I must point out that I never intended to defend the EFFECTS of the joke, I clearly state that I belived it to fall flat and have uncomfortable transphobic implications. If anything else was implied i want to offer my sincere appology.

What I wanted to argue was that I don't interpret the INTENT behind the joke to be fatphobic since i belive it to be intended to be a reference to literary stereotypes (in this case the stereotype of the greedy merchant) placed within their steriotypical enviorments. This is something i find interesting from a meta-literal point of view.

Of course, intent is a very different thing than effect. Witch is why i fully understand why one can tanke offense. I don't want to deny you your feelings or your point of view.

But i do belive that the intent and the literary themes are up for debate. There are no absolutes in literature.

(And not that it should matter but i am an overweight man myself and i personally take no offense from this particular stereotype because it doesn't represent me. But this is as everything else i've stated, my own opinion)

Thanks for the welcome :-)

I think that a lot of Pratchett has to be read from a meta-textual point of view. Seeing as the Discworld is built around subverting, commenting and parodying literary tropes and stereotypes.

I do belive the intent of the joke is up for interpretation.
Or more precisely the intent around the weight part. (As have been mentioned in other posts I feel it is more about the literary stereotypes than anything else)

The effect of it all is not up for debate. I don't deny that it falls flat and goes into an uncomfortable territory. Especially with the transvestite part.

Hi everyone!

I'm a long time quiet observer but my love for this book made me want to join in :-)

Upcoming Wall of text :-)

My interpretation of the Footnote is that it is not inteded as a transphobic or fatphobic joke (Though i can't deny that the theme is present).

I've always seen it as being about stereotypes in their steriotypical enviorment.

That a man in a wig sitting in a courtroom is more likely to be a judge has more to do with the steriotypical image of a judge in his/her enviorment (Remember, the wigs that are mandatory in brittish courtrooms).

So I've always seen it as putting Horsefry in his own steriotypical context. The reason not to trust him doesn't come from the fact that he is overweight but from the fact that he looks like a steriotypical greedy merchant (where the weight is more of a sign for his wealth than anything else) AND that he is sitting in front of Vetinari together with a bunch of obviously corrupt merchants. I.e. the literary stereotype in his literary steriotypical enviorment.

Now I want to make it clear that I am not critisising any other interpretation of the Footnote. I just wanted to jump in to the discussion with my own.

P.s. English is not my first language so i blame any weird spelling errors on my phones auto-correct.