Portrayal of Dudley (was FAT)

[hfakhro at nyc.rr.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 20423

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Amy Z" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:
> And yet with Dudley she can't stop calling him "fat," again, like 
kids 
> who can't let a pudgy classmate walk by without snorting like 
pigs.  
> That's what disturbs me.
> 
> There are three occasions I can recall where someone makes fun of 
> someone else's weight:  Harry calling Dudley "a pig in a wig," 
Draco 
> calling Mrs. Weasley "porky" and Pansy calling Neville a "fat 
> crybaby."  In two of the three cases, we're clearly supposed to 
side 
> with the pudgy person.  With Harry, I can't blame him--I called my 
> bullying sister worse things than that and she wasn't nearly as 
nasty 
> as Dudley--but I wish it weren't there because I'd like to be able 
to 
> point out the moral lesson to kids, e.g. "Making fun of people's 
> weight is a really Slytherinish thing to do).  (They'd just sigh 
and 
> groan and tell me to get on with the story anyway.)
> 
> hfakhro wrote:
> 
> >This really bothered me too, especially when I was reading GoF. 
That 
> >was when Dudley was forced on a diet, and when the twins played a 
> >prank on him with the toffee. I thought Harry was awful for 
laughing 
> >at him then (at least, it keeps us knowing that he's not perfect.)
> 
> Arthur accuses the twins of Muggle-baiting and they protest that 
that 
> isn't what they were doing.  I think the following exchange works 
just 
> as well if one accuses them of being cruel to Dudley because he's 
> obese:
> 
>     "We didn't give it to him because he's [fat]!"
>  said Fred indignantly.
>     "No, we gave it to him because he's a great bullying
>  git," said George.  "Isn't he, Harry?"
>     "Yeah, he is, Mr. Weasley," said Harry earnestly.
> 
> He =is= a great bullying git, and Harry has been systematically 
> tormented by him for most of his life.  If anyone deserves to be 
> amused by Dudley's unpleasant experience, it's him.  I feel sorry 
for 
> Dudley, here and elsewhere--parents who raise their children to be 
> spoiled bullies are doing them no favors--but I was rather touched 
by 
> the evidence that Fred and George have been paying attention to 
> Harry's descriptions of life with the Dursleys these past three 
years.

I agree with all your points here... I remember when I read GoF, I 
was very touched by the twins' coming to pick Harry up, and don't get 
me wrong I love the twins in general. I think they're absolutely 
lovely to Harry throughout the books. I think their heart was in the 
right place with that prank, (they've heard about what a bully Dudley 
used to be with Harry - why not test out Wizard Wheezes on him, 
right?) I never questioned the twins' motives. My problem is that I 
actually kind of agree with Arthur Weasley here. I hope JKR addresses 
the question of muggle/wizard relations closely in the future, 
because I think it's an important lesson for Harry and for the 
readers. (Maybe Harry doesn't need that lesson though... I think he's 
pretty sensible about muggles in general, but that's a different 
topic.)

OK remember in book 1, Hagrid insults Dudley the minute he sees him 
(something like, "shove up, you great lump") and then proceeds to 
give Dudley a pig's tail? And they have to go to hospital to get it 
removed? Then in book 3, Harry blows up Dudley's aunt, and in book 4, 
he gets "ton-tongued". Dudley is *terrified* of wizards and magic, he 
goes around holding his backside to prevent future attacks similar to 
Hagrid's. Now I'm not questioning Hagrid or the twins for this 
behaviour, because I think their motives are pure; they do it out of 
defense of Harry. And I agree that Harry himself is justified in 
laughing at Dudley because of all the abuse he tolerated from him 
growing up. What I was trying to say in my not-very-well-written 
post, was that I hope JKR is going somewhere with this portrayal of 
Dudley. The fact that she has said in an interview that she feels his 
childhood is just as scarred as Harry's in some ways gives me hope 
that she will do that. Because I think Dudley is a product of 
something else (the Dursleys' questionable parenting), and I think 
she needs to address that and his personality. I think he shouldn't 
be laughed at, and tricked by people he is terrified of, rather it 
should be the Dursleys themselves who get attacked for what they've 
produced. And I agree that Dudley being fat is overly emphasised, and 
therefore I think (hope?) there is a reason for that - hopefully 
we'll find out in the upcoming books. Does that make sense? I guess 
it also shows JKR's genius in that in reality, it is the kids who get 
laughed at for their parents' mistakes, and I find that cruel. Even 
Harry himself gets ridiculed by the Dursleys for being abnormal, even 
though he can't help that he was born into a wizarding family.

I guess another way of looking at it is through the portrayal of 
Draco. How many people get sick of the way he is portrayed in the 
books? I know that in fanfiction Draco-redemption is a popular theme, 
because people believe that he is too one-sided. His father's a bully 
therefore he's a bully. Same goes for Vernon and Dudley - they're 
both ignorant and they're both bullies. My take on this is that for 
all of JKR's "it's about your choices and not your abilities" (and by 
extension, your background) morals, she seems to fail (so far) with 
the portrayal of Dudley and Malfoy. She makes them both out to be 
exactly like their families, stereotypically bad/ignorant. Even 
better examples of this are Crabbe and Goyle. (How on earth are they 
in 'cunning' Slytherin if they're so stupid?!) I'm not saying that 
this is not going anywhere; I think she knows exactly what she's 
doing with these characters. I'm just saying that so far I don't like 
the way they are written because they encourage the bad/good 
stereotypes that I think these books generally do a marvellous job of 
avoiding.

My thoughts are not fully formed on this yet and I didn't get much 
sleep last night so I am slightly muddled, but I would be interested 
in hearing people's reactions to this...