Headline: Fat people discovered to have sex lives; world aghast.

[pauraque_bk]

ani_bester complains of InexplicablyThin!Peter, and I quite agree with her. Let him be fat. Let Neville and Dudley be fat as well, while you're at it. When you write these characters having sex, it isn't necessary to excuse yourself by pointedly noting a convenient over-the-summer weight loss.

That is all.

Comments

[vikingcarrot.livejournal.com]

Over-the-summer weight losses are terribly unrealistic in my opinion. Unless of course somebody's randomly decided to starve themselves, and they usually didn't start out fat.

That said-- hear, hear.

[gmth.livejournal.com]

This actually happened to a kid I knew in high school. When we left school in June, he was enormous. When we got back to school in September, he had lost about 100 pounds. I don't know how he did it, and thinking back on it now it was probably terribly unhealthy, but it does happen. He kept it off until we graduated, too. It was pretty amazing.

That said, I'm a very large woman myself and it does bother me the way JKR has made most of her worst characters fat. However, I say let them *be* fat, if that's what they are. So yeah, agreeing with you in a roundabout way. :-)

[scarah2.livejournal.com]

Here's a thought: Has anyone ever EVER read a fic where a skinny character suddenly got fat? And then had SEX?

OH I WANT IT.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

There's a fic by Aja in which Draco becomes fat, but I can't remember the title.

[wikdsushi.livejournal.com]

I wrote Snape/Harry once where Snape grew a pot belly and Harry thought it was the hottest thing in the world. Other than that, there's "King of Pain" (I don't have a link and can't remember the author, sorry), in which Harry put on a LOT of weight and was perfectly happy with it, though anorexic!Snape wasn't as keen.

Tempted to drop about 40 pounds on Hermione now and pair her off with the hottest girl in the school.

[pauraque]

ME TOO.

Also, I was just pondering the notion of prettying-up a character -- and then making them twice as unsympathetic as before.

[noblerot.livejournal.com]

Me, I've always had a soul boner for Fat!Snape.

[bruno-greengras.livejournal.com]

Ooh!
Do you have any links? :)

[deslea.livejournal.com]

Amen.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

Needed to be said.

[bruno-greengras.livejournal.com]

You know, it's crazy that one should even have to state this...
:/ Thanks for doing it.

[pauraque]

I read your post on this subject too, linked from ani_bester, and I appreciated it. Thanks for speaking up.

Word.

[aristide.livejournal.com]

This is high up there on the list of pet-peeves I have, if only for the fact that I've seen writers/artists of almost all ages doing it.
I always thought that 'image labels' and the like were something most people grew out of, in favor of more logical reasons to dislike some one, pity the fandom in general likes to prove me wrong.

Re: Word.

[pauraque]

Your icon is sick. I like it. :)

[scribbulus-ink.livejournal.com]

And now I feel smug that I've written several Harry/Neville and Remus/Neville stories, and he's always been described as not-thin. ;) He's round-faced, soft, and/or stocky, but he's not thin, and my Harry in particular tends to have a thing for bottoming for podgy!Neville. He gets off on feeling Neville's weight on top of him; it's like a comfort thing.

[pauraque]

He gets off on feeling Neville's weight on top of him; it's like a comfort thing.

Just so you know, that is really really sexy. :)

[switchknife.livejournal.com]

Amen to that. *nods*

Complete characters, human characters, are more erotic to me than laminated, manufactured poster boys and girls.

[pauraque]

As usual, you get right at the heart of the matter, and beautifully. I couldn't have put it better.

possibly irrelevant commentary

[millefiori.livejournal.com]

I think the description/conception of a person as 'fat' in a society as weight-obsessed as ours (and presumably the WW's, as well) is kind of relative.

I remember thinking I was huge and fat as a girl (huge b/c I started puberty early and absolutely towered over my classmates in elementary school--I *still* think of myself as being tall, even though I'm only 5'4"), and my family and friends seemed to agree with that self-assessment. I didn't suffer any cruel jokes or comments, but my family definitely supported the idea that my dieting or losing a bit of weight was a good idea. My younger sister (Melanie) *did* suffer cruelly, and was often called 'Melephant.' (Reminds me of 'Snivellus' actually). The thing is, *neither* of us were fat! Looking back at pictures taken during that time, we were healthy young girls, not skinny, no bones showing, but we weren't overweight by any stretch of the imagination. I would say we were closer to the line between normal and overweight than many of our peers and (given our weight obsessed culture), "you're fat" becomes an insult that can be used against anyone in that position.

