Harry's looks (Was: Dark Book - Blood and Cruelty/ Draco)

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 177283

> Magpie:
> > I think this [Harry's physical attractiveness] probably is
> subjective--especially since we'll never really see him. What is 
fact
> is that whether he's classically handsome or not, he's certainly
> played as very attractive. He's been chased by various girls since 
he
> was 11 and by HBP his attractiveness has become comical with him 
being
> literally chased pretty much the way Cedric was. So he's certainly 
not
> living the 
> > life of an unattractive person. In fact, I would say "an 
ordinary 
> > boy with beautiful eyes" as you described him sounds like many 
> > women's idea of a dreamboat--far better than somebody who looks 
like 
> > a fashion model. 


> Carol responds:
> 
> "Various girls since he was eleven"? I count Ginny as one girl. In
> PoA, when he's thirteen, Cho (a fellow Seeker) starts to like him,
> with their mutual attraction developing in Gof and OoP, but that 
still
> makes only two girls. In GoF, girls are temporarily attracted to 
Harry
> as a TWT champion--the ones who aren't wearing "Support Cedric
> Diggory" badges want to go to the Yule Ball with him--but once the
> ball is over, things return to normal. In OoP, only Ginny and Cho 
are
> attracted to him (and many people, even Gryffindors, think he's a
> lying attention seeker).
 In HBP, after the MoM expedition (when
> everyone knows that Voldemort is back), Harry has a few new fans of
> the type who follow the unattractive but famous Viktor Krum around,
> chief among them Romilda Vane, and the desire to be escorted by 
Harry
> to Slughorn's party tempts some of them to talk about dosing him 
with
> love potion, but only Romilda actually attempts it. 

Magpie:
I said "since 11" because the fact is within Harry's story there's a 
girl who's hankering to get a look at him in the very first book. 
He's never completely without that within canon. I was not trying to 
suggest that Harry is so Drop Dead Gorgeous that girls are always 
following him throughout canon--that was even the point of what I 
said, not that Harry was conventionally the most handsome but that 
Harry lived the life of someone who was attractive (he can attract 
by more than just his bone structure, for instance). 

I was just showing that in fact as a character Harry spends all of 
canon drawing the eye, usually in an attractive way--as opposed to, 
say, Ron Weasley who is far more of an everyboy in that respect. 
Your qualifications for all of the times people are attracted to 
Harry can be true, but still what's the overview of Harry and girls? 
He's not got a problem in the area of attractiveness. The only times 
dating is an issue in canon Harry never has reason to worry about 
his looks. Whatever their reason, girls *are* dying to go to dances 
and parties with them whenever that comes up. Every time he has to 
date someone in canon--except for when he asks Luna intentionally 
wanting to subvert the idea of dating--he's going with exceptionally 
attractive girls. The prettiest girls of each year. Ginny, of 
course, is an exceptional prize, the girl all the other boys want 
but who wants Harry (and did before she met him).

You are dismissing people following him around for the wrong 
reasons, but that doesn't change the fact that people are following 
him around. You say "only one girl" actually attempts a love potion--
but how many people have anyone attempt to love potion them at all? 
You compare him to Viktor Krum, but Krum also has his pick of women 
whether or not he's attractive--and Krum, too, by the wedding seems 
to see himself as attractive to women. He may still not see himself 
as handsome, but he's attractive.

I mean, it just seems like having it both ways to say that yeah, 
maybe there are girls running after Harry and trying to get him 
under the mistletoe (iirc), or dosing him with Love Potion, or 
trying out for his Quidditch Team even if they're not in his house, 
or writing angry letters to the girl they think dumped him...but his 
features don't conform to movie star handsome so he can't be 
considered advantaged in this area. 

People have tried to do all these things to date him and be around 
him--he's attractive for whatever reason. Also his parents were 
attractive. James ruffles his hair when girls are watching and 
Lily's the Ginny of her generation. Harry isn't Sirius who's 
primarily striking in terms of looks, but he's also not got any 
trouble in that department that I can see. Adolescence seems mostly 
kind to him--he's skinny as a kid and looks pinched when he's going 
through his growthy spurt. That sounds fine to me. However, in 
Harry's case to this is added lots of other stuff that make him a 
rock star. Rock stars are often attractive whether or not one finds 
them handsome. So whether Harry would win an anonymous beauty 
contest competing against Brad Pitt or not he's dealt with being 
attractive in his life, not unattractive.

-m