Milicent Bulstrode's Weight: Canon or Fanon?

[lightofdaye]

Okay so I've seen this a few places. Most recently reading some of writcraft's meta, though the actual point of that article is far grander than the bit I'm going to nitpick (asa nerd arguing over minutia is pretty much my stock in trade) as part of a larger point she wrote:

When I write Harry without his glasses, slim down Millicent, place queer characters in a world free from oppression, write Blaise as Draco’s side-kick or erase Ginny because it’s bothersome backstory the fic could do without, then am I guilty of precisely the same kind of marginalisation I vehemently oppose in original fiction?

So here and elsewhere, a few sign-up exchange forms come to mind, there's the idea that canonically Millicent was fat and thus slimming her down would be bad thing.

Firstly, I think I missed that bit. I remember Millicent being described as like a troll, which to me mean big and strong. In a tall, broad shouldered muscular way not fat. Not as overweight or fat. But I could be wrong... (too lazy to get out Chamber of secrets. but not to post this, go figure)

Second, lots of characters, and Slytherins in particular have unflattering descriptions, yet because I'm writing smut, that gets pretty much ignored. I mean if I were inclined to justify it I could say that in canon hary doesn't like these people and its from his point of view, hence the descriptions. In fics I write he probably wants to bang them and thus is more charitable.

When I started writing this it was mostly 'is milicent really canonically fat?' but I seemed to have wandered into the larger question of 'how much am i allowed to change their descriptions for smut fic?'

Comments

[writcraft]

Really interesting question and thank you for reading my meta :D

Due to the fact Millicent is the only female of the Trio gen described in ways which might imply she is heavy set and physically larger than other classmates - like Tam my head canon for her tends towards stocky - I suppose she was the obvious example to use for the point I wanted to make, quite possibly influenced by my own head canon for Millicent's physicality.

I could have used a number of other examples which may have been more accurate from a canon perspective to illustrate the point I really wanted to make, which was to question (in the broader context of that particular post about creator responsibility) whether there is a responsibility for female writers to give conscious thought, when describing female characters, to how far those characters reinforce the unrealistic and oppressive standard of beauty so often imposed on women by the media.

I didn't intend to imply that slimming down Millicent is a bad thing because it's not canon. I fully appreciate an adolescent physique will change as a character ages and the weight of characters will fluctuate, and as noted above the canon descriptions hardly paint a clear picture.

The point was simply that by embracing canon or secondary canon allusions to Millicent's physicality as opposed to dismissing them, writers (or artists) can call into question conventional standards of 'beauty'. When portraying female characters in fanworks there is an opportunity to be had to challenge the paradigm of the 'ideal woman' and call into question the value society places on what it deems to be 'attractive'.

I wonder if when people make those requests in exchanges, it's driven by some of the issues above as opposed to a desire for strict canon compliance. Fan communities tend to want to see representation of characters that might otherwise lack visibility in their canon. In fan communities with a gender bias towards female or female identified creators, the request to portray a canon female character physically one way or another might be less about the giftee wanting to see a strict adherence to canon, and more about a desire to see women represented in a way which is authentic and which celebrates all kinds of body types.

Does that make any sense? I may very well have gone off on a tangent here, apologies if so :D

[lightofdaye]

Oh hey. I wasn't sure if it was too late to comment on the meta post. It was very thought provoking. I appreciated that you set it up that multiple view points were explored and given equal weighting. In regards to the bit I quoted. I don't think all fics can or should be expected to address all social ills. Take Blaise for example. more poc characters with focus would be cool but Can black people no longer be sidekicks at all? Isn't that just doing the same thing in a different way? (you are black therefore you must fulfil x role)

Anyway, I went off an tangent myself, and as I said this wasn't really supposed to be commentary on your meta post in particular. Now you say about your own headcanon having Millicent as stocky/strong, I realise 'slim down' could apply there as well. So I'm wondering if I've just completely got the wrong end of the stick.

I definitely imagine you're right that when people ask for this sort of thing they're more concerned with 'non-conventional body types are cool' and less with 'strict adherence to canon'. And that's cool and I like that people request what they want.

I'll admit I probably fall into writing conventional beauty. people either get to be petite and perky or curvy and busty, lol. Though I'm not sure what's wrong with that either given it's basically just porn with a bit of character. But nothing wrong with doing it differently either.

No need apologies. Very interesting. :)