[HPFGU-Movie] Re: Dudley Slimming down (was: something about Lupin)

Kriselda Jarnsaxa thorswitch at thunderhaven.net
Thu Sep 18 03:44:58 UTC 2003


Scully931 recently mentioned:

>I have thought from the beginning that the actor playing Dudley
>wasn't large enough. He just looks like a boy who has some baby fat.
>Really not at ALL the way he is described in the books. Perhaps they
>were worried about lawsuits from overweight people. (Sounds silly,
>but people will protest anything.)

And in some cases, with good reason.  (Not lawsuits, necessarily, in a 
situation like this, but I wouldn't blame people for otherwise expressing 
displeasure).

>  I never saw the problem myself. I
>mean, Neville was large and Harry and friends didn't make fun of
>him. And, Dudley was large because he ate so much - not because of a
>medical condition or something.

As someone who is fat, it's the one thing that has disappointed me about 
the Harry Potter series and the only thing about them I don't care for at 
all.  See, even though Rowling has Dudley being fat because he eats too 
much, in the real world, no one ever asks - they just assume that if you're 
fat it's because you ate too much, and even if you are someone for whom 
there are significant medical issues that have caused or contributed to the 
problem, there are an awful lot of people who flat out refuse to believe 
that's the case and will treat you as if you aren't entitled to any kind of 
courtesy or even your basic civil rights because you're fat and fat=bad. 
Rowling does nothing to help address this issue.  In fact, the few 
characters she has that are described as fat are almost always described 
using terms that focus on the person size as a grotesquery, and then uses 
that to help demonstrate how bad the character is - as if the two are 
somehow related.  She does it with Dudley, Vernon and now Umbridge.

The main reason why it bothers me so much is that I was fat as a child 
(I've ALWAYS been fat, and in my case, the majority of the problem truly IS 
related to metabolic and other medical issues), and the teasing and 
harassment I endured during that time was crushing.  On top of that, I've 
run into a number of people who just seem to assume right from the off that 
I'm going to be lazy and mean-spirited and treat me accordingly, before 
giving me any kind of a chance to show them what kind of person I 
am.  Rowlings use of obesity as a shorthand for "bad person" does NOTHING 
to help prevent that kind of bigotry, and, in fact, reinforces the 
stereotypes.  So now, these kids are going to be reading this book which, 
in so many ways, attempt to teach kids that prejudging others or hating 
someone because they're different (as in the mudbloods v. purebloods 
struggles), and then turns around and treats one class of people 
stereotypically, consistently negatively and  seemingly sending the message 
that it's "OK" to make such judgements and hold such attitudes aobut people 
if they're fat.

>focusing on his weight much in the movies. Which, is too bad,
>because some of the descritions in the book are hysterical. (And, I
>don't say that to be mean about overweight people - just Dudley
>because he's so mean.) Anyway, that's my opinion. :-)

And now you know mine :)


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