muggle baiting vs. muggle torture

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 155331

Rebecca:
> 
> IMO, Dudley didn't have to pick up the toffee and eat it.  He did 
so because 
> he is a glutton which, if I'm not mistaken, is one of the 7 deadly 
sins in 
> some circles. Choices, choices, they do come to mean something, 
don't they?

> They're experimenting, not torturing, and they only 
> tempted a gluttonous Dudley. Why someone would pick up something 
that fell 
> out of someone's pocket he didn't know and put it in his mouth is 
beyond me, 
> but hey, to each his own :)

Ceridwen:
I've been on diets.  The last one was a diabetic diet when I had 
gestational diabetes with my lastborn.  I would have killed for that 
piece of candy!  The book mentions that everyone in the Dursley 
household is on a near-starvation diet for Dudley's health, not that 
either Harry or Petunia need it!  But, when I was on my diet, I 
cooked the diet food for everyone.  It's much easier than hanging out 
a shingle for a restaurant where everyone gets to choose his or her 
own menu.

And, the twins knew about the diet, which is why, I think, they used 
the candy to tempt Dudley.  My husband and eldest son would sit there 
while I was on that diet and eat M&Ms and cupcakes in front of me.  
Believe me, diets are the pits, and people who are on them really do 
have more issues about sweets than people who can have sweets at any 
time and choose to just walk away.  Many diet sites will advocate 
a 'naughty day' where people can break their diets so they won't 
break down and fall completely off the wagon in a splurge of 
binging.  The diabetic diet is different, of course, there are 
physical discomforts and dangers from breaking the diet.  For 
instance, I got dizzy from drinking half a cup of eggnog that 
Christmas.

Try tempting a dieting friend with candy and see what happens.  If 
the friend has been on the diet for any length of time without 
a 'naughty day', he or she will at the least wonder why you did it.  
Dieting isn't pleasant for an adult, and it's darned hard for a child.

Dudley's weight, signalling his parents giving in to his wants the 
way they do, is probably part of what Dumbledore meant when he said 
the Dursleys had abused Dudley.  They had to go to extreme measures 
to see to his weight before it became a serious health issue, and he 
still gets whatever he wants - see the tantrum about how many 
presents he got for his birthday in POA, for an instance.

Still, tempting someone on a strict diet with candy is not nice.  The 
twins, at sixteen, may not think of that, they may just think it's 
fun to bait Dudley (which is what it is, they're baiting Dudley in 
particular by the method, knowing he's on a diet) without thinking of 
how it *might* also be Muggle-baiting.  They're young, too.  Arthur 
was right to admonish them for it.  That's his job as their father, 
to teach them shared social and familial values.

I do think the twins were baiting Dudley.  Maybe not as a Muggle per 
se, but as a fat boy they don't like who is on a diet.  
Understandable since they're kids, but not nice, and not something 
they should carry over into adulthood.

Ceridwen.