What does your body say about you?

[sammason]

I like this blog post about fictional bodies. If I had access to tell the author that I'm linking to the post here, I'd do that. Please do that if you want to

Comments

[nakedfaery]

That's really interesting, because the fat ridicule thing just didn't even permeate my consciousness. It's such a common thread in all kinds of media that I'm actually used to it :-/

That makes it doubly odd that there's a meme on Facebook which I frequently see, using a quote of hers. Which purports to be said by somebody 'fat positive'.

[lakmiseiru]

... I also didn't even pick up on it in the Harry Potter series. I was a teenager at that point, and certainly had never run into the body-positive movement per se, even though Mom was overweight and that was definitely okay and I'd had plenty of messaging that all bodies were good.

But yes, the examples in the blog post about how JKR uses bodies as metaphor are... disgusting, to be honest.

As a contrast, I enjoyed (but couldn't finish) Stephen R. Donaldson's series, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant; here the character's leprosy is a central theme in the series, and his resulting self-hatred and mental illness as well, but I didn't find them objectionable, because they aren't really tied to moral judgments about his character.

[lakmiseiru]

Also, to add - this reminds me a lot of the moralizing of disabled bodies, i.e. the idea that someone's moral character could be read in their body (pretty people are virtuous, ugly people are villians, disabled people are monsters). Although it's not addressing disabled bodies in particular (though extreme obesity can certainly be disabling, and many disabled folks are at varying weights due in part to meds, mobility issues, etc), it's the same idea, just repackaged into a more socially acceptable framework...

[sammason]

Why did you stop reading that series?

[lilacsigil]

I remember back in the days of JKR's text-only site, someone asking JKR about fat characters (in particular Vernon, Dudley and Aunt Marge) being portrayed as greedy and unpleasant. This was shortly after she had made a post about the importance of body image in girls and young women. She was very waffly about it and said that Neville and Professor Sprout were also fat and good characters; and that there were also unpleasant thin characters such as Rita Skeeter. However, Professor Sprout is only briefly described as "stout" and Neville isn't described as any particular body type at all in the books; and there's no greedy thin people.

[amamama]

Is it, really? I don't think that's evident at all. To me, Dudley being fat and Harry skinny was a way of showing Dudley got it all, Harry nothing. In a way Dudley is abused too, he's not growing up in a loving environment. He's not taught how to be a well rounded person. The roundness is only in his physique, not in his personality. Petunia otoh is no less mean than her husband and son, maybe even more so, and she's definitely skinny.

[sammason]

Remembering the books I read in the Potter series (the first few: then I stopped) I don't recall any remark on Dudley's being abused. Yes, he's an abused child. I think Rowling should have mentioned that, or had a character mention it.

[cabbagemedley]

I vaguely remember that in one of the later ones, Dumbledore says something to the Dursleys about how the harm they've inflicted on Harry is minor compared to the harm they've inflicted on Dudley.

[sammason]

Really? Oh good!

[haggis]

Red hair and big breasts - I discovered by reading novels that I am slutty and worldly. If I was a brunette, I might think deep thoughts and if I was blonde I might be beautiful but in either case, the breasts would have to go - a woman’s seriousness is inversely proportional to her breasts.

[plasticsturgeon]

That was a great article! I hate it when they turn people's bodies into symbols of their character, because it inevitably leads people to think real people's bodies are the same. I can't tell you how many times I've been harassed by people determined to seize on some tiny action or aspect of my appearance and turn it into a symbol of My Sinful Nature. One time I was literally pedaling an exercise bike at the gym when a song came on on the overhead speaker. I said something to the guy next to me about how it was too bad that McDonald's had bought the right to use that song for their commercial because now it was ruined for me. He said, "Well, maybe you shouldn't go to McDonald's all the time!"

Just so you know, "obesity" is not generally used without quotes by the fat-positive community, since, like "homosexual," it's strongly associated with medicalized bigotry. We usually say "fatness" or, in that context, just "size" would make sense.