Of cliches and characterisation

[*Lilith Morgana*]

No: HPFGUIDX 20456

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., catz109 at h... wrote:
> To be honest, I never even *thought* about half of these topics 
when 
> I first read the books. The fact that Dudley is fat, and the over-
use 
> of the word 'fat' in the books never even stuck in mind, let alone 
> the 'main characters are boys', and 'the bad boys are blond' 
> arguments. It's nice to have something to think about, but maybe 
most 
> of you are thinking about it a little too much?  

I'm not the right person to answer this really, since I haven't been 
a part of the discussion but I throw in some comments anyway. The 
fact that the main characters are boys was a reason for me to be VERY 
sceptical to the Harry Potter books in the first place, I waited 
until the third book was translated into Swedish (not long ago) 
before I reluctantly opened the first one and got stuck. It has 
bothered me that it's about boy's mostly because I'm cynical and 
educated enough in Gender Studies, Feminism and Political Strategies 
(yeah, you have your very own Feminist one the list!) to know that a 
book about Miss Potter wouldn't sell. In fact, it wouldn't get 
allowed to get published in most of the cases. Publishers tells their 
authors to avoid too many girls since that scares the boys off. 

It doesn't bother me that boys are the main characters, but it 
bothers me that the few girls JKR manage to put into the story is 
poorly stereotypical- don't get me started!

 
> There are some really interesting and plausible ideas, like snape 
is 
> a vampire etc...Which makes me wonder- when you lot first read the 
> books, did you just read it, and think "Oh no, that isn't right, 
JKR 
> called Dudley fat" or "How come the nerdy ones all wear glasses" 
and 
> the such like? Just interested.
> 

If you have survived nine school years of constant comments about 
your weight and the fact that you had to wear glasses, you *do* 
notice these things. People tend to be overly sensitive about things 
that comes close to their own "faults". I cursed JKR while reading 
about Dudley and Millicent Bulstrode because what she did, especially 
in Millicent's case, was sending her off with the description as ugly 
and fat and thereby also evil. Some Jewish people I know reacted 
negatively in the descriptions of Snape- crooked nose, dark, clever- 
and found him similar to the stereotypical Jew. 

I don't know, this is just the way people behave and react. All the 
time, not only because we overanalyse the HP books... 

> *~Rebekah~*

Lilith