satyromane:

“I mean, is ‘fat’ really the worst thing a human being can be? Is ‘fat’ worse than ‘vindictive’, ‘jealous’, ‘shallow’, ‘vain’, ‘boring’ or ‘cruel’? Not to me.”

—

J. K. Rowling (via lukeaaronbenoy) (via jambos6)

So why can I name (and this is without trying) five villains or pseudo-villains she described as fat and not one hero?

(via freedummring)

Hagrid was kind of a hero, kind of. The Dursleys are kind of working against here.

I think the issue I have is the way she uses language. A number of times I noticed the proximity of the word ‘fat’ to words like ‘ugly’, ‘stupid’, or other descriptors that implied the same (pudding-bowl haircuts and the like).

In all fairness, I can think of a few minor characters (Sprout, The Fat Friar, etc.) that she explicitly called fat and who were not villains. They were, however, never her most scintillating of heroes; in this case fat seems to be a stand in for sturdy, practical, dependable and well-meaning.

I don’t know that she ever outright called Hagrid fat, but I’m not bothering myself to do any actual fact checking for this thesis, just talking out of my ass. As a half-giant, he’s naturally large and I think overall she used more couched language – stocky, husky, etc (a fault of which I am just as guilty).

I just feel she latches on to certain adjectives as a shorthand for villainous. Internal ugliness is the same as external ugliness to her and she lazily uses physical descriptions to telegraph character intent.