Powerpuff Girls and fat

I recently got the complete Powerpuff Girls series for myself, and have been watching through it from beginning to end. I’m a big fan of it, though before now, I hadn’t seen as much of it as I thought I had.

And of course, its turning out to be much less fat-happy than I thought it was.

Now, in general, I find the series pretty empowering. The main characters are three created girls who were never intended to be boys, with a single male parent who does the domestic work and doesn’t claim it should be a woman’s job. When they do get a “stepmom” figure, everything goes awry. They all have their own distinct personalities, and while they have their stereotypically girly moments, they definitely possess more boyish traits too. And they’re smart (well, mostly), and use that to their advantage. Heck, the fact that the city is run behind-the-scenes by a woman who’s name is a play on words for “brain” is also made blatantly apparent.

All this is well and good and awesometacular, but when you look at how they treat size…well…things get a little disappointing.

The word “fat” is often used as an insult, especially by Bubbles. Some of the one-episode bad guys, like Roach Coach and the lazy cop and the scary fanboy, are also depicted as “obese.”

However, what gets me the most is how they treat Mary.

Mary is one of their classmates at Pokey Oaks kindergarten. She is a very nice girl. But she’s drawn much fatter than the other kids, and most of her characterization centers around her size. In the episode where Blossom gets her ice breath, the kids all end up outside for recess, and its unbelievably hot out. They’re all miserable, but of course the only one who freaks out about it – all nearly-passed-out on the ground and having trouble breathing and such – is Mary, the fat girl. In an episode where Princess Morebucks becomes Mayor, the Gangreen Gang attacks and takes over the kindergarten, and Little Arturo can be seen riding Mary like a large pig or something.  Then, in a later episode where Mojo Jojo tricks some of the classmates into helping him by giving them superpowers, Mary is among the group. The others want specific things, like ice breath or flight or lazer eyes. But when Mary gets the superpowers, she uses her newly heightened sense of smell to find an ice cream stand, flies there, and consumes at least two full cones of ice cream (which she might have even stolen).

WTF????

I’m only in season 3 right now, so hopefully it gets better. But as it is, how they talk about fat, and especially how Mary is depicted, really disappoints me as a fan of the show. I still like it, but I have to take it with a grain of salt (just like with X-men, god). And I’m rethinking showing the cartoon to my future children.

I may edit this entry if anything else applicable happens in the episodes I haven’t watched yet. As usual, we’ll see.

**EDIT** Something GOOD happened!!!

It was only 2 seconds long in a pan-shot of Townies, as they call them, but they showed a fat woman in a BIKINI sunning herself right up front!!! Insert happy dance here.

For Dom DeLuise

As many of you probably know already, comedic actor/chef Dom DeLuise passed away last night. I’m actually not familiar with a lot of his work, but I liked what I’ve seen, and obviously respected him as a visible and positive fat actor.

Of course, the Yahoo! article that alerted me to his passing blamed his weight on how much he loved food. If you want to be annoyed, you can read it here – http://omg.yahoo.com/news/dom-deluise-actor-comedian-and-chef-dies/22136?nc

Safe journey and brightest blessings, Mr. DeLuise. May the afterlife be much less fat-negative.

Wolverine and Mr. Woodcock – some warnings

Last Friday, I went to see the new Wolverine movie. I’m a big comic book nerd (in case you couldn’t tell already), so I was really excited for it. All in all, it wasn’t that bad.

However, the plot includes Freddy Dukes – more commonly known as The Blob. I’m glad they included him, because fat superpowered characters get little love, but – and I promise no spoilers – the way the handled his weight was totally ridiculous and I feel he only exists in the movie to get some fat jokes in.

So, assuming that you’re of a like mind to mine if you’re reading this, be prepared for that if you go see it. That and the laughter of other moviegoers at the poor fat man on the screen. Insensitive bastards.

Also, I recently saw the movie Mr. Woodcock. Yes, I know its been out forever, but a friend of mine has Netflix and it was on her que so she brought it over and we watched it.

It is one of the MOST fat-negative films I have EVER seen!

