woldy (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} woldy) wrote,@ 2009-01-13 12:54:00 |
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| Entry tags: | hp femslash, parvarti/lavender |
Three Reasons, or Maybe Excuses
Title: Three Reasons, or Maybe Excuses
Rating: PG
Pairing: (probably unrequited) Parvarti/Lavender
Wordcount: approx 700 words
Summary: Three reasons why Parvarti isn't allowed to fancy Lavender.
Disclaimer: Not mine & not profiting.
Notes: This fic is not beta-d, so I apologise for any mistakes. This is my first attempt at a fanfic exploring some of the issues faced by women of colour and/or ethnic minorities in the UK. I've been hesitant about diving into this subject matter because I don't want to over-simplify things, but it also seems weird to me that so few authors explicitly address the intersections between sexuality, gender and ethnicity. Critical comments are welcome, but please be assured I don't wish to offend anyone – in particular, the comment about bisexual girls is intended a wry observation about common uses of the term rather than as an insult to anyone's self-identification.
The first reason Parvarti's not allowed to fancy Lavender is because Lav is straight.
Straight as a broomstick, straight as a telegraph pole, straight, straight, straight. Lav is incredibly girly and while Parvarti is fully aware that you can be both gay and girly, she's pretty sure that Lav isn't.
Lav spends more time and effort going after boys than anyone Parvarti's ever met, enough time that some of the other Gryffindors clearly disapprove. It seems as though Lav values her romances over her NEWTs and while Parvarti isn't criticising her for those choices it means that fancying Lav would be a lost hope, wouldn't it?
It took only a few weeks for Lav to go from murmuring saccharine endearments to Ron Weasley, to crying over him, to replacing him. It's clear that Lav is oriented – ridiculous word, we're not planets are we – towards guys, if not actually stuck on them.
All of which makes her incredibly unsuitable object for Parvarti's affections even if it wasn't for the second reason Parvarti's not allowed to fancy Lavender: because she's Indian.
That sounds like a bad reason but it's still important. Although her parents aren't close-minded, they seem to think that being gay is confined to white people. None of her family have ever met an Indian person who was gay and Parvarti thinks that her parents' knowledge of gay people is pretty much restricted to Elton John, Martina Navratilova and the lesbian couple who run Birmingham Potions Supplies.
Which leads to the widespread impression that gay is something that Indians don't do. That's rubbish, Parvarti is certain, but it's taken quite a lot of effort to convince herself and she's not sure she can convince her parents. And grandparents. And her aunts, uncles and all their friends, some of whom aren't nearly as liberal as her parents.
The third reason Parvarti isn’t allowed to fancy Lavender is because that would make her a lesbian. Well, a lesbian or a bisexual, though the latter often seems to just mean that you make out with girls when you're drunk, and Parvarti thinks that her complete lack of sexual interest in men takes her out of that group.
The problem with being a lesbian is that Parvarti doesn't like labels. She's spent her whole life being Indian which can be trouble enough, especially when the Immigration people look at them suspiciously at International Floo terminals.
Being brown, male and under-forty means that her brother Paresh gets hassled all the time by Muggle police because apparently he fits the profile.
"That's what multiculturalism means, is it? They give us permission to be Indian on the condition we submit ourselves for demeaning searches," her dad complains.
"Give off dad, I know how to deal with it," mutters Paresh, shoving his hands deeper into his pockets.
Padma rolls her eyes and shoots Parvarti the look that means 'it's the because we're Indian talk, again', but Parvarti is proud of her dad.
The talks are his way of arming them against the hassle from officials or bitchy comments from some of the people at Hogwarts. If things in Britain have got better and nobody throws stuff at her grandma or jeers at their neighbours' turbans any longer, then it's because her parents' generation changed things. In her dad's case, probably by giving regular because we're Indian lectures to his workmates.
No, Parvarti doesn't need to be labelled and categorised any further, so she can do without being a 'lesbian' thank you very much. She was briefly tempted by the idea of being 'queer' - which seems to mean that you think fixed identities are stupid - but there's an irony in labelling oneself as someone who doesn't like labels.
For now she's just going to be Parvarti, who happens to be Indian. If Lav ever stops flirting with boys long enough to notice that Parvarti looks at her a bit longer, a bit more often, a bit more intently than is normal for a straight friend…
Well, if Lavender ever notices her or perhaps even does something about it, then Parvarti thinks they'll work something out.
Straight as a broomstick, straight as a telegraph pole, straight, straight, straight. Lav is incredibly girly and while Parvarti is fully aware that you can be both gay and girly, she's pretty sure that Lav isn't.
Lav spends more time and effort going after boys than anyone Parvarti's ever met, enough time that some of the other Gryffindors clearly disapprove. It seems as though Lav values her romances over her NEWTs and while Parvarti isn't criticising her for those choices it means that fancying Lav would be a lost hope, wouldn't it?
It took only a few weeks for Lav to go from murmuring saccharine endearments to Ron Weasley, to crying over him, to replacing him. It's clear that Lav is oriented – ridiculous word, we're not planets are we – towards guys, if not actually stuck on them.
All of which makes her incredibly unsuitable object for Parvarti's affections even if it wasn't for the second reason Parvarti's not allowed to fancy Lavender: because she's Indian.
That sounds like a bad reason but it's still important. Although her parents aren't close-minded, they seem to think that being gay is confined to white people. None of her family have ever met an Indian person who was gay and Parvarti thinks that her parents' knowledge of gay people is pretty much restricted to Elton John, Martina Navratilova and the lesbian couple who run Birmingham Potions Supplies.
Which leads to the widespread impression that gay is something that Indians don't do. That's rubbish, Parvarti is certain, but it's taken quite a lot of effort to convince herself and she's not sure she can convince her parents. And grandparents. And her aunts, uncles and all their friends, some of whom aren't nearly as liberal as her parents.
The third reason Parvarti isn’t allowed to fancy Lavender is because that would make her a lesbian. Well, a lesbian or a bisexual, though the latter often seems to just mean that you make out with girls when you're drunk, and Parvarti thinks that her complete lack of sexual interest in men takes her out of that group.
The problem with being a lesbian is that Parvarti doesn't like labels. She's spent her whole life being Indian which can be trouble enough, especially when the Immigration people look at them suspiciously at International Floo terminals.
Being brown, male and under-forty means that her brother Paresh gets hassled all the time by Muggle police because apparently he fits the profile.
"That's what multiculturalism means, is it? They give us permission to be Indian on the condition we submit ourselves for demeaning searches," her dad complains.
"Give off dad, I know how to deal with it," mutters Paresh, shoving his hands deeper into his pockets.
Padma rolls her eyes and shoots Parvarti the look that means 'it's the because we're Indian talk, again', but Parvarti is proud of her dad.
The talks are his way of arming them against the hassle from officials or bitchy comments from some of the people at Hogwarts. If things in Britain have got better and nobody throws stuff at her grandma or jeers at their neighbours' turbans any longer, then it's because her parents' generation changed things. In her dad's case, probably by giving regular because we're Indian lectures to his workmates.
No, Parvarti doesn't need to be labelled and categorised any further, so she can do without being a 'lesbian' thank you very much. She was briefly tempted by the idea of being 'queer' - which seems to mean that you think fixed identities are stupid - but there's an irony in labelling oneself as someone who doesn't like labels.
For now she's just going to be Parvarti, who happens to be Indian. If Lav ever stops flirting with boys long enough to notice that Parvarti looks at her a bit longer, a bit more often, a bit more intently than is normal for a straight friend…
Well, if Lavender ever notices her or perhaps even does something about it, then Parvarti thinks they'll work something out.