The Great Weight Debate (pretty much OT)

[quigonginger]

Ginger here. 

I posted my canon-based thoughts on TOL, so I'm going to do my 
personal rant here.  

As most of us are aware (and may even have read), JKR had some things 
to say on her site (under Extras, if anyone is still trying to find 
it) about weight and society's perceptions.

Anyone who has met me (ok, that would just be JoAnna) knows I'm about 
as far from svelt as a person can be.  I don't just tip the scales, I 
send them through the floorboards.

I've always been that way, and have been known as The Whale, Thunder 
Thighs, BuffaloButt, Cavemama, and other things I won't print here as 
they are actually nasty.

Are JKR's comments going to influence us here in any way?  Heck, no.  
We're adults.  Our minds have been pretty well set about things like 
that.  Either we pity our portly brethern and sistern, or we have no 
time for the hogs.  None of us are about to think "gee, JKR says we 
shouldn't judge a tome by its cover, so maybe I should start being 
kind to the gravitationally challenged".

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a middle ground in the way 
people think.  I put on almost 100 in the last few years as a side 
effect of medication.  In the 9 months I've been off it, I've lost 
almost 40, but I tell you, when I see a skinny chick eating a 
cheeseburger, I just about want to shove my celery somewhere it would 
hurt.  Believe me, I have noticed that an increase or decrease in 
weight influences how even the closest of friends and relatives treat 
you, whether they realize it or not.  Don't get me started on my 
mother.

So what's the point of JKR's little homily?  Not to change the minds 
of those who are already whispering "be-LOO-ga" under their breaths 
(or above them) when they see a blimp go by.  That may have been her 
intention, but it ain't gonna work.  What good can it do?  Why is she 
wasting several inches of type that could be better devoted to 
whether Snape now prefers boxers or briefs?  Who can possibly benefit?

Well, JKR herself was an outsider as a child.  IIRC, she described 
herself as a "swotty little know it all" or some such thing.  Not the 
same as being fat, but she was ostricized as a child, and ostricized 
is ostricized no matter what size your ostri.  So if somewhere out 
there in cyberland is a heifer who reads the Potter books as an 
escape and has come home from school after a bad day of teasing, and 
sits down at her computer with a vat of Ben and Jerry's and sees that 
JKR herself thinks that brains and character are more important than 
appearance, it may have a positive effect on her.  JKR was an avid 
reader as a child.  Perhaps she feels that some strong words from her 
favourite author would have salved the wounds of adolescence and 
wants to confer that onto the children who read her books.  More 
power to her, I say.

Better to light a single candle, set your hair on fire, and have 
something serious to bitch about than to curse the darkness.

I say if she wants to rant, let her rant.  She's paying for the space.
I get my rants for free.  Thanks to you all for that.

Ginger
Has anyone seen my celery?