draco's sexuality, which I post about today in honor of Tom Felton becoming legal. I'm sure he'd be right pleased if he knew.My question is:
I read people joking about it alot and you can see why: he's always pulling Harry's metaphorical pigtails, he makes fun of Lupin's clothes, he writes song lyrics, talks about not wanting to be dirty etc. He rather begs you to wonder. But honestly, while I could certainly imagine the character being attracted to men and women as an adult he's never really seemed flamingly gay to me as he does to some others. In fact, I think it's part of what I like about him. Not that I'd dislike a character for being gay; I've always just thought he had a straight-boy...thing that I liked.
Sex God!Draco is one of the most widely disdained conventions of fanon, often thrown in the face of everybody who likes the character in canon. In their effort to deny the fanon stereotype readers tend to go too far in the other direction and claim Draco, in canon, is repulsive. Not so. If "pale and pointy" is the best Harry can come up with, the kid's not stopping any clocks. Besides, attractiveness is more than conforming to a standard of beauty. Draco, imo, is described in attractive, sometimes sexy, ways much of the time. But let me quote
black_dog here because he really puts it well: "Although it's true that Harry seems indifferent to Draco throughout most of the OOTP, I still find it interesting that when he does appear, Draco is extraordinarily vivid, not just a lively personality but a striking physical presence, an almost tangible body who moves and darts and spins and tackles and juggles. He has the tiniest cameo in the scenelet where he intrudes on Harry's Occlumency lesson with Snape, but he changes the whole emotional tone of the scene, changing the focus of Harry's hostility from Snape to himself (aside from setting up the Penseive scene). He obsessively attracts your eye in the final scene with Umbridge, as he juggles Harry's wand one-handed and looks on hungrily at the prospect of old-fashioned punishment. All of this, I think, reflects a character who intrudes on Harry's perspective in a way that is compelling to Harry in spite of himself. "
This led to an even better quote from
black_dog that's leading to my main point, I swear:"Canon!Draco himself is I think in many ways the opposite of the smooth, refined operator he often appears to be in fandom (much as I love fandom!Draco in all his incarnations). Whatever kind of mama's boy he might have been at 11, at 16 there's a vigorous coarseness about him that's kind of attractive. He makes bad puns and invents silly songs and bursts noisily into rooms. A certain physical poise and agility prevent him from becoming gross, but he's not refined or effete at all."
It's the vigorous courseness. This is one of things I sometimes miss about him in fanfic. Oh, I love a Draco that's got culture as well as bite, who throws himself into something artistic (like Creative Magic ::sigh::) the way he throws himself into Quidditch or whatever. But there just always seems something wrong about the cool, controlled, Oscar Wilde-ish fanon!Draco who plays the puppet master instead of hurling himself into trouble again and again. The one in canon, imo, spent the end of the night of the Yule ball trying to get under Pansy's dress. By the end of OotP he might have actually gotten some good ideas about what to do there. He's also probably managed some serious peeping in the Slytherin dorms (Chamber of Secrets indeed). When I think about the bitch slap scene from PoA I usually have to remind myself that he didn't respond to the slap by laughing and making a seriously crude suggestion about exactly how Hermione was going to make Hagrid feel better after losing his hypogriff. That's just what I expect him to do.
In canon Draco often comes across to me like a scrappy little tough-guy-wannabe. He's drawn to power, trying to get in with the older Slytherins as a kid. He deals with people by pushing them and if they push back, like Harry, they command attention and even respect. He knows how to fight even if he doesn't always win. He's totally galvanized by conflict. His own aggression brings out the aggression of everyone around him and he likes it. He's completely shameless. Of course those particular qualities could easily belong to someone who was gay as well, but I feel like when people say he's gay they mean he's prissy and I just don't think he is. Carson Kressley and Draco can both be insulting, but Carson is bitchy while Draco is obnoxious.
Does this description seem completely foreign to people?
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I'm nuts.
My Millicent seconds this. We do the SexGod Draco thing, yet she does not find him attractive, physically.
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It is so funny you said this...I do some Looney Tunes related work so I have them in my brain at all times and once I remember I was walking home and had this vision of Draco somehow watching one of the cartoons (not one of the corporate shill Looney Tunes of today but the real classic ones of course) and I thought he would adore Bugs Bunny and immediately make him his hero. Of course, like most of us, he's really more Daffy but I could see him getting so into Bugs the "gentleman anarchist." If you insist on war, Bugs insists on victory.
Now I hear Draco in my head secretly practicing his Bugs imitations: "Stop breathin' on my tail! Whattya tryin' ado wrinkle it?"
