J K Rowling criticises women's obsession

Harry Potter author criticises women's obsession with weight

London.– Harry Potter author Joanne "J.K." Rowling has launched an attack on waif-like models in the fashion industry, criticising them as "empty-headed, self-obsessed, emaciated clones."

The best-selling writer said she was prompted to write about the subject on her website after reading a magazine featuring photographs of a thin woman who was "either seriously ill or suffering from an eating disorder."

Her horror at seeing the woman on the front cover of the magazine was then exacerbated by a number of conversations with other women on the subject of weight, which all centred around the "insult" of being called "fat."

Rowling, who entitled her online "rant" "For Girls Only, Probably...," said she was concerned her daughters Mackenzie, aged one, and 12-year-old Jessica would be forced to follow the same line of thinking.

"I've got two daughters who will have to make their way in this skinny-obsessed world, and it worries me, because I don't want them to be empty-headed, self-obsessed, emaciated clones," she stated.

"I'd rather they were independent, interesting, idealistic, kind, opinionated, original, funny – a thousand things, before 'thin'.

"And frankly, I'd rather they didn't give a gust of stinking chihuahua flatulence whether the woman standing next to them has fleshier knees than they do."

The 40-year-old mother-of-three said she had found an unlikely ally in the US rock star Pink, whose latest single "Stupid Girls" satirises "the talking toothpicks held up to girls as role models."

Rowling, whose 300 million worldwide book sales have made her a multi-millionaire, is currently working on the seventh and final book about the schoolboy wizard.