Food and body image in the series

[Kirstini]

No: HPFGUIDX 68020


 
Beth wrote
:>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.<snip> 
>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 (Kirstini): The  thing is, though, she's not trying to preach to 
children about healthy eating, or really, about anything else. While 
the series may have a moral message (racism=bad), it is certainly 
not delivered in a preachy way. I think this is one of the reasons 
that the series is so successful with children. Hogwarts is a 
fantasy, and the children eat the sort of things children would eat 
were they offered a wand and an unlimited choice. It's stodgy 
comfort food, and it's mentioned in terrific detail because the 
effect eating comfort food can have on you is celebrated within all 
the dining scenes. Fleur, on the other hand, is a teenage girl, and 
teenage girls tend to be predominately concerned with bodily image. 
This can often seen mystifying to younger siblings (the role that 
the dinner-table setting places HRH in), who are usually more 
concerned with stuffing their faces and enjoying that feeling. 
Someone a couple of months ago wrote a Rabelaisian reading of HP, 
including fantastic analysis of bodily functions and the sensual 
pleasures of eating. However, as the search engine is giving me no 
love today, I can't find it. Can anyone remember who it was by?
Besides, I'm certainly not Dudley-shaped, and I don't consider a 
quarter of a grapefruit, or a little mound of cottage cheese with 
grated celery to be a healthy meal in any way. Had the starvation 
diet not been offset with illicit cake, I would have been more 
worried about the sort of message that sent out to children - 
particularly pubescent and pre-pubescent young girls (lose weight by 
starvation...)
 Bacon and eggs every morning isn't really my thing, but given the 
choice I'd definately go for that. 

Kirstini. Hungry.