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.
4 comments:
I have to refute your point about health and obesity.
You claim that the notion that obesity is unhealthy is faulty logic. I have to contest this. According to the WHO, NIH, CDC, American Obesity Association (AOA), and The Obesity Society, there are severe health risks associated with Obesity. You can even read about it all on Wikipedia. Specifically, Obesity is defined as having a BMI (Body Mass Index) of greater than 30. Overweight is defined as having a BMI of over 25. For the sake of clarification, BMI is measured in kg/m² - the measure of one’s weight divided by height. According to the WHO, “In the analyses carried out for World Health Report 2002, approximately 58% of diabetes and 21% of ischaemic heart disease and 8-42% of certain cancers globally were attributable to a BMI above 21 kg/m2”. These websites, and frankly well respected sources of medical information, at least the NIH and WHO websites, list a large number of side effects linked to Obesity – increased rates of arthritis, breast and other types of cancer, cardiovascular disease, carpal tunnel syndrome, type 2 diabetes, gout, hypertension, impaired immune and respiratory systems, infertility, liver disease, pancreatitis, sleep apnea, stroke – the list goes on. The fact of the matter is that the health effects of obesity cannot be ignored.
Furthermore, I have to delve into your claim that such health problems are hereditary. While there are genetic reasons for obesity, the WHO states “While genes are important in determining a person's susceptibility to weight gain, energy balance is determined by calorie intake and physical activity. Thus societal changes and worldwide nutrition transition are driving the obesity epidemic. Economic growth, modernization, urbanization and globalization of food markets are just some of the forces thought to underlie the epidemic.” In other words, genes can make it easier for a person to gain/lose weight, but the fact of the matter is that society is to blame for the prevalence of obesity in our society – specifically greater than 25% of the American population in 2007, according to the CDC. Consider, for example, the skyrocketing rates of obesity in America over the last 20 years. What could have caused this? By your argument, that genetics are to blame for obesity, people should have /always/ been obese, because their genes would have predisposed them to it. However, this logic is faulty. Taken from the CDC website – “’Despite obesity having strong genetic determinants, the genetic composition of the population does not change rapidly. Therefore, the large increase in . . . [obesity] must reflect major changes in non-genetic factors.’ Hill, James O., and Trowbridge, Frederick L. Childhood obesity: future directions and research priorities. Pediatrics. 1998; Supplement: 571.” The fact of the matter is – while all of these references recognize the fact that genetics do play a role in obesity, they generally agree that the main cause of obesity in our society is due to an imbalance of the intake of too many calories and not getting enough physical activity, which is motivated by behavior and environment.
I also have to call you out on your argument about people who eat in McDonald’s. I don’t believe that the “skinny” people who constantly eat at McDonald’s and don’t gain any weight have the best genes in the universe. You don’t qualify your statement /at all/ in terms of their exercising, their lean body mass (the main determinant in basal metabolic rate), their lifestyle, etc. A blanket statement like that is completely useless in this context, and is really used, in my opinion, for shock value and sympathy, neither of which is beneficial in an objective analysis of how obese people are vilified in this society.
Finally, your claim that people who register as “obese” or “overweight” according to BMI charts but compete in triathlons needs to be addressed. While there are athletes who have a BMI in the overweight or obese range, as shown here, I would argue that this is the exception to the rule, as Olympic level athletes certainly can’t account for even 1% of the population, if even 0.5% or 0.1%. Using athletes such as these to defend obesity in America, in my opinion, does a disservice to obese people.
