What's Your Score?
Sometimes I feel that items for this blog are self-explanatory. Like the description of this Japanese video game.
A young woman who was once svelte and lovely has binged on too many sweets and pastries. As a result of extreme indulgence, her waistline has blossomed and her weight has surpassed 220lbs (100kg). When she reaches her sophomore year in high school, her father decides to send her and her brother to live in an apartment building which is populated with boys. Lots of boys.
The young woman likes the boys but when she introduces herself and professes her interest, she’s rejected because of her tremendous size. With the help of her brother and inner determination, she resolves to lose weight and become little Miss Popular. You are that young woman and your mission is weight loss by way of exercise, diet, and mini-games.
Let’s play a game of our own, and find how many things are offensive and wrong about that one short paragraph? I count seven, but there have gotta be more.
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Fatism, Feminism, International, Kids, Tidbit, Weight Loss
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1. The insinuation that “once svelte and lovely” is no longer lovely since she’s no longer svelte.
2. The insinuation that the *ONLY* reason those of us that aren’t svelte is that we’ve “binged on sweets and pastries” and/or because of “extreme indulgence.”
3. 220 lbs = “tremendous”
4. NO boy could/would like a girl who isn’t svelte…
5. Propogation of the Thin Myth that svelte=lovely=Miss Popularity
6. Insinuation that a fatties only mission in life should be weight loss.
7. Propogation of the myth that diet and exercise ALWAYS equals weight loss.
8. Insinuation that all any of us fatties needs is “inner determination” and a little “support” to diet and exercise our way to svelte/lovely/popular.
9. Implication that the *ONLY* way to be is svelte.
And I won’t even go into how triggering this can be for those of us with eating disorders. Or how it could start some poor teen down the road to developing an eating disorder.
*sigh*
Don’t forget #10: Propogation of the myth that conditional love is a good thing. If a guy doesn’t like you at 220 pounds, he doesn’t like you. Find someone who does.
6. Insinuation that a fatties only mission in life should be weight loss.
And… Insinuation that a woman’sonly mission in life should be weight loss.
propogation of the view that our (women’s) bodies are here to decorate the man’s world and that the only reason we would want to lose weight would be so that we can look good for men.
#12 (since 11 is in the previous comment) – the idea that a father would show his “love” for his fat daughter by sending her to live someplace else.
#13 – That a good motivating factor (for anything) is rejection.
#14 – That this girl was not aware that she was larger than the “norm” and needed a wake-up call.
#11: Insinuation that womens’ mission in life should be to become the object of male desire
I wonder what the father would have said if his daughter had turned out to be GAY. :D
Insinuation that someone who is a sophomore in high school needs to be more worried about boys liking her than focusing on her education.
I know we’re supposed to be listing all the offensive aspects of that description, but since you’re all doing a good job of that already, I just had to say: I kind of love the use of the word “blossomed” to describe her weight gain. Just because it makes me think of positive things, like a big, fat, lush rose, or an apple tree in spring. So, even though I know it wasn’t their intent, it kind of makes me picture a lovely, curvy young woman, instead of picturing some sad sack.
#15 It’s only with the help of a male (her brother) that she’s able to “resolve” to lose weight.
#16- That losing the weight will make her become “Miss Popular”— a fat fantasy. (somewhat touched in numbers 5 & 8).
That they automatically made the girl fat. Fat is not just a female thing.
Okay kinda off subject…
My husband is a horror movie fan. He finds US horror movies a bore as of late and has taken to Asian horror.
Not long ago we watched “The Wishing Stairs” part of a series of stories told in the setting of High School.
This story is about a set of stairs that if you do things just right when you reach the top a magic step is found and you get to make a wish…of course it’s a huge case of becareful what you wish for.
The girl who brings the stairs story to light is a fat girl that uses the stairs to wish herself thin. The portrial of the girl when fat really p*ssed me off. She’s shown as eating a whole birthday cake by herself, with her hands. Frosting a cake crumbs covering her face and school uniform. She was truely a horrid cartoon. I was so offended I couldnt enjoy the horror story. Gleefully patting her belly smearing frosting all over herself…yup sure that is how EVERY fat person spends their birthday…dont you?
That her dad sent her to live in a building with boys. Lots of boys.
Other horribly wrong things aside, what father sends his daughter to live in a building with a bunch of boys?
It’s funny is what it is. Is this an actual video game?
It’s an actual video game, but as far as I know, it’s only been released in Japan.