Not that I want to tell anyone what to do, obviously, but if you’re looking to rent that, just be forewarned that it spreads the fat-is-bad message in the worst way, and also claims in the end that letting a teacher emotionally and physically abuse your kids is a good thing for them.

Aaaaaand that’s all for now.

Ursula and princesses in general

Last night my girlfriend and I watched The Little Mermaid. We’ve both watched it several bajillion times before, but this time it sparked an interesting conversation about possible Feminist aspects of the story/film. A good chunk of this conversation centered around Ursula, and how she is portrayed and acts. Inspired by this, I planned on doing some Ursula fanart, and did a Google image search today for pictures of the crazy octopus lady. One of the pictures it suggested to me linked to the following entry in the blog Fat Feminism:

http://curvature.wordpress.com/2007/04/30/plus-size-princess/

I’d actually never read this blog before (which surprises me, it looks like something I’d enjoy), and I found her entry interesting. She has a lot of good points. I was a very solitary child, and kind of raised myself on fairy tales – mostly of the Disney variety – and as such, a lot of my work as an artist deals with examining and reclaiming fairy tales that have been warped by the media/sexism/sizeism/etc. So I totally understand what she’s getting at. The Disney princesses are scary in their anorexic-looking buildup. I want to give them sandwiches every time I see them. And on a not-size-related note, very few of them can be considered (at least in my opinion) strong female characters. So many of the earlier ones fit the “oh Prince Soandso, please come rescue helpless passive little old me and I shall love and worship you after only knowing you for five minutes”  stereotype/trend/whatnot.

So on that note, and with that in mind, I have far fewer problems with Fiona than she does. At least Fiona sticks up for herself and clearly knows what she wants. It does suck that she is not human – if she were a human character, I agree that it would probably be easier for young fat children of any gender to relate to her. But I think the fact that Fiona exists at all is a step in the right direction.

As for Ursula, I think that it is overlooked often that she is a) very powerful b) honest about what she’s doing – she tells Ariel that she has “raked people across the coals” before, and makes it clear what will happen to her if she fails to get the Prince, and c) has a past history with Triton that has made her a bit, well, wonky. She used to live in the palace, and its implied that she held a postion of power there. I think its entirely possible that she wasn’t always crazy, evil, and hell-bent on revenge. We don’t even know for sure if she sabotaged the goals of her previous victims – the only reason she messes with Ariel’s efforts is to get at her father. It is possible that she gave everyone else a fair shot.

I think it would be totally phenomenal if Disney did a Little Mermaid prequel (since every one of their movies is a series now) that showed how Ursula was before and what happened that lead to her downfall. They could show her as a confident, gorgeous fat woman who knows her own strength and power and maybe just gets screwed over and unfairly treated, as fat girls are often unfairly treated.

…Yes, I realize that this will probably never happen, but it sounds awesome in theory. And that fanart I planned on doing that lead to this post will now show her like that.

And to end this entry on a positive note, look what else I found in my Google search:

http://community.thenewstribune.com/node/41376

I don’t know who’s arm that is, but that is fantastic.

“Reality” TV – More to Love

I just logged onto Yahoo to check my mail, and found the following article:

http://tv.yahoo.com/show/28908/news/urn:newsml:tv.reuters.com:20090330:us_fox__ER:28527

Apparently there’s going to be a reality bachelor-esque “dating” show for people who don’t look like supermodels.

….I’m not sure how I feel about this. I may have to watch and find out. And though there are some things in the article that make me go “wtf?”, and in general I don’t like reality TV, this might actually be a good sign. Maybe. I hope.

Christopher Walken, maybe, on Oprah

So, like many people recently, I have found Christopher Walken’s Twitter. Yes, Christopher Walken. It is too bizzarre to not really  be him – no one else is that weird. And even if its not him, I feel that the random person it might actually be deserves all the applause in the universe for being that convincing.

But that’s not the point. He had the following, TOTALLY AMAZING thing to say about the “Oprah is fat again” situation:

“Oprah is fat again is what I heard. She’s a beautiful woman who would do well to accept that. Let Gwyneth Paltrow be skinny and peculiar.”

Bravo, Christopher Walken. Bravo.

