Character Flaw

[CharleeVale]

It's good that you're thinking of this. It's something to seriously consider before you do.

IMO, I would lean away from that. Because the majority of women portrayed in media who aren't 'conventionally' beautiful, are fat. and only used for the sake of being made fun of, or as a contrast to make the other woman more attractive. With so many people, especially young women struggling with body image in a photoshopped culture, the thought of yet another overweight female character gives me pause. (assuming she is overweight? you can be a glutton without being overweight) Especially with the mention that she is supposed to be silly. It may send a subliminal message that you're not intending.

CV

[Sommer Leigh]

This is a touchy subject and one you've got to think very carefully about before you dive into that world. I usually say that authors don't have a responsability to do anything but tell a great story, they certainly have no responsibility to give a happy ending or teach a lesson.

That being said, my personal opinion is - everyone else is creating a false sense of female identity through their bodies, be it magazines, models, websites, pro-skinny blogs, parents, friends, books, movies...and it's been going on for a long time. We're starting to see very minor turns in the trends - people attacking the pro-skinny blog who bullied Kate Upton for being overweight got the blog changed from it's original message. The teen girls who took their anger at Seventeen magazine far enough that Seventeen agreed to stop photoshopping their models and to start using real teens as models instead of, well, models. These are good changes. We need to start promoting health and happiness to young girls. They've seen too many stereotypes already.

So I'm uncomfortable with the idea of an overeating silly female character. Can gluttony be a flaw for a character? Of course it can, and is often in real life. But the message is very important to middle graders, and you'll want to be careful when you decide what that message is. Not that you have to teach a lesson, but I don't think you have to play to stereotypes of the overeating, overweight girl not being taken seriously, or her eating problems become a mean spirited joke.

The book The Girl of Fire and Thorn has a main female character who loooooves her food. She eats to comfort herself against the terrible things happening in her world, and is plump because of it. Her beautiful, thin sister is the foil to her gluttony. It's handled, however, so well. The food is part of who she is, but it isn't WHO she is. It's one of the best examples of a kick ass girl who doesn't ift the mold.

[LizV]

A lot depends on context. Is this one character silly, when all the other characters are more serious? That could be a problem. Or are the other characters well-supplied with foibles and bad habits, and played for a similar level of silliness? That could be no problem.

It also depends on how you handle it within the context of that character. Does being a glutton define her, or is she, for example, a horse lover, a night owl, good at math, a glutton, an adventurer, a loyal friend, and an aspiring artist? If the gluttony is just one of several equally-important characteristics, and it's not played for laughs when the others aren't -- if she's equally silly about food, oil paints, and the boy down the street, for example -- I think you're on solid ground.

[AnimaDictio]

The story may work best if the gluttony is not over-emphasized. It can become a touchstone that reminds the reader of her internal struggles regarding this bad past event. When she ceases to indulge in the food, it will demonstrate that she has overcome the other struggles. That can be inspiring and cathartic and really fun if you're subtle with it.

What worries me most is the "silly" idea. Do you mean that her gluttony is a subject of ridicule? If so, that makes me frown. If I read that in a book, a female glutton being ridiculed or presented as a fool, it would turn me off.

A fat girl with moxy, on the other hand, would really attract me.

[Mark.W.Carson]

My suggestion would be to remove gluttony from a female character. It is already such an undesirable trait (true gluttony) even in male characters.

What if you were, instead, to make the issue her vice, rather than gluttony? A guilty pleasure found in it? There are plenty of "idealized" women that can sit down, spoon in hand, and devour an entire tub of Ben&Jerry's without gaining so much as a pound.

[Amanda Elizabeth]

She doesn't necessarily have to be overweight if she has just one food obsession. Granted, I don't know what it is, but there are some people who can just eat and no, maybe they aren't model-skinny, but they are of average weight for their height.

[LurkingVirologist]

I feel like this has split into several overlapping but distinct topics. Could you clarify if you are talking about gluttony, weight/obesity, or both? Additionally, what do you mean by 'silly?' Is the character comedic, or is her demeanor silly but she has serious stuff going on under the surface?

In terms of being topical, I'd definitely be surprised if there are any middle graders left who aren't impacted, either directly or indirectly, by addictive behavior (food in this case) or weight/health/body image issues. Assuming this character isn't just for laughs, then I think if it's something you can approach in a way that's both straightforward and honest it could definitely be worth doing. I can't speak for anyone else, but it's definitely easy for me to forget sometimes just how sensitive the bull**** detector on your average kid can be. I think if an author can respect the complexity and the inherent emotional messiness of topics like that, kids will understand and respond. On the other hand, my (admittedly hazy) memories of those days were that even a whiff of condescension or caricature and I was done.