Feminists upset over "Fat Princess" video game

[ancient]

So the point of the game is to make the Princess fat, because fat people are harder to kidnap. Seems logical enough. However...

Showing a fat woman is sexist...or possibly insulting to fat people. Or possibly Anti-gay. Or possibly bad for the egg council.

All I know is; Having a fat female character in a video game is bad. Because...[logic not found].

I understand.

Fat women must be banned from media.

 

[Jim Steele]

Anyone involved in televising Rosie O'Donnell is obviously a "heteronormative asshole".

 

[Gary Mitchell]

Anyone involved in televising Rosie O'Donnell is obviously a "heteronormative asshole".

I don't know about "heteronormative" but the asshole part fits.

 

[ancient]

I sure hope Mario looses a little weight. As we know, Luigi is so much more popular than Mario, mainly because he's thinner. And taller.

Mario is like a tiny person. And his head is huge! What's up with that? C'mon, someone has to be insulted by that!

...

no?

Oh well, I'll be insulted on their behalf.

 

[firehawk12]

Except Luigi is both cowardly and stupid, so Mario suddenly becomes good again.

 

[ancient]

Except Luigi is both cowardly and stupid, so Mario suddenly becomes good again.

But I play them both! How can one be better than the other? HOOOOOOOOOW?!?!


On topic briefly:

Complete Yahoo Games article here.

Over at Shakesville, however, writer Melissa McEwan cuts to the chase, telling Sony she's "positively thrilled to see such unyielding dedication to creating a new generation of fat-hating, heteronormative ---holes."

"Unyielding"? Yes, because ALL video games are insulting to fat people. Right.

This sort of schoolyard name-calling is not the mark of real criticism, just an angry person unable to make a point.

[cartman] Don't call me fat you fucking Jew! [/cartman]

Cute.

 

[Arrqh]

Is Oblivion sexist because all the women in it are plain, ugly and boring conversationalists?

Of course, everyone in Oblivion is plain, ugly and boring

 

[Hermiod]

Should I be worried that this is the first time I've encountered the completely wonderful term "heteronormative?"

And I live in San Francisco. I feel so out of it!

There's no reason you should have unless you've study gender and sexuality in some kind of academic setting.

In other words, you should only know what it means if have given up on having a job.

 

[pookha]

Pro or con, I can't believe anyone is just plain STUPID enough to create a game like this.

I'd say a few execs missed a few meetings, especially at the conceptual and naming levels.

--Ted

it sounds a little stalkerish to me.
and frankly it is playing off a known behaviour of some that are abusive.
they encourage the weight gain of the significant other but then use it against them to attack their self esteem.
some of them even feel threatened when the women start to lose weight.

but then considering how some games are what is one more creepy game.

 

[firehawk12]

Well, except the famous people who have made analyzing heteronormativity into their careers.

 

[Hermiod]

Well, except the famous people who have made analyzing heteronormativity into their careers.

And thus contributed nothing of any value to society. Perhaps I shouldn't have said "job". I should have said "proper job" instead.

 

[firehawk12]

Well, let's not get into the value of post-graduate education because honestly, I'm sure the majority of the people here actually contribute nothing to society.

Apologies in advance to the people who work at women's shelters and policemen.

 

[Hermiod]

Well, let's not get into the value of post-graduate education because honestly, I'm sure the majority of the people here actually contribute nothing to society.

Apologies in advance to the people who work at women's shelters and policemen.

Having Googled the person who started all this, I feel safe in my assertion that she appears not to have a real job. Her job description appears to be that she's a "blogger". I do not consider "blogging" to be a job. Blog about your actual job, fine, like people like Cali Lewis or Kevin Rose. I can't find any books she has written, so she's not an "author" and she's not blogging about things in between writing her books. I can't see that she's doing anything with her education aside from this blog and the occasional newspaper or magazine article.

The fact is that this person throws words like "heteronormative" around when they are completely out of context and have no relevance to a video game about an overweight royal.

 

[firehawk12]

I'm not talking about random people on the Internet though, I'm talking about people like Judith Butler and Julie Creseva... people who publish books and have tenure some place.

But sure, random people on the Internet, who knows what they do or if they're even qualified to speak about anything they post.

 

[Hermiod]

But sure, random people on the Internet, who knows what they do or if they're even qualified to speak about anything they post.

That's who I mean. "Author" is a job title, "blogger" is not.

 

[ITL]

Maybe "blogger" isn't a real job, but "Bloke Who Sits On His Arse Surfing The Internets" surely is. I don't even want a wage, or anything. I do it for free. That's how much of a great bloke I am.

Plus, modesty.

On-topic moment: *shrug* Fat princess. Can't say it's something to get worked up about, really.*shrug*

 

[Aragorn]

Blogger is a job if someone pays you to do it. Of course, for reporters, blogging is something they do in addition to writing actual articles.

How would a game go over about a naturally thin, athletic, beautiful princess who can't gain weight no matter how much bad food she stuffs herself with?

 

[Ceridwen]

But sure, random people on the Internet, who knows what they do or if they're even qualified to speak about anything they post.

That's who I mean. "Author" is a job title, "blogger" is not.

Well, I've been paid to do trainings on LGBT issues. I've also been paid to speak about the intersection of feminism with those issues. Am I qualified enough for you to take my posts seriously?

Or how about you? What title do you hold that lets you sit in authority of what should or should not be offensive to women?

 

[sidious618]

As for the rest of you defending this game, how many of you are overweight women who get teased about their weight?

I'm an overweight man who has to put up with tonnes of shit about his weight, sees fat people lampooned (and sometimes even blamed for society's ills - bizarrely) in the media, and as far as I'm concerned the Feminist Crusaders are being fucking stupid.

The phrase "get a life" would seem appropriate (not to you, to them).

I'm sorry to hear that you get shit about that, man, because you seem like a good guy and you're interested in some cool shows.

Anyhow, I think this is being blown out of proportion especially since fat=good in this game.

 

[Hermiod]

Well, I've been paid to do trainings on LGBT issues. I've also been paid to speak about the intersection of feminism with those issues. Am I qualified enough for you to take my posts seriously?

Or how about you? What title do you hold that lets you sit in authority of what should or should not be offensive to women?

I've looked through my posts on this thread again and can find no evidence that I have said what should or should not be offensive to women.

I am criticising the source of this discussion. Her misuse of the word "heteronormative" betrays her as it does many feminists. What is she saying here ? Because this princess is fat she must be a lesbian too ?

I may not be qualified either, but then I'm not suddenly going to go in to a rage, misusing words because for once a person negatively portrayed in a video game is a woman instead of the billions of faceless, nameless men casually slaughtered in games every day. I'm not going to complain that the villains in most video games are men. I'm not going to complain that the world's most popular video game character, Mario, is an overweight Italian stereotype.