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I'm def gonna bring this up in class if I have a chance, but did any of y'all take issue with JK's characterization of all the "bad" characters in HP? I never realized this as a kid, but she so heavily relies on the "ugly/unattractive = bad" trope that it honestly gets on my nerves. With Dudley and Vernon Dursley, she's constantly got this "hahahha they're fat" joke going on, and also with Crabbe (and Goyle maybe?) and countless others. Aunt Petunia is "horse-faced," and Pansy Parkinson has a "face like a pug."
That's not to say JK constantly mary-sues the physical appearance of all of the more positively-portrayed characters, but what's Harry's "untidy jet-black hair" and "knobbly knees" and Hermione's "bushy brown hair" (not really even all that negative anyway) to how JK portrays the Dursleys + co. and so many of the Slytherins? (Not to mention Hermione ends up as an example of the "beautiful after all" trope when she shows up at the Yule Ball. Not every heroine has to be secretly -- if not overtly -- a hottie :///) It also doesn't super help that, in the movies, the main cast is hella cute while the "villains" tend not to be.
This isn't a legit article (it's a Quora post) but here's someone who contends that Harry (and by extension, JK Rowling) isn't fat-shaming Dudley/the Vernons. Thoughts?
That's not to say JK constantly mary-sues the physical appearance of all of the more positively-portrayed characters, but what's Harry's "untidy jet-black hair" and "knobbly knees" and Hermione's "bushy brown hair" (not really even all that negative anyway) to how JK portrays the Dursleys + co. and so many of the Slytherins? (Not to mention Hermione ends up as an example of the "beautiful after all" trope when she shows up at the Yule Ball. Not every heroine has to be secretly -- if not overtly -- a hottie :///) It also doesn't super help that, in the movies, the main cast is hella cute while the "villains" tend not to be.
This isn't a legit article (it's a Quora post) but here's someone who contends that Harry (and by extension, JK Rowling) isn't fat-shaming Dudley/the Vernons. Thoughts?