#17 – being thin is a better goal than developing a healthy relationship with food
Any pictures for this? I’ve heard about it elsewhere… I think the “heroine” is portrayed in a very unflattering way. As in, not just fat but downright ugly (I guess fat can rearrange your facial structure since she was oh so pretty before. Which leads me to… )
#20 – conformity is good/unattractive people deserve to be unliked
I tried to count, but my brain exploded… :P
I absolutely cringed when I read the part about her father sending her to live in a building with lots of boys. One girl with many boys, or one boy with many girls seems to be a common theme in Japanese anime.
Of course we are talking about a country with an annual penis parade. Supposedly this is a fertility rite. In my mind I would celebrate the womb but hey, that’s just me.
Penis Parade
Japanese video games are infamous for graphic sexuality and violence towards women. There is one where you score points for breaking into a house, raping and impregnating a mother, her teenage daughter, and her 10 year-old daughter. If you don’t believe me, go to somethingawful.com (not a fat-friendly site, I warn you), but there is a review of it.
Then add in their obsession with tentacled aliens raping young girls in many anime movies and books—it makes me want to wear an iron chastity belt if I ever visit the country.
I think I’ll go with #21? (I think)
Only a slim person can be Svelte, because in my experience, the most common of the three definitions of the word is number 2. (I’ll withhold judgment on number 1, purely because she is a high school student and hopefully has limited social experience)
Adj. 1. svelte – showing a high degree of refinement and the assurance that comes from wide social experience;
2. svelte – moving and bending with ease
3. svelte – being of delicate or slender build;
— A proudly svelte 200 pounds
I appear to have lost the abilty to count, because my mind has been boggled.
Sorry everyone, I had a bunch more that I decided were too close to others already mentioned… and I can’t edit or delete my own comment.
“Propogation of the myth that conditional love is a good thing. If a guy doesn’t like you at 220 pounds, he doesn’t like you. Find someone who does.”
I *think*/hope you meant that if someone doesn’t like you for who you are, don’t waste your time. vs. the ‘you’re so shallow’ argument (b/c people can’t really help who they’re attracted to). Physical attraction is important to start relationships especially when you’re young. And some people like their girls bigger.
what I love is that this may be marketed to bigger girls to encourage them to lose weight, but it is a god damned video game!
It isn’t real!
Does that strike anyone else as ridiculous?
A game that erodes self-esteem and steals away positive things like excersize and interaction with real people for social and physical achievements (and by physical achievments I don’t necessarily mean “getting thin” but I mean things like improving running time or strength training or just plain dancing and having fun)
For the second day I am with K.
My mind has boggled, sad to say.
And those who think this game okay —
We’re good without them anyway.
Sometimes, the words? They fail me.
I do not believe that there are enough numbers in the WORLD to count all the things wrong here.
to spinsterwitch
“#13 – That a good motivating factor (for anything) is rejection.”
I am taking it out of the context of this offensive story, but rejection actually CAN be a good motivation. We all have heard stories/seen on Lifetime, where a kid is rejected from some sports team and he or she works very very hard and eventually wins the Olympics etc.
But I don’t want to see a girl who is rejected by some stupid boy to go to extremes and lose weight.
Nat said: “propogation of the view that our (women’s) bodies are here to decorate the man’s world and that the only reason we would want to lose weight would be so that we can look good for men.”
How could I have missed that one?!?
Pet
Ok I just put “Wishing Stairs” on my netflix queue. Too bad it isn’t an instant watch :(
The game…I’m probably going to FA hell for saying this, but I want to try it now. If it were only a flash game I’d be playing it. Yes I know everything that’s wrong with those paragraphs and then some. Such as it’s really bad that he’d send her to a place full of boys to live, but even worse, he probably thinks she doesn’t have to worry about being raped because she’s fat. See, I can do it too. I’m still curious. And I also like the word “blossomed.” It has no negative connotations.
Well, it IS a Japanese video game. That mentality is rampant in Japan. The Japanese still regard their women like we regarded ours in the 1950’s; their place is in the kitchen. The rise of self-confident, “western-ized” women has caused all sort of unhealthy archetypes to crop up over there. For example, most women in media are either “moe” (a.k.a. submissive to the point of having no opinion whatsoever, and existing only to squal and cry girlishly when molested) or “tsundere” (in which the girl ACTS like a “bitch,” but is actually submissive deep down inside).
The Japanese are also highly fixated on weight and social conformity. Most girls are strongly “encouraged” to be below 100 pounds, and are ridiculed by their families, teachers, and peers if they dare go above this. So this game title really isn’t unusual at ALL for Japan. If you think that’s offensive to our Western tastes, read the descriptions for some of their h-games.