[HPforGrownups] Food and body image in the series

[Pinguthegreek]

No: HPFGUIDX 68017


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Beth Currie 
  To: HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Monday, July 07, 2003 10:52 AM
  Subject: [HPforGrownups] Food and body image in the series


  Hi all


  Look at what HRH eat in a typical Hogwarts day.  Breakfast - bacon &
  eggs, with lots of toast.  Lunch - steak & kidney pie, followed by
  rhubarb crumble.  Dinner, perhaps a roast followed by another stodgy
  dessert.  Not to mention the endless bags of Every Flavour Beans and
  other sweets.

  Now me :
  This is the kind of food that would be served at a traditional English boarding school. 

  The portrayal of Dudley and his weight problem also bugs me.  We hear
  how overweight he is, yet when he is forced to diet, all we hear about
  is Harry sneaking upstairs after eating his grapefruit to have a "proper
  breakfast" of cake.  I don't think this is sending out a good message to
  young readers about healthy eating.  Also, when Fleur complains about
  the heavy Hogwarts food, she is dismissed as being vain and shallow.

  Me again :
  Generally,  it has taken a long time for the healthy eating message to get through. Don't forget that the Wizarding World is portrayed overall as being anachronistic !

  I think that it's important to remember the setting of these books. Like I said,  healthy eating is a concept that is only just filtering through in the last five to ten years in the UK.  The less healthy options just give us the greater sense of how different the wizarding world is to our one. 


  Michelle
  Michelle


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