That sound you're hearing is me rolling my eyes as loudly as I can. I'm not faulting him for disliking This Means War, but writing off an entire genre—and a really lucrative one at that—just makes his sound like a pretentious ass.

It's a statue on the road, almost in the public thoroughfare of a ditch. He didn't in any way damage the statue, and free speech includes the right to take photos of anything in plain view.

I'm down. It's not as if heterosexual marriage is always about two hearts meeting across a crowded room. Let besties marry for tax reasons, health insurance, or, in this case, rugby..

I mean, as somebody who finds the wanton and thoughtless display of those things considered holy to be a metaphorical pornography, turning a statue of Christ into actual pornography seems to me a pretty spot-on point of satire. I hope he did the right thing and called the ACLU.

Or perhaps the state shouldn't be in the business of policing free speech, no matter how distasteful or tacky? I mean, how does an areligious state define "venerated" anyway?

I am in, if only to get more material for my dissertation.

"Spicy!"

"This guy seems great! He's got a cool job and he's great with computers!" OH WAIT HE'S A CRIMINAL PERVERT.

"Amazing how they got my head life-sized."

It'll probably be Phillip, and there will be a collective groan across all space and time.

The tabloids would call her Horty, and we'd all feel really bad for enabling same.

It'd be full of puns and nonsensically prophetic. I approve.

II and V. They should really dig in and go for it, you know?

If they name the next one Henry or William, I'm just going to lament the fall of English for the rest of my life. Is the occasional Wiglaf too much to ask for?

Wow, sarcasm! That's original!:

That fine with me, but I will point out: Lupin, werewolf/closeted; Hagrid, son of nontrad relationship; Myrtle, polemic against bullying; Harry and the Dursleys, the reality that family need not be one's only family; etc.

That is also a wrong-headed argument. Queerness need not be explicit to be valuable. Mileage can still be got from symbolic, metaphoric, or ambiguous queer representation because straight people are more likely to consume it.

No, you're saying, "Most characters are straight, by straight authors. I therefore assumed that Dumbledore was straight." Hence my problem with your line of argument.

I didn't miss it. I'm saying that that viewpoint is, in fact, a rationalization of heteronormativity.

Because a particular life experience doesn't negate the possibility of writing other experiences. And assuming that all characters are straight, based on whatever rationalization, is heteronormativity.