Fat Princess-gate

I thought I'd offer some thoughts on the recent explosion of discussion around Fat Princess, a downloadable game announced for the Sony Playstation Network (PSN). I'd like to offer up my thoughts as responses to various arguments which defend the game or attack criticism of it.

1) When did Feminism become aligned with the "big is beautiful" movement?
Feminism doesn't have to be aligned with that movement, it encompasses it. Feminism, despite what is said by people against feminism, is devoted to exposing and changing prejudices of all kinds (not just those against women) because these prejudices often overlap or develop from each other. For example, homophobia is rooted in misogyny. People are afraid of that which emasculates men (man-man sex) or allows women to exist without male sexuality/power/whatever (woman-woman sex). That's a very simplistic example, but I hope that illuminates what I mean by prejudice overlap. Another example: bullying of men who aren't "manly" enough or women who are "too manly".

Plus, why is it wrong for feminists to align themselves with the struggle of others? It's not like people can't multi-task.

2) The princess is being SAVED. She's still wanted though she's fat.
Though she's fat? Why shouldn't someone be wanted because they are fat? For that matter, why should someone be wanted just because they are thin?

Secondly, the point of the argument about the princess being saved is that there is an automatic assumption that women need to be saved/want to be saved and that is reinforced through a history of literature, social custom, and tradition. Whether or not you agree, there are people who believe, right now in 2008, that women still want to be saved by men and expect men to come to their rescue. And these people have obviously have not met me. I do not expect nor wish for a man to "come to my rescue", but it is nice when people have your back (whether or not they are men!).

3) If this game was called "Fat Prince" no one would be complaining about it.
WRONG. But since the developers didn't make "Fat Prince", I guess we'll never really know what the outrage would have amounted to. It probably wouldn't have been as big because a) a lot less people frequent and know about fat-positive communities because most still believe that prejudice against fat people is totally acceptable, and b) the problem of the heteronormative save-the-princess theme would have been absolved reducing the feminist angle to the story. And we all know how people love to get all riled up about feminists talking about something.

There are a lot of fat-positive communities (including many feminist communities) that would be upset about "Fat Prince". Currently there are many writings on fat-positive and feminist blogs complaining about the portrayal of fat women AND MEN in the media, especially those sitcoms that thrive on the bumbling-fat-man-married-to-thin-capable-wife setup and movies which contain an awkward/gross/stupid fat character for laughs. Those who make the argument that "Fat Prince" wouldn't receive a send up obviously don't know about these blogs or these groups.

4) Obesity = Unhealthy.
This logic = fail. There is hardly a connection. And if there is one connection it's that obesity and certain health problems are hereditary. NO SHIT, SCIENCE! People have health problems and are larger because of their DNA- you can learn this through pretty much any simple course on genetics or health. People generally have a pretty set limit on how much their body will lose/gain that is determined by genetics and hardly has to do with how much they eat- think about all the skinny people who constantly eat at McDonald's.

What matters to health (not thinness) is eating right and exercising- those overweight people who do eat right and exercise may not lose weight, but they will be healthier than a thin person who eats poorly and is sedentary. And I'm sure this will cover many overweight people who are shamed into dieting and exercising because of the weight-loss industry (weight-loss pills, weight watchers, gym programs, weight-loss surgery...just watch television and find how many weight/health related commercials you can count). Weight/size is no indication of what's going on in the body. There are people who register as "obese" or "overweight" according to height and weight charts but who still compete in triathlons. Booya.

5) The concept artist is a woman!
So what? Ann Coulter is a woman who says women shouldn't vote- does that mean that the suffragettes were wrong and the right of women to vote should be removed? One woman's alignment with a sexism medium does not negate the sexism of that medium. Women can also perpetrate and participate in sexism seeing as they unfortunately fall into that category of "human" like men do. Unless you are an anti-feminist, in which case women who agree with you will support you because you are correct and not because they have human brains to think for themselves and coincidentally choose to also perpetrate sexism.

6)It's just a videogame.
And Mein Kampf is just a book. Oh wait, it isn't? It perpetrates destructive ideology? But I though it was something you just picked up for fun and to pass the time!

Sure, that's an extreme example, but it demonstrates the point that media contains social biases and just because some people enjoy it unconditionally doesn't mean that criticisms of it are invalid or unwarranted.

7) There are more important things to get angry about.
There are. And feminists are angry about those, too (it seems people who make this argument are completely unaware of the work feminists do or what they write about). Who says feminists or fat-positive advocates can't be angry about this in addition to the usual stuff?

