[the_old_crowd] The Great Weight Debate (pretty much OT)

[Kat Macfarlane]

Thanks be to the Goddess that I've arrived at the age where everyone I know who is skinny is that way because of some unpleasant medical condition (IBS, anyone?), and my friends are my friends not because of their dress size but because of what's in their brains and their hearts.

Rant on, Ginger! You and JKR speak for me.

--Gatta, who'd rather be a good cook than a size 2

  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?  







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