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. :-)

[pauraque]

it does bother me the way JKR has made most of her worst characters fat

Yeah, it's a troublesome element in her writing. And in a way, it's why it makes me so very annoyed when people buy into that unfair stereotype, and can't write those characters sympathetically without taking off the weight. I don't usually have that "stick it to the man" feeling when I write in JKR's universe -- "Ha! I'm subverting your intentions!" -- but in this case, I do. She's doing a thing I disagree with, and I like to see it undone by fans.

I'm not a fan of pretty!Snape either. His hair's greasy, let it stay that way.

[dphearson.livejournal.com]

I'm not a fan of pretty!Snape either. His hair's greasy, let it stay that way.

Remus: (looks at pillow, which is smeary)
Severus: What?
Remus: Nothing.

[pauraque]

Aw. Now that's love!

[fizzingpop.livejournal.com]

In Europe, in general, I don't think that weight is as big a deal as it is in the US. Europeans are catching up to the US in the vanity department, but for the most part, according to people I've spoken to from the area (my spanish professor, and a few friends from England), it's just not looked at the same way. Also, JKRs good characters (Harry, Hermione for example) aren't actually good looking. At least, they don't start off that way. (And yes, I realize that if HP grows up, she probably will have him be stunningly handsome, but for now, let's give her the benefit of the doubt). Hermione starts out with buck teeth, and bushy hair. While she does fix the teeth (as really, any teen would, if given the opportunity to change what they most loathe about themselves), after that one dance where Hermione cleaned up prettily (trying to impress a boy) she goes back to bushy hair. Harry isn't necessarily handsome, having messy hair and bony knees (at least, as far as a hero goes his look is un-orthidox). Look at Snape, who she seems to be subtly implicating as a good character (he usually ends up doing something good, which she seems to underline, as well as saying in that one interview that he's one of her favorite characters- along with the fact she seems to be trying to excuse, or at least give him a reason, for being so nasty- the bullying he endured. She takes an inordinate care with giving his motives, which she doesn't really bother to do with the other "evil" characters). And then look at Lucius, who is supposedly rather good looking in her books- the "pointy face" is rather an ambivalent way of describing a character. All in all, she really seems to be merely relying on stereotypes that most people- whether they want to admit it or not- possess. For example, in describing Nevilles pudgy-ness, she seems only to be trying to highlight his clumsy, hopeless sort of character- the type that teachers just sort of shake their heads over and do their best to teach. With Uncle Vernon, she's emphasizing his largeness in comparison to Harry, as though trying to give the reader a visual of how ridiculous and horrible and unfair it is that he is bullying HP. With Dudely, she's merely emphasizing his self-indulgence, and with Peter Pettigrew, she seems to be trying to show us the jiggly, unhappy boy he would have been. Or maybe I'm just talking out of the crack of my butt. But overall, it does seem to me she just uses weight as a method of conveying particular bits of the character's personality, giving it a physical characteristic.

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

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.

Funnily enough, that's why I was really hoping that Millicent Bulstrode was going to be a 'good' Slytherin in OotP.

I was a big, tall girl at the age of 12, completely capable of and willing to put my classmates in a headlock -- so I wound up identifying with her and being disappointed that JKR made her an Inquistorial goon.

Frankly, sometimes the way that Harry's perceptions are so shallows drives me up the wall and into subverting the authorial intention out of pure orneryness.

[wolfie-thu.livejournal.com]

There actually may be some hope for Millicent yet. In J.K.s notes here (http://www.hogwarts-library.net/reference/HarrysYear.html), it shows that Millicent is actually a half-blood. If this is the case, then perhaps (as I've seen others suggest), her joining the Inquisitorial Squad, and some of her exaggerated aggressive behaviour towards the Gryffindors, may be an attempt on her part to fit in with those in her House who wouldn't otherwise accept her. And that maybe, not being able to find acceptance among those who are sympathetic to Death Eaters, she might end up being a "good" Slytherin after all.

Or something.

Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but even so...*crosses fingers for Millicent*

[pauraque]

I always thought Millicent was rather charming for exactly that reason. She's not a giggly little simperer, she doesn't play the silly popularity games, and she'll kick your ass if you mess with her. What's not to like?

(Now I want to write Millicent/Hermione...)

[slinkhard.livejournal.com]

I don't know, I don't think being an Inquisitorial goon makes her 'bad' exactly...I mean, who's not going to jump at the chance at power over the 'popular' kids?

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

There's a big difference between having power and abusing it. Though with Umbridge as a sponsor, it would be hard to tell the difference.

It's not so much that she had power as an Inquistorial Squad, but that she decided to be a *goon* with it that upset me.

loong reply

[slinkhard.livejournal.com]

I guess I can understand why Umbridge seemed so attractive to Millicent, and all the Slytherins - I think even the strongest Gryffindor fan would agree the Slytherins are pretty neglected characters, both on a meta-level and in canon.
I mean, Snape 'favours' them unlike McGonagall and her Gryffindors, according to the narrative; but do we ever see Snape offering to help his students achieve their career aspirations? Or even awarding them points?

A lot of people branded the Slytherins 'evil' for associating themselves with bureaucracy but failed to see that Umbridge's petty 'play it by the book' insistence on rules was merely taking advantage of the flaws already inherent in the system.

It wasn't, for example, Umbridge's fault that the teaching standards at Hogwarts were mixed, at best, with students being injured under Hagrid's care, for example.
It wasn't Umbridge's fault that Harry and George failed to control their tempers post Quidditch, or that under the previous Head, a detention would have sufficed (this being McGonagall's prescribed punishment, not Dumbledore's. However, anyone think Dumbledore would have pushed for a harder punishment?)
Or that the students most likely to become Death Eaters were ignored by staff and close to failing academically (Crabbe and Goyle) whereas the popular Gryffindor students were allowed to run riot (the train hexings, for example.)

Anyway. This is a spammy response, but just my two cents. (I was ranting in my lj recently on this topic - http://www.livejournal.com/users/roxannelinton/26521.html)