Weight watching (was Dancing Dudley?)

[Amy Z <lupinesque@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 52432

David wrote:

> Sorry.  Keyboard running ahead of logic there.

Some of us just have minds too swift for the keys to keep up with all 
the steps.  ;-)

<analysis of Maxime snipped>

> I think Dumbledore is in part implying 'fat 
> can be sexy'.  Hence Dudley; many readers are uncomfortable with 
the 
> way his fatness is continually emphasised as something unpleasant, 
> and I see the germ of an alternative view.

I like!  And Maxime is described as "handsome" on at least two 
occasions, and not at all in a "despite her size" way but in a way 
that suggests, if anything, that her hugeness (code for "fat"?) is an 
asset.

"Harry had only ever seen one person as large as this woman in his 
life, and that was Hagrid; he doubted whether there was an inch 
difference in their heights.  Yet somehow--maybe simply because he 
was used to Hagrid--this woman (now at the foot of the steps, and 
looking around at the waiting, wide-eyed crowd) seemed even more 
unnaturally large.  As she stepped into the light flooding from the 
Entrance Hall, she was revealed to have a handsome, olive-skinned 
face . . . " etc. (15)

"Madame Maxime had drawn herself up to her full, and considerable, 
height.  The top of her handsome head brushed the candle-filled 
chandelier, and her gigantic black satin bosom swelled."  (17)

Neville is also coded as fat, btw--"round-faced."  I have trouble 
with JKR's attitude toward fat as seen in the way she writes Dudley, 
but she is definitely capable of creating an overweight character who 
is meant to be viewed with affection and respect.

Amy Z

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"Professor Dumbledore offered Dobby ten Galleons a week, 
and weekends off," said Dobby . . . "but Dobby beat him 
down, miss."      --HP and the Goblet of Fire 
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