Comments on Deeply Problematic: Harry Potter and the Neutrality of Fatness

This is an old article and I doubt this comment wi...

2011-04-09T18:41:42.212-04:00

This is an old article and I doubt this comment will be seen but I'd like to argue on the affront you took that Dudley's fatness is seen as abuse. Firstly, that comment was not solely about his fatness. Think of his character: spoiled rotten, throws temper tantrums when he only has thirty seven birthday presents, bullies eleven year olds, breaks public property. Do you think that maybe a firmer hand with him would have perhaps kept him from acting as such? Dudley's weight is the product of excess. His mother let him eat whatever he wanted and refused to listen to health professionals when they told her he was morbidly obese. Even if it is not abuse as we normally see it, it is still a most definitely shoddy method of parenthood when you favor their immediate happiness over their longterm health.

This is such an excellent study of the language in...

2011-02-28T11:28:46.834-05:00

This is such an excellent study of the language in these books! I just found this blog, and I really hope you post some more.

I think Dudley's size is meant mostly to illus...

2011-01-27T13:48:54.077-05:00

I think Dudley's size is meant mostly to illustrate how his parents allow him to have anything he wants. Of course, he then in turn uses the outcome bully other kids. I always saw it as less "fat kids are mean" as "his parents let him get away with everything."

For every fat and mean character in the book, I can think of a thin and mean character as well. Dolores Umbridge was pudgy and evil, Argus Filch was thin and mean, Draco Malfoy was thin and a bully, Crabbe and Goyle were fat and bullies, etc. etc.

It seems to me that Rowling used size as simply another attribute to each character, rather than letting size define whole characters. In the first book or two, this was not always so, but as the series progressed, even minor characters were given more and more layers of personal history.

This may also just be my memory failing me, but I can't remember explicit descriptions of Hermione's size from the books. We're constantly reminded of how skinny Harry is compared to his classmates (especially early in the series), but not much is made of Hermione other than the size of her hair. I find this interesting, given how focused society is on the size of girls' bodies.

I'd love to see further examination of book characters and their physical descriptions or their relationships with each other, in either the Harry Potter books or other series. It's not something that is always widely discussed (Twilight excluded).

Rhosymerda, first off, I am absolutely not saying ...

2011-01-26T23:15:16.880-05:00

Rhosymerda, first off, I am absolutely not saying that Rowling is "hating on fat people" at all in the series. Past the third and fourth paragraph, I make quite the opposite argument: I think that her writing of fat bodies is as a whole very positive.

I don't know how to counter your argument that JK didn't mean to associate his size and negative personality characteristics and that he just happened to be fat and it had nothing to do with his also being lazy and unhealthy. It is very clear to me that she used his size as shorthand for his shortcomings, and does so in exagerratedly stereotyped ways. Here is one example, from book one:

Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise.

The early books are filled with descriptions of just how very fat Dudley and Vernon are, and they are not meant to be nice. But, as I also noted in the fifth and sixth paragraphs, there are positive depictions in these early books.

And also, I don't think that Dudley using his size to enact violence is to his credit, at all. Dudley was using his size to bully, and bullying is crappy.

But again. I generally think highly of JK's writing of fat bodies. I would appreciate it if future commenters took note of this.

I agree that it's true that fat and thin shoul...

2011-01-26T22:40:32.707-05:00

I agree that it's true that fat and thin should be equally depicted negatively - that fat characters should be no more exempt from negative depictions than thin characters are. I think it's more Dudley's particular traits -- spoiled, lazy, gluttonous -- that RMJ points out as being particularly linked with fatness in outer society and notable here.

But, the whole point that RMJ seems to be making is that JKR did a good job with size depictions.
I don't think it's unfair to also point out that perhaps some of the books could have used improvements while others pushed the series into a positive mark on the literary world.

Personally, I found the early depictions a little Roald-Dahl-esque (someone who OFTEN uses size or beauty as a visual aid to persona), and I think in the beginning, when it wasn't as clear (or perhaps was too defined) where the books fell in terms of genre, it might have been that she took the characters less seriously. The first book made caricatures out of almost all the characters - enormous Dudley and Mr. Dursley, grotesquely thin Aunt Petunia (even the names are somewhat Dahl-like), Hermione with her buck teeth and frizzy hair, freckly redhead Ron. But as the books became more serious, less supernatural fun for children with light social satire, and more evocative of real horrors of the past, she managed to take these characters and make completely real rounded out human beings out of them, while introducing new ones that stayed within the same tone.

Wow, that got rambly!

2011-01-26T21:46:32.945-05:00

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