Jasmine Woods

University of Bristol

Science-fiction and fantasy are among the most popular fictional genres

Of the top fifty highest ever grossing films, only six are not sci-fi or fantasy

Sharp increase in genre YA fiction (currently the fastest growing literary genre) thanks to the success of Harry Potter, Twilight and The Hunger Games

Fallout from popular series such as The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones means fantasy continues to dominate.

Introduction

“Most (authors) seem unable to break the mind-set regarding size…In a genre where humans of virtually every description are sculpted to capture our minds and challenge our views of reality, they are almost, unless background characters, never fleshed out as fat.

“There are, of course, some central, positively-portrayed characters of size populating speculative fiction…But these characters and stories are certainly the exception, rather than the rule.

“When science fiction and fantasy characters are described as being fat, they are almost always based solely on negative stereotypes. Star Wars' Jabba the Hutt is slovenly, greedy and evil, the epitome of wantonness taken to excess. The infamous Dune character, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, is a thoroughly disgusting creature—diseased, ugly, brutal, cruel and crass to the extreme. Neither has any redeeming qualities.” Judy Sullivan

Still a dearth of sympathetically portrayed fat characters, instead being, “commonly represented as pathetic, obnoxious losers whose physical condition is their own fault as they tend to be seen always eating.”

Fat characters relegated to the role of villain, side-kick, comic relief or, occasionally, as a fetishistic love interest.

Even when a fat character is part of the main cast, their size and weight is always commented on in a negative light.

Characters who are proud or comfortable with their size are alwaysunsympathetic.

In The Lord of the Rings, despite Hobbits being described as a fat race in the books, only Sam is consistently portrayed as overweight in the on-screen adaptations

In the live action films, despite this being an effort by Peter Jackson at having a fat hero on-screen, the film falls into the trap of then having characters mock him for his weight.

In the adaptions of the Hobbit, Bombur, already the most comedic and troublesome of the dwarfs, is effectively muted.

Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings, begins the trilogy as “flabby” and ends it as being “too thin and drawn.”

Dudley Dursely in Harry Potter who begins to show signs of good character only after training as a boxer and losing weight.

Princess Elisa in A Girl of Fire and Thorns who starts the book as “lazy, useless and fat,” then becomes a heroine after losing her weight, and gaining a male admirer in the process.

Weight loss as a short-cut to character development

Under constant derision from his family, peers and allies for his size.

His character arc, incl. losing his virginity, learning how to shoot, overcoming his cowardice, are synonymous with him losing weight.

His narration is replete with his lack of self-confidence, due in part to his size, including a scene in which he claims that being fat will prevent him from looking after anyone.

The Issue with Sam the Slayer

“When I proposed Soldier Son to my publisher, my then publisher simply said, “No thank you.” The fat hero was the whole issue….I think that as a society, ‘fat’ is one of the places where it is still okay to be prejudiced against someone on sight. Heroes can be scarred, or psychologically damaged, or homely, but not fat.

I think ‘fat’ is pretty scary to a lot of us, because I think we all know that we can become that, and that we are then subject to rejection. I think I still have more questions than I have answers about this.”

Where Soldier’s Son got it wrong

However this becomes inherently problematic when you consider that Nevare isn't a fat hero, instead becoming fat over the course of the book because of a spell, and then losing weight at the end accompanied by a sacrificial act of magic.

He is never comfortable with his size, with the internal monologues in the second and third books spending a great deal of time devoted to Nevareagonising over how disgusted he is with his own body and how he'd give anything to be "normal" again.

The other characters in the novel fall into two distinct categories, those who loath fat people and every part of their lives, including a group who accuse Nevare of rape and necrophilia simply because he is fat, and the evil characters who worship fat people.

Moreover when he loses the weight, Nevare gains a love interest who wasn’t into him when he was fat

Jim C. Hines ran into similar difficulty when designing a cover for his novel Codex Born, featuring his “heavyset” heroine Lena Greenwood, not only because his cover agency didn’t provide larger models, but because he was worried marketing would have said no to a book cover featuring a large woman.

“What it comes down to is that our disdain and disgust for anyone overweight, particularly women, permeates our whole culture…I do think we’re finally starting to figure out that maybe it’s not okay to mock people for their race or gender or sexual orientation, but fat people are still fair game, both in real life and on every movie and sitcom you see.”

Recognising the need for overweight characters within science-fiction and fantasy that have evolved beyond basic stereotypes

Understanding that a broad spectrum of characterisation is necessary for representation and diversity

Be the change you wish to see in the world

Where do we go from here?