8) Gamers who buy/enjoy games with sexist/racist/fat-hating/ablist/homophobic content are not sexists/racists/fat-haters/ablists.
I'm not sorry to say that this statement is false. If you find a racist joke funny, you are racist. But everyone has a little bit of an "-ist" in them somewhere and everyone (even feminists) have to work on examining their privilege and weeding out the "-ist" parts.

9) Feminists/women/liberals/fat people/whatever complain/cry/whine/sob about everything.
No, they don't. I have yet to see one Feminist complain publicly about Funnyuns- the delicious ring-shaped snack that's flavored like onions. I also have yet to see a liberal complain politically/publicly about spatulas- those great kitchen utensils that help to remove food which adheres to the sides and bottoms of food containers.

10) Women run the world.
No, they don't. I shouldn't even have to argue against this one it's so absurd. So I won't.

11)People complain about women in video games being too thin, too busty, or whatever and now you are complaining about them being fat. There's no winning with you.
There are many GOOD female video game protagonists which I wish more video game companies would emulate and create more of, but the fact is that women's bodies have been overwhelmingly used for sexist enjoyment (whether idolizing them or laughing at them, and this is done by men and women). Character creation is not black and white- it's not "hot babe" vs. "fat chick". There are many shades of gray in between which have not been explored. Also, there might be some shades of red that people haven't even discovered yet.
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If there are any other trollish arguments which I did not include or refute, you can leave them in comments and I can quickly squash them.

Labeling Space

Did you miss me?

Gaming and the internet have more than one thing in common. Today I want to talk specifically about inclusiveness. These arguments can also extend to other groups of people, but for the sake of brevity I'll try to stick to the case of women.

If you've traveled along the internet or gamed online with strangers, you will have noticed a lot of hateful language being spewed forth. There are a great deal of misogynist slurs thrown out over open internet forums. The usual arguments I hear are "if you don't like it, don't read it/go to that site/don't game online or on xbox live". The problem with that reasoning, as Melissa McEwan has pointed out at Shakesville, is that it doesn't solve the problem but instead lets it fester and create an environment which fuels the hate speech of some and excludes others.
"Telling women that they should merely abstain from reading and/or participating in YouTube threads—or other places online and offline plagued by unfettered misogyny—is akin to telling women their choices are to tolerate sexual harassment in order to participate in it, or segregate themselves and necessarily limit their opportunities in the public sphere."

Some gaming and internet communities suffer from a "tits or GTFO" syndrome in which cases of sexism will force women to either participate in sexism or leave entirely.

This brings me to something which has really irked me as of late: The Girls of Gaming at GameTrailers.com. I visit GT several times a week to watch new footage and see their original shows such as Bonus Round and GTTV. When they unveiled The Girls of Gaming (which on the surface seems to have nothing to do with gaming and almost everything to do with nearly nude women, usually white women) I felt slighted. This was a site that I felt succeeded in giving me the gaming news and footage I wanted and left out the staff commentary (especially off-putting commentary from the staff that can be found at some other major gaming news sites). However, once GT opened up the Girls of Gaming, featuring a portal icon that was a disembodied pair of breasts in a bikini top and displaying advertisements with women wearing string bikinis and boy-cut shorts on the site, I couldn't help but get the message "you don't belong here". I realize the site is owned by Spike and therefore MTV, but I doubt there was much of a reason to add this portion to the site besides a cheap ploy to increase traffic by appealing to the demographic who would prefer soft core, objectification, and voyeurism to an open, non-gendered space for all gamers to enjoy. Did I mention that all the women I've seen so far on this site are white? Are all gaming men straight and white now? I didn't realize.

The point is: Why should women feel empowered and desire to join gaming sites and communities if they are forced to join with sexist activity which degrades them? I stopped going to one particular gaming site because I felt the discussion was one-sided, sexist, and obstinate, making comments unreadable and some writers obnoxious. I would like to boycott GT as well, but I feel that if I continue to boycott places for game news, events, etc. then I will no longer have a place to exist in gaming communities and that these communities will revel in the absence of women so much that they stop thinking to include women and to accept their validity as gamers (and as human beings in the extreme case at large).

So how does one go about creating spaces where women gamers can exist and co-exist? This blog is a part of a movement in the right direction, I suppose, but larger sites with money, sponsorship, and advertising can appeal to and use a prevailing attitude which will accept sexism and maintain a large audience at the expense of the minority (really, anyone who isn't a straight white man).

Has anyone else had experiences with regard to being excluded from areas of gaming and gaming communities because of sexism, racism, etc.?