[HPforGrownups] FAT

[Robert Carnegie]

No: HPFGUIDX 20308

06/06/01 15:17:10, Barbara Purdom <blpurdom at yahoo.com> wrote:

>
>--- Melanie Brackney <ilovbrian_99 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> 
>> I'm just going to put my 2 cents in here on this.  I
>> am going back to something my educational psych
>> teacher said, when you like a person there
>> appearance does not mean as much to you.  For
>> example, we love Mrs. Weasley the fact that she is a
>> plump women is often forgotten or just not really an
>> issue.  Dudley obesity only is an issue because we
>> do not like his character.  If we loved Dudley then
>> it wouldn't matter what he weighed.  It just is
>> realistic..on the part of JKR to place so much
>> emphasis on appearance with Dudley.
>> 
>> Melanie
>
> Perhaps the implication is that Molly is not vain and
>does not spend her life trying to be thin and
>fashionable.  OTOH, Dudley's weight is illustrative of
>his personality--his piggishness and selfishness. 
>Molly is so focussed on other people, she seems to
>have forgotten about taking care of herself, whereas
>his piggy self is ALL Dudley cares about.  Ironically,
>their physiques suffer the same consequences.

Re "taking care of herself" - being overweight is dangerous - for Muggles; we can end up with diabetes, heart disease, stroke.  I think wizards 
have a different constitiution, though - tougher - so it doesn't matter to them.

Dudley's obese, and also, to us, unappealing - but he's also popular: he has friends (who aren't fat), and when he and Harry are at school 
together, everyone they know is Dudley's friend, no one is Harry's.  Harry's the one who's bullied.  Just a thought; in real life, I guess it does tend 
to go the other way around.

I think I wouldn't recommend boarding school to anyone over the alternatives.  Dudley probably goes on to have a lousy time at Smeltings that 
we don't know about.

An incontinent appetite isn't an attractive character trait, although it's a hard one to get rid of - I know, mine's only stalemated.  It gets harder 
with age - which doesn't apply to Dudley, of course.  And incontinence, or poor education of the palate in children, _is_ (together with 
inadequate exercise) the primary cause of overweight.  If Mrs Dursley is proud of her cooking - cooked breakfast and all that - and if she feeds 
Dudley like an athlete, in the face of evidence -

Cooked breakfast reminds me, I have enough calories in hand tonight for a supper of porridge.

Robert Carnegie
Meretricious!