Conversation Ender: Harry Potter poster edition

As you all may know, I can be very opinionated with people I like and trust. Like with you readers. Oftentimes I get very passionate, and I share what I'm feeling. This is what happened last week when I read Dan Carlson's post, An Ignoble Spirit Embiggens The Smallest Chest, on his blog Slowly Going Bald. From the opening paragraph:

Emma Watson has been given a digital breast job in the Imax ads for this summer's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

I was reading along with the examples of other times this has unnecessary practice been done to prominent celebrities, nodding head, saying to myself, "Good job pointing out these things out, Dan." Then he made his fatal mistake:

It's not whether the images were designed to completely deceive the viewing public, but the fact that we as a public ask for and often demand these images...

...We ask for these things. You know? Sure, you and I don't, not an individual level, but we do. We as a people do. So I'm disappointed that it's happened again for Emma Watson, and I'm sure she's somewhere between pissed and mortified, since being a female teen on the world stage has to be a punishing existence. But, really, is anyone surprised?

Oh Dan.

Here's the comment I left in response:

we as a public ask for and often demand these images

Dan,

I , as part of the public, neither asked for nor demanded these images. Who exactly do you think Warner Bros. asked about the decision to give a 17-year-old girl (who is actually playing a 15-year-old) bigger boobs? I know I wasn't consulted. I don't think any other Harry Potter fans were consulted en masse either. Did I miss the big ad placed in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter? "Who wants Hermione to have more boobage? Call us now!" Don't blame the public for poor decision making on the part of a studio marketing team.

Additionally, equating the cover of Maxim or GQ with a poster for a movie based on a children's book is wrong. I don't think anyone in the Harry Potter cast expected to be sexually objectified when they signed up for the movie. The only person involved with this franchise that I remember releasing suggestive photos in the past year was Daniel Radcliffe. And I don't see any major alterations done to his body in any Harry Potter one-sheets.

I guess I'm not "surprised" because Mr. Radcliffe is male, and "we as a people" don't "ask for these things" from boys. " "We" just expect these things to happen to 17-year-old girls, whether they want them to happen or not.

That effectively ended the conversation on that post. Now, Dan is not a bad person. He seems pretty nice. The same day that I left the above comment, I also left a comment on his post, A Letter From HR, in which I politely asked him to define what the phrase "used a pica pole to scratch your chode" meant. And he replied with an explanation. But that just wasn't enough for me. I have to have it all, all the time. I want my every comment replied to on every blog that I comment on. I have issues, I know.

I will note that I restrained myself from criticizing Dan's finding humor in describing his female coworker as "cute enough to kidnap." I should get some kudos for that.