It would certainly be a welcome departure from the never-ending flood of naturally waifish protagonists.
Tangent: I was reading a dissection of Twilight that pointed out something I never noticed before: Bella Swan, who's repeatedly categorized as a slim and lightweight size two, never eats. Whenever food is brought up in the novels, the majority of the time it's to point out how she isn't eating it. She's constantly "losing her appetite" or "pushing her food around the plate" or "too depressed to eat". Despite being the designated chef in the household, she doesn't really enjoy food or take much interest in expanding her culinary horizons. It's subtle enough that I don't think Meyer wrote it in their consciously, but man, does that have unfortunate implications or what?
Back on topic: there's definitely ways to celebrate a variety of body types without putting down any of them ("real women have curves" vs. "omg you fat cow" are both harmful) and I would love to see more awareness of that in literature. Vee as she stands is nothing but an overblown caricature of loads of harmful stereotypes: sex-obsessed, "funny fat friend", overweight pig, etc. etc. There must be authors out there who could do her character justice without reducing her to a punchline.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-05 06:42 pm (UTC)Tangent: I was reading a dissection of Twilight that pointed out something I never noticed before: Bella Swan, who's repeatedly categorized as a slim and lightweight size two, never eats. Whenever food is brought up in the novels, the majority of the time it's to point out how she isn't eating it. She's constantly "losing her appetite" or "pushing her food around the plate" or "too depressed to eat". Despite being the designated chef in the household, she doesn't really enjoy food or take much interest in expanding her culinary horizons. It's subtle enough that I don't think Meyer wrote it in their consciously, but man, does that have unfortunate implications or what?
Back on topic: there's definitely ways to celebrate a variety of body types without putting down any of them ("real women have curves" vs. "omg you fat cow" are both harmful) and I would love to see more awareness of that in literature. Vee as she stands is nothing but an overblown caricature of loads of harmful stereotypes: sex-obsessed, "funny fat friend", overweight pig, etc. etc. There must be authors out there who could do her character justice without reducing her to a punchline.