"Word Processor of the Gods" (mc's wife, issue a), It (Eddie's mother and his wife as an adult, issue b), and "Gwendy's Button Box" (gwendy, issue c) all have examples of the things I listed prior (I've read every one of Kings books since childhood, so I'm not just, like, talking out my ass here)

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Okay, yeah, having reread It, I was off the mark with Ben. Mea culpa. HOWEVER, I do stand by the statement that his issues with fat *women* are absolutely true - there are numerous instances of it

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Which is not to deny that the man has his issues, including some degree of misogynistic fatphobia. I definitely wish he didn't love cops so much or work so hard to popularize the notion of the Magical Negro. But there's no need to exaggerate those issues. Ben is fine.

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I say this as someone who reads or listens to the audiobook of It every year or so and have done for decades. I WAS a Ben Hanscomb as a kid and will be forever grateful for King's treatment of the character, which I have always seen as kind without sugar-coating the cruelty kids like me faced.

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Untrue. There are several references to how a particular reaction in his child's face reflects the man that he will eventually become. He is *never* called ugly. And while he is described in heterodox terms as an adult, the focus is contrasting a "cowboy" look to the scared fat kid from Maine.

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