Plus, Bugs does get to wear dresses...;-)
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Of course I agree with what you are saying here, but handling Draco is such a delicate business it's almost impossible to be even close to precise. Because in my view he is the most original creation by Rowling, thus any attempt to stereotype him is doomed to fail in terms of canon-correctness. And how do I explain my preference for him being the bottom in a H/D relationship, while I certainly do not see him as a girl =P? In each and every H/D fanfic that I love, the two boys are being absolute equals and the nature of their rivalry most definitely male, but in the end I always like the ones where Harry is sexually-domineering better.. why is that?!
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Now we're kind of in a different area--is being a bottom really like being a girl...beyond the obvious ways? I mean, I always see him as predominantly a bottom too, but then that's what he usually is in canon. He pushes and taunts and annoys...and then Harry jumps him and he ends up pounded into the floor.:-)
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.....
OMG IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE TO -SAY- ABOUT H/D??!
heeeee >:D
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He pushes and taunts and annoys...and then Harry jumps him and he ends up pounded into the floor.
And he -really- REALLY likes it, and they both come and have sex (and a million H/D-slashers' babies) a million times over again.
THE END!
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How can people not see it right there in canon??
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*feeling proud of self for no apparent reason*
Oh you people are so EVIL, me like it♥
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<33333333333333333333333onto infinity >:D
nah, i never thought he was gay.
i like to joke he's gay, but that's not because he's the gay -stereotype-, he's just GAY. ehehe. does that make sense? even if he's straight, he's gay. er. let me put it this way: i think of some gay boys as being rather more macho and loud and boisterous and boy-like than "hetero" boys, who would actually be more effeminate with impunity (quiet, studious-- like -harry- except he's not studious, he's just more feminine emotionally).
but anyway-- draco ís almost -too- boyish/brash/obnoxious to be easily able to relate to girls, i guess. lots of hetero guys are like that, too. i guess it's a question of sexual compatibility vs. emotional compatibility, though of course the question of whether draco could have heart-to-hearts with -anyone- is up in the air :/
i guess i think of draco as being a bit peter-panish.
he would need either mothering or a partner in crime to wank along with sometimes, too~:)
i can just -see- it. standing there, hands on hips, crowing, "POTTER~!"
hee.
except peter -wins- and draco -loses-. so it's almost like a joke or something, because while harry's got some semblance of being like one of wendy's brothers (civilized, well-mannered), he's not, it's a facade, actually -harry's- a ragamuffin rebellious emotionally-stunted little brat himself :D :D it's great, ain't it :D
it's just that harry's being forced to grow up quickly, leave neverland behind, while draco's wallowing and calling harry back for seconds. "GOT SCARED, POTTER?! THERE'S MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM!!"
and secretly, maybe harry would want to return, except he can't and he can't -stand- draco, anyway, and he -can't-.
so maybe it's just that i don't see any overt maturity in him, and that includes a mature sexuality. really, he's just as much a sexless boy as harry is.
i can see them, without voldemort, without everything else to deal with, just fighting and fighting till they're pulled apart-- except harry's stronger, so he'd just be abusing draco by this point. which is sad, because this means there's no challenge for harry and harry wants a challenge or he'll get bored.
in the end, he's not homosexual, he's pottersexual-- completely revolving and orbiting around potterpotterpotter. he may have entanglements with pansy and her panties, and it's not like i think he'd secretly be thinking of harry's trousers undone or anything, it's just that his -emotional- self is quite clearly elsewhere :D
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Yes yes! It's like...he wouldn't be having candlelight dinner with Pansy and sweeping her off her feet. But he'd be after whatever she was hiding the same way he'd go after the cookies on top of the fridge or whatever. To go where no Slytherin in his year has gone before.
I'm happy to say I don't see him hating girls or anything--I hate fics where he's described as being really vicious to Pansy and practically considering her a whore. She's his friend and has been since PoA. I don't know if JKR realized what a weird little couple she created there, really, because you'd think if Pansy was this ambitious girl who wanted to get the best boyfriend she'd be dating OLDER boys. That's what girls like that do. She and Draco are more like brother and sister, propping up each other's vulnerabilties. And maybe playing a little doctor.:-) That's why honestly, when I picture them older I can see them always being friends but not together.
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And funny you should mention the "incestuous" relationship of Pansy/Draco. In an analogous example, we lack an active Pansy in RP, and in our particular petri dish Millicent's taken over that spot. (Don't worry, they broke up XD ) As she lives in my headspace... yeah, there is that sense of siblinghood poured into their romantic relationship. The latent affection of being wicked together.
I think it's like Draco popped into Slytherin and thought, oh, minions! but over the years has grown into oh, siblings!
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I love the minions becoming siblings. LOL! The thing is Draco is so inherently *social* and into people. He really seems to enjoy and appreciate affection. This is why I hate it when fics show him as constantly being vicious to his friends as they all cower around him. I'm sure people know to give him a wide berth when he's in a mood, but in canon we mostly see him making his friends laugh. He also appears to lap up shows of affection.