You do make one good point – that what obese and overweight people really need is diet and exercise, as people have been advocating for /years/. You claim that people who exercise and eat right but are still overweight may not be able to lose weight, but I don’t know how true this is. Frankly, in May of this year, I was considered obese with a BMI of 31.1. Since then, I have whittled my weight down to a BMI of 28.9. I think that if obese and overweight people diet and exercise, specifically with the help of a dietician and/or a physician, they should be able to lose weight. Does everyone need to weigh 100lbs? No, absolutely not. But while I would not have considered myself obese in May of this year, this could also be because public perception is changing and Obese is becoming more socially acceptable, or at least, mild obesity and generally overweight-ness. There is also a huge problem in our society realizing what is overweight and what is normal. The girls who think they should look like the models in Elle and Vogue and want to lose 30 pounds are a bit disillusioned, and there is a problem with that. But there is also a problem, in my opinion, with saying that it’s acceptable to be 50 pounds overweight, because not only are we doing a disservice to the overweight people by telling them that they are ok (because they are putting themselves at huge risk to an entire group of health problems), we’re also contributing to a huge drain to society, specifically in terms of medical costs to treat obesity and its side effects.
So, anyway, where am I going with this? Yes, BMI has its limitations. Yes, people should measure how unhealthy they are in terms of body mass and body fat and lean body mass. However. Do I think I used to be obese? Absolutely not. Do I think I was unhealthy in May and that I am healthier now? Absolutely. Am I going to try to lose more weight? Absolutely. My point, I guess, is that there are serious health risks associated with obesity, and they can’t be ignored. Also, I’d like to say that there is no shame in dieting and exercising, even if coerced to do so by the weight-loss industry. While I don’t think that the weight-loss industry wants our society to diet and exercise in the right way, doing so in the right, in my opinion, classic way, is a way to be healthier, and I don’t think that being healthier is a bad thing.
To be honest, I'm not even going to read all of what you said. Don't like it? Well, tough. You are basically throwing out the same arguments I've heard before.
Firstly, I suggest you watch the episode of Bullshit! about the Obesity Epidemic (or lack thereof). Even if you don't buy everything in the show, you should at least keep in mind that not everything you read is true. This also holds true with "the obesity epidemic" (TM).
BMI was created by a Belgian man in the 19th century who surveyed Belgian people and created BMI to describe the weight and height distribution amongst Belgian people. I'll let you decide how useful that is with regards to the world population in current times.
All those associations and organizations that you listed have reason to perpetuate weight loss and the obesity epidemic. I don't feel inclined to believe right out what they have to say, since I've already read medical reports which would refute their claims. Also, all the disorders you list have genetic links as well. You know what else also increases breast cancer? Not having children. Infertility and sterility can also be caused by low weight.
"Consider, for example, the skyrocketing rates of obesity in America over the last 20 years." I have never seen numbers that prove this. The only numbers I've seen is that over the last 30 years the average American's weight has jumped about 7-10 lbs. That doesn't make an epidemic. There are fat people, there have always been fat people, and I'm not inclined to believe there's been an explosion in that number. What HAS changed is the value people have put on thinness (in other countries this is not necessarily so, and remember that fat used to be desired back in the day in Europe- meant you were healthy and wealthy).
"I don’t believe that the “skinny” people who constantly eat at McDonald’s and don’t gain any weight have the best genes in the universe." Who says they do? I'm merely pointing out that over eating and eating poorly does not make people fat. Prove to me that eating poorly and eating too much will make anyone fat. I eat a lot comparatively but I've never gone over 146 lbs (still well within "normal" BMI ranges). And I lead a VERY sedentary lifestyle (come on, I play video games all the time). I don't have the best genes, but I have ones that keep me slim. Some have genes that keep them fat, go fig. Neither is necessarily better than the other considering that fat people are more likely to recover better or live through certain medical or physical trauma, diseases, and treatments while some thin people will not develop certain problems associated purely with obesity (I have yet to find one that is purely a result of fatness, btw, since many of these conditions are shared by thin people).
"Finally, your claim that people who register as “obese” or “overweight” according to BMI charts but compete in triathlons needs to be addressed. While there are athletes who have a BMI in the overweight or obese range, as shown here, I would argue that this is the exception to the rule, as Olympic level athletes certainly can’t account for even 1% of the population, if even 0.5% or 0.1%. Using athletes such as these to defend obesity in America, in my opinion, does a disservice to obese people." There are tons of professional athletes that qualify as obese. Sure, they aren't a great sampling of average Americans, but you aren't doing much to refute the claim I made that obese =/= unhealthy in this area of discussion.
