There's Always Molly Weasley
J.K. Rowling can come over and sit by us. Sort of.
"After the [British Book Awards] I bumped into a woman I hadn't seen for nearly three years. The first thing she said to me? 'You've lost a lot of weight since the last time I saw you!'
'Well,' I said, slightly nonplussed, 'the last time you saw me I'd just had a baby.'
What I felt like saying was, 'I've produced my third child and my sixth novel since I last saw you. Aren't either of those things more important, more interesting, than my size?' But no – my waist looked smaller! Forget the kid and the book: finally, something to celebrate!”
I applaud her ideals, but I think Rowling should put her money where her mouth is. When I think of her novels and the issue of fat, I think of Harry's fat aunt blowing up like a balloon, the Fat Lady portrait and associated fat jokes, and the piggish Dudley. And she wonders why fat is considered such an evil? I mean I love the Potter to an unreasonable degree, but still. Am I missing something?
Maybe in book seven, Harry Potter and the Hard-to-find Old Things, she can write in an overweight character who isn't Delores Umbridge, a giant, or a Dursley.
"After the [British Book Awards] I bumped into a woman I hadn't seen for nearly three years. The first thing she said to me? 'You've lost a lot of weight since the last time I saw you!'
'Well,' I said, slightly nonplussed, 'the last time you saw me I'd just had a baby.'
What I felt like saying was, 'I've produced my third child and my sixth novel since I last saw you. Aren't either of those things more important, more interesting, than my size?' But no – my waist looked smaller! Forget the kid and the book: finally, something to celebrate!”
I applaud her ideals, but I think Rowling should put her money where her mouth is. When I think of her novels and the issue of fat, I think of Harry's fat aunt blowing up like a balloon, the Fat Lady portrait and associated fat jokes, and the piggish Dudley. And she wonders why fat is considered such an evil? I mean I love the Potter to an unreasonable degree, but still. Am I missing something?
Maybe in book seven, Harry Potter and the Hard-to-find Old Things, she can write in an overweight character who isn't Delores Umbridge, a giant, or a Dursley.
posted by mo pie at 10:32 AM
10 Comments:
No not the Dursleys. I was thinking of Aunt Marge from the third book.
It's extra annoying that the fat people are also quite ugly (well, except Mrs. Weasley perhaps). Why can't the fat people be beautiful (even if they're evil)? That drives me NUTS in stories and movies. Why couldn't Cinderella's stepsisters be ugly on the inside...okay, I digress...
As WMC points out, Mrs. Weasley is described as pretty (especially in Mr. Weasley's eyes). As a person (half) of color, one thing I've learned is that people sometimes don't know that what they're doing is derogatory or discriminatory until it's pointed out (gently, please!) -- just because they haven't ever had to deal with that particular problem/issue in their life. (Of course, the deliberately rude and cruel get the SMACKDOWN with the quickness.)
So if it were me, I'd invite Ms. JKR for tea & scones and point it out over the second scone or so. IMO, she gets props just for being a single mom doing her first draft on napkins, having charmed the shopkeeper into letting her hang out without refills when tea shops & the like make their money by people volume.
There was a version of Cinderella that I saw, a TV movie version I think, where the step sisters were very beautiful, in the tall, slender model way, Cinderella was more petite and pixie-ish, so they made it more about the fact that she didn't look like THEM, so they called her ugly. It was great.
Also in Ever After, there are two stepsisters. One of them is drop-dead beautiful (but evil) and the other one is (although not fat) mocked for being fat/greedy by her evil family but turns out to be one of the good guys and turns the tables on them in the end. Man, I loved that movie. The second stepsister was played by Melanie Lynsky, who was so awesome in Heavenly Creatures.
That's kind of nice, but I wish she would have put the woman in her place. Then maybe I would read one of her books.
Also, this is a link from JKR's own site, where she actually has some pretty progressive views on the subject:
http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/extrastuff_view.cfm?id=22
I would have posted this yesterday but I just saw it today. Anybody want to teach me how to tag this so you all can just click on it?
I agree that Dudley is a pretty unpleasant fat-is-shorthand-for-greedy-and-ugly portrayal, but I never saw anything wrong with the Fat Lady. I wanted to be the Fat Lady for Halloween, but couldn't figure out how to attach the frame so as to have my hands free. She's sweet and kind of dim, and prone to hysteria. Is the offensive thing supposed to be that she's referred to as "fat"? Because I don't mind that. If there's something I'm missing, please do point it out.
when i read the Harry Potter books, i see the evil people being written as ugly and the beautiful people being written as good because thats their character. Draco Malfoy is considered attractive by the students in slytherin, but what seems unnatractive about him to the reader is the sneer that he has and his unnatractive personality. Dudleys fatness portrays how spoilt he is by his mother and father and Harrys skinniness is in contrast to this as it reflects the different ways the two boys get treated in the Dursley house, Dudley is round and well fed, he has bacon and eggs for breakfast every morning and is greedy for sweets, Harry is skinny and undernourished and gets no treats. JKR is not saying that fat people are evil but distinguishing between the two characters and how they are treated in the Dursley household by portraying it in their physical appearance. But fat is not portrayed as being a bad thing because Molly is shown to be like Harrys Replacement mother.
Also, Neville Longbottom is rotund and not portrayed negatively or teased for being fat by the protagonists - it's hardly ever remarked on. And unlike real school, the round-faced Hannah Abbott doesn't take any onscreen shit - even from Slytherins - about being round, either (I won't say "fat" because we don't get enough of a body description on her).
Also, was Aunt Marge described as fat before the Swelling Charm, or was that just the movie? I can't remember. I just remember her being horrible, not her physical description.
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