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Harry Potter (and other) books 'unfair' to fat kids?
By M&C News May 13, 2007, 11:16 GMT
Professor Jean Webb, from the children's literature research center at the University of Worcester, called for more balance in the way fat pupils are represented. She claimed that many books portray fat characters as mean and unpopular, and that this will have negative impact on our culture.
Many children’s stories, including Harry Potter to the Billy Bunter series, also depict the chubby kids as greedy, lazy and nasty.
"It's a delicate area and you must not marginalise particular groups," Webb said. She also claimed that the character of Dudley Dursley in JK Rowling's best-selling Harry Potter series was one example of how an overweight child is portrayed as bad. "Dudley is a fat little rotter and his fatness is presented as a moral failing," she said.
Judy Blume’s well-known book, titled Blubber, deals with an overweight girl who is picked on in school. In the sequel, the character then sheds her pounds and thereby gains many friends as well as a boyfriend. Some are saying this to be a negative example for young children.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
Dudley Dursley is not the only fat/chubby character in the Harry Potter series. Neville Longbottom is known to be chubby and is neither greedy, lazy nor nasty. It is unfair to say that the books categorise children as such.
Neville Longbottom, if anything, isn't popular due to the fact that he is clumsy and forgetful, almosy all of the time. Not because he bullies other children. This concept too, is not attributed to just chubby characters, as in Order of The Phoenix (the fifth book of the popular Harry Potter series) a new character is introduced, Nymphadora Tonks, who is woefully clumsy and is a young and slim. So in future it is safer to know all the facts, or at least some supporting facts, before making any hasty comments that can be proven incorrect.
Totally agree with you, theprince!
I was just about to write the same when I read your comment!
It's always been like this in children's literature - beauty equals goodness and ugliness = evil. This is a universal phenomenon.
If the PC movement wants to tackle this one as well, go ahead and waste your time. Up to now their millions of hours of forcefed diversity training have only led to more hostility.
Neville may be fat but he isn't mean, Nasty Or Lazy. Dudley is a pampered pig that overeats way too much and needs to be sent to a fat camp
page: 1
TimMay 13th, 2007 - 15:04:04
It's not merely his size that gains him ridicule; it's the fact that he eat and eats and is pampered.
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