Possibly Unpopular Opinion on the Hot-Dudeness of Harry Potter in Fanfiction
WHY do people insist on changing Harry's appearance for no reason in fanfiction? He's got to always be some super buff (while simultaneously skinny/scrawny?) teenager who's over six feet tall and has long, flowing hair. No he isn't. No he doesn't. Where did this obsession with long hair = sexy dude come from anyway? Because I don't understand it. I don't know anyone who does. Harry having longer hair during the horcrux hunt? Okay, fine. They were in a tent. But that's the only time during the books that this is an acceptable situation to me. The buff-ness thing I don't understand. Yes, I think he is in shape. He clearly has to be, what with all the spell dodging and running away from psychopaths and so forth, but in shape does not equal Greek-god-bodybuilder-man. And yet, people seem obsessed with just arbitrarily changing him into some Fabio character sans birds-exploding-in-face. Stop it. Please stop this ridiculous trope. It's weird. It's unnecessary. It kind of creeps me out.
Harry can be a hero and be desirable to other characters while not being super tall or built like a brick wall, while having short sticky-outy hair instead of long flowing locks, while wearing glasses and probably having a bit of a case of chicken legs. I'm sorry, I thought that was part of the point. He wasn't supposed to be traditionally stud-like because most actual heroes aren't like gods. People can be attractive and have love interests (even attractive love interests!) without looking like they came out of a magazine ad or the cover of a romance novel. I'm pretty sure J.K. was making a point about this. So why, oh why, is fandom so dead set and tearing that point to shreds and forcing Harry Potter to conform to ridiculous beauty standards?
Stop it. It's not cool.
P.S. to everyone who does not do this: THANK YOU.
Harry can be a hero and be desirable to other characters while not being super tall or built like a brick wall, while having short sticky-outy hair instead of long flowing locks, while wearing glasses and probably having a bit of a case of chicken legs. I'm sorry, I thought that was part of the point. He wasn't supposed to be traditionally stud-like because most actual heroes aren't like gods. People can be attractive and have love interests (even attractive love interests!) without looking like they came out of a magazine ad or the cover of a romance novel. I'm pretty sure J.K. was making a point about this. So why, oh why, is fandom so dead set and tearing that point to shreds and forcing Harry Potter to conform to ridiculous beauty standards?
Stop it. It's not cool.
P.S. to everyone who does not do this: THANK YOU.