"You claim that people who exercise and eat right but are still overweight may not be able to lose weight, but I don’t know how true this is." Though I'm proud of you for changing your lifestyle (which is probably a step above mine in healthiness since I hardly exercise), you are using personal experience here to tell me I'm wrong. So I'll use an example as well.
My father is about 5' 9" and over 200 lbs. He has a large gut. His BMI is, what, 31? He also has high blood pressure and high cholesterol and has had angioplasty done with stints put in several places.
However, he also plays racquet ball 4-5 times a week (and has done so for well over 10 years), joined a racquet ball league and plays golf on the weekends. He also does pretty much all the yard work and landscaping throughout the summer (which is a lot, trust me). He's adhered to all his dietary restrictions and eats rather well (always has) because he can afford to and he also has always done the majority of the cooking in my household. He also doesn't eat much more than I do.
All his heart problems are hereditary- my grandfather (a farmer) had them and died from them. I also get angina when I'm stressed out, too, and have had that problem for as long as I can remember.
In my experience, he is hardly at fault for his body shape. He has tried losing weight and going on diets, none of which work though he maintains his activity year round (except for the yard work). The last one he tried saw him lose a few pounds at the beginning only to gain a few back and see no more results afterward.
My dad may not be the average obese person, but he's not super special or anything. I've met tons of people who carefully watch their diet and exercise and never lose enough weight to satisfy themselves or some of the people around them.
And this is what I'm saying: Obesity/weight is not an indicator of health. What is being done is people are judging health purely on their clothing size. Some people who think thin = healthy like to perpetrate that idea and make fun of fat people who have done nothing to deserve such ire. Do you think it's okay for people to make fun of your weight? What if you weighed 100 lbs more? Does that give people the right to make fun of you when they have no idea what kind of life you lead and instead just stereotype you as lazy and over eating?
Not all fat people are fat because they overeat. Not all thin people are thin because they undereat. There are people who are fat/thin because they over eat/starve themselves, but those are tiny parts of the whole.
But why judge people based on their size? Whether someone is obese or whatever is not the concern of someone else. You do not know when you look at someone whether they are healthy or not based solely on their weight. Period. There may be outliers that are 800 lbs and 5' tall, but that's not the point. There are people out there getting shit for their weight when they don't even qualify as overweight.
Okay, now I'm just rambling. Point: you do not know who is healthy or not solely on their weight. Judging people based on their weight is NOT COOL.
You can continue to sell your cookies elsewhere, but I am not buying them.
Hey, very nice post. I've seen lots of uproar over this game and kinda scratched my head over it. I don't feel one way or the other despite everyone arguing that I should pick a side. So looking inward, I'm asked myself why I'm so ambivalent over such a controversial game. And the answer for me is that I perceive obese people as lazy and weak-willed. Even so much that I'm hard on myself when my body becomes soft. Am I right to think this? I doubt it, because I don't have the facts... but my own observations have led me to this conclusion.
The fat people I've encountered have generally made abysmal diet choices. And the majority I've had lasting encounters with have not been physically active. This shows me that it's their fault that they're fat. It's no ones glandular problem or 'big bones' that make them go back for fifths ,to quote The Onion.
So when a game comes out that pokes a little fun at the morbidly obese condition I think it's ok. Maybe it'll be the last straw for some overweight people and get them off the sofa. However, I think a majority of the large gamers that Fat Princess is supposed to offend will ironically be lining up to order it.
Keep up the good work. This is one of my favorite blogs.
In case there are any more people who want to talk about fat being unhealthy:
http://kateharding.net/but-dont-you-realize-fat-is-unhealthy/
And *shock* the CDC got called out several years ago for exaggerating the obesity problem!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7561422/
I don't want to see any more comments on fat being unhealthy or fat people all being to blame for their bodies. Making judgments and insults about people's bodies is wrong whether those bodies are fat, thin, tanned, pale, tattooed, black, white, pierced, covered in a burqa, nude, busty, brawny, whatthefuckever.
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