Food and body image in the series

[tigerpatronus]

No: HPFGUIDX 68039

> > I absolutely love the books and think that JKR is a 
> genius....however, I have an issue with the way she writes about 
food > and body image.
> > As someone who has to eat healthily and exercise regularly to 
stay 
> the size I want, I find it very irritating that she portrays all 
> the "good"characters as eating unhealthily and not exercising, and 
> never being overweight.<SNIP>

> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "darrin_burnett" 
<bard7696 at a...> wrote:
> Harry and Ron do seem to have inferno-like metabolisms, especially 
> Ron. I seem to remember in GoF, a scene where Hermione tells 
Ron "YOU JUST ATE!" when he's scoring food from the House-Elves.
> <SNIP>
> Darrin

Yes, magic wands aren't the only fantasy in Potterland, but let's 
remember that many of these are also growing teenage boys. Ron in 
particular was noted to have had a growth spurt over the summer b/t 
GoF and OotP. In high school, back when we matched our socks to our 
turquoise shirts, a friend of mine grew something like 9 inches over 
3 months when he was 15, and he ate constantly. His parents 
discovered on more than one occastion that he'd eaten 2 full boxes of 
cereal and a gallon of whole milk during the night, and then he 
wanted breakfast because he was starving. He only gained 10 pounds 
when he grew those 9 inches, too. He was skinny, back when teenage 
boys were 6 feet tall and weighed 140 lbs. 

More on-topic: I have noted that most of the chubby people in JKR's 
world do tend to be selfish and mean, self-involved, if not ESE. 
Umbridge is noted as chubby, at least frog-shaped. Frogs are not 
svelte. Ditto for Ludo Bagman, formerly a DE. Hmmm. Crabbe and Goyle 
are described as being cubic. Molly Weasley, of course, is an example 
of someone who is good, kind, etc, and chubby. (Though the terrible 
thing she said to Sirius! Oh, my!) 

Of course, there are many ESE people who are thin as a rail, like 
Draco's mom Narcissa Black-Malfoy and Aunt Petunia Evans-Dursley, and 
Quirrel, and Tom Riddle. 

Obviously JKR doesn't have a fat-phobia, but she isn't being too PC, 
either. 

I lament the few female role models in Potterland. I'm not saying 
there are none, but women do tend to fall into the 
virgin/mother/crone stereotypes. There seem to be very few adult 
women who are shown as having both children and careers, while men 
who have both abound. 

TK -- TigerPatronus