So, for me, reading the HP text, I don't read 'pudgy' or 'round-faced' as fat--I read it as a kid who's not skinny (which may be splitting hairs, but I think you'll know what I mean). And I think because of my personal history, this is kind of my mindset with all written characters, unless the author specifically describes evidence of true obesity (as JKR does with Dudley).

Of course, all this has nothing to do with the idea of Skinny!Peter! My personal view of Peter is one of those kids who's just a little too plump to be 'normal.' (Perhaps because he's noticeably heavier than his constant companions.) It's like he's put on the pudge that many boys do in preparation for the massive growth spurts that come with adolescence, and then just didn't have the genetics to use it up. Given his description, I think writing or drawing him thin in order to make him more attractive is just another symptom of our weight-obsessed culture. And putting forth a 'makeover summer' to explain the changed appearance falls into the category of Hermione finally learning to tame her bushy hair into attractive ringlets, or Snape suddenly appearing with straight, white teeth and clean, silky hair, revealing that he's been disguising his appearance all this time. (My response to which is generally *laugh--yawn--backspace*.)

Re: possibly irrelevant commentary

[pauraque]

Melephant

God, that's horrible. It's bad enough how shabbily those who are *actually* fat are treated, without this trip that's laid on girls that anything more than "skinny" *is* fat.

I definitely get your point about how to take descriptions like "round-faced", and when there's vagueness like that, different reading are certainly valid. My opinion is that Neville (at least at the time of PoA) actually is fat, not because of the "round-faced" descriptor, but because when Harry imagines Peter (the "fat little boy"), he sees him looking like Neville. I think there are often euphemisms at play here -- people we like are round-faced, people we don't like are fat.

Of course, with JKR, you never know. You also have to take into account the vagaries of Harry's narrative voice.

[impinc.livejournal.com]

Dudley's over-the-summer weight loss is canon. :)

[pauraque]

True, but he still isn't *thin* afterwards. That, I think, would be extraordinary. But of course, you are correct. I defer to canon in all things. :)

It's also canon that Peter can lose a lot of weight quickly when under stress, so I certainly don't insist on his being fat as an adult. But it still irritates me if I think the author is doing it to "pretty him up" rather than because they know their canon back to front.

[switchknife.livejournal.com]

Eo, Eo! Have you read this (http://www.livejournal.com/community/queerditch_pub/19606.html?thread=693654#t693654) yet? Voldemort/Peter! Peter with thinning hair! Peter terrified at tenderness!

--Erm. Right. Sorry for spamming you with recs.

[pauraque]

Squee! No, I hadn't seen it, thanks for pointing.

A rec from you could never be considered spam. :)

[i-smile.livejournal.com]

Right! Chicks dig Peter, and he doen't have to be skinny for that. Peter! :D

And it might even have been canonically contradicted, but I'd always pictured Hermione as slightly pudgy, too (If you're a know-it-all dentist's kid with big teeth, there're better things for kids to make fun of than a little fat), and everyone writes her in sex.

[pauraque]

I don't think anything is mentioned about Hermione's weight, so I always pictured her being about average. (Which, sadly, is often considered "not skinny enough" for girls.) Certainly with more body fat than Emma Watson, who's quite thin these days.

[dphearson.livejournal.com]

*loves you*

[http://users.livejournal.com/_hannelore/]

Just adding another "hell, yes."

[wolfie-thu.livejournal.com]

People make Peter out to be thin? Huh...well, I shouldn't be surprised; the only character who I haven't seen prettified in fan stuff so far is Hagrid. Though I'm sure that if I looked hard enough I'd find a Hagrid who, over the course of the summer, tames his hair into shimmering locks of ebony, takes speech lessons to acquire a voice like a thousand nightingales in spring, and starts dressing in black leather lace-up trousers and silk shirts.

And on a personal note, chubby boys get me randy. And "ugly" people are often more interesting (to look at). Which is one of the reasons I don't like Rickman as Snape.

Oh, and this reminds me, I've been meaning to ask you, pauraque, a question about a post I've been thinking about making on snapesupport (hope you don't mind me asking you this here). I've been meaning to start a bit of a discussion on the "prettifying" of Snape that goes on in fandom; I know that the snapesupport community is meant mainly for those who write Snape, but could I possible address some of the common fanart cliches as well?

[pauraque]

chubby boys get me randy

Since we're sharing: me too. :)

And yes, go for it with the fanart post! With my blessing.