EDIT: As someone pointed out to me in a comment on this, it isn’t actually the real Christopher Walken ^^; Its really many different people, which I still find impressive, because they all sound so much like him. And I still second the fake Christopher Walken’s point. So yeah, so there.

Etta Candy and the animated Wonder Woman film

Okay, so I finally got my own copy of the new Wonder Woman movie (the animated one that came out on Tuesday), and watched it last night.

All in all it was pretty good. There were some lines that made me twitch (“It’s not polite to hit a lady” - wtf?), and I hate Hades’ character design – its just not him, but in general it kept the core themes of the story intact, didn’t stray too much from the original origins, didn’t bastardize Greek mythology toomuch, put good focus on how the Amazons are about men, and showed the conflicts and confusions that would arise when their culture clashes with our own. Most of the stereotypical girly-girl comments were made with sarcasm, so yeah. Good on that.

However, there was a HUGE insult paid to a character who has ALWAYS been a fat girl, and if I can write a capstone project talking about Wonder Woman’s body image, I can certainley talk about hers.

Etta Candy has been a supporting character in the series since it began. I don’t have any images of her right now (since I’m at work), but if you Google her, good pictures pop right up. Anyway, since she was first created she was fat, and for most of the comic’s history, she’s been drawn that way. In the 70’s there were some issues where she suddenly slimmed down, without explanation, but those were AU – in the main storyline she was still a big girl.  After the Golden Age, she didn’t have a very important part in the story, but she was still there. Even in the first season of the live action Wonder Woman TV series (the only season Etta appeared in at all), she was played by a plumper actress. And though she sometimes reinforced fat stereotypes, she was still noticeable and important as one of the few fat girl characters in comicdom.

However, her incarnation in the recent Wonder Woman film was absolutely DISGUSTING.

Not only did they slim her down, making her even thinner than the Amazons appear in the film, she’s a vapid woman who uses her sex appeal to get what she wants from men. When we see her, for the two minutes she appears in the film, she’s trying to get Steve Trevor – a big strong man – to move a desk for poor little old her, just because she wants him to pay attention to her. Diana, like myself, is repulsed by her behavior. So at least they point out that she’s being ridiculous.

But it is so sad and wrong that they took this awesome, confident, fat girl character and literally diminished her. I’m very angry about it, actually. I still think the movie was pretty good, but that was ridiculous, and I would have loved the movie even more if a) they left Etta’s design and personality intact or b) they left her out altogether. Honestly, it would have been less damaging if they hadn’t included her in the film. Her short scene doesn’t even add anything to the story, other than to show Diana how some women act in this world, and that could have easily been done with another character.

I’ll try to edit this and upload pictures later, by the way. I don’t think you can really see my point without actually seeing her.

**EDIT**

Now with Pictures!

 

Etta Candy, as she usually appears in the 70’s.

Etta Candy as she originally appeared.

No image yet for the new crappy animated version, but we’ll see if we can get a screencap from the digital copy of the movie that came with the DVD.

Disrespect

I have noticed, lately, that the size-related opinions of those in favor of size-acceptance are often subtly disrespected. I base this on my own experiences, obviously, but I have a feeling other BBW’s/FA’s/BHM’s/etc. have noticed or encountered similar things. And this is of course separate from the discrimination fat people face – that is blatant and often on purpose. But what I mean is the little things – parents and friends who talk about their diets in front of you or how fat other people you know are getting, as if that’s not going to bother you and as if these discussions shouldn’t offend you at all because you’re “beyond” such things or whatever. Fat jokes made by those you have trusted with your self-respect, while the target is another fat person, as if that’s not going to offend you either. Friends who say they agree with you about this country’s issues with weight, then turn right around and say how proud they are that their girlfriend has lost X amount of pounds and how that inspires them to lose some. Other friends who triumphantly declare to you that they’ve bought a new pair of jeans, and now they can fit into a size 16 again.

Situations where weight needs to be lost for health reasons, or being glad that you can fit into smaller clothing because that means more clothes options are available to you, are a totally different story (and the clothes thing is a totally different rant). But all of the above situations are often image based, having nothing to do with health or money. And its just disrespectful, I feel, to hear these kinds of things from people who say they respect your opinions, understand, and care about you even if they disagree. In my case, these are often people who I avoid talking about size with because I know they don’t share the same views and I do respect that. But apparently its okay for them to do these little things that undermine my self respect – because face it, all negative fat-related comments hurt a fat person, even if those comments are not directly targeted at them.

That’s it for today, really. I just wanted to get these thoughts out in words since I feel I can’t say any of this to the people who caused them. They wouldn’t understand.

Some Annoyances

Yes yes, I have dropped off the face of the planet. Among other troubles, my computer isn’t working, so I’m behind on pretty much every internet thingy I do. I’m borrowing my llovely, amazing, generous llady’s macbook right now.

But that aside, I have a couple of annoyances to bitch about. And since that’s kinda what I made this blog for (raising awareness through my complaints), here I go.

Firstly, some of you may remember my post about the Runaways character Gertrude Yorkes. She is one of the few fat girls in comicdom, and is totally awesome. I love the series in general, and belong to a group on DeviantArt that collects fanart for the comic and provides a place for fans to talk about the characters, what’s going on in the story, etc. Each week the moderator posts a new Journal Discussion Topic in the club’s journal, with a question for members to answer and discuss/debate amongst themselves. This week’s topic: If the Runaways were in a fight amongst themselves, who would win?

Now, most of the people who commented said intelligent things, and a joke started about it being a food fight instead of a fist fight. Then of course, someone said something TOTALLY ridiculous. And of course, it was someone who until recently I thought was really cool. This individual said, in the context of a food fight, that Gert would win because she would eat all the food.

….Really? Wtf?

Now, in the series, yes, Gert is the fattest girl. However, she is not seen demanding food any more than the more anorexic-looking team members, or inhaling whole pizzas in under 5 minutes or anything like that. But this asshole assumes that because she’s fat, she must eat more than thin people do, and its okay to make fun of her for it (yes, I realize that I’m getting all worked up over a fictional character, but this is important to me and it definitely applies to real fat people too).

So I responded, asking him if that was indeed his lame attempt at a fat joke, and if he was really serious. We’ll see how this pans out.

Also, today at work, I was sitting at the front desk (I work as a receptionist at a hotel and we’re pretty much chained there) when a female server came up to use the elevator, instead of using the stairs. Because she asserted the desire to use the elevator instead of using the stairs, I made a half-serious joke about how I use the elevator a lot because I’m lazy (and laziness, my friends, has nothing to do with weight!). However, as soon as I said that this server made a weird face at me, then headed for the stairs after all, claiming she needed the exercise.

Now, maybe I’m being paranoid and oversensitive, but my conclusion from that was that she suddenly didn’t want to be like me, the fat girl, and exercised to prevent gaining the 5,000 pounds she would have suddenly gained by being like the fat girl. I jump to this conclusion, by the way, because I am very outspoken at work about my beliefs in terms of size-acceptance, and this server tends to be a vapid gossip. And of course, it ridiculously hurt my feelings. I was going to confront her about it, but being at work, there wasn’t really a good time. So instead I gripe and moan here ^^; Not as effective, but its too late now.

Finally, there was this thing on the news today about how obese people are supposedly more likely to get migraines. Where the study took place, who did the study, who was tested, or any other important and relevant information was not mentioned at all. All they said was that a study had been done, and it concluded that fat people get migraines. And somehow this was proof enough to broadcast this on television as truth. This is why I don’t watch mainstream news!!! But it was on the TV at work today during break, thus me seeing it.

And now off to try and forget this bollocksness.

BBW superhero in “Exiles”

One of the gifts I got early for Chrismayulannukwanzmas this year was a subscription to Marvel Comics’ Digital Comics Unlimited *supersonic fangirlish squee*

Anyway, for some reason the first series I started reading was “Exiles.” Its this really interesting story about a group of superheroes, all from different realities, who find themselves displaced in time because their realities have changed due to a ripple in the timestream. Some are missing loved ones, some have other catastrophes in their past, some weren’t even born. So in order to ever go home again, they are charged to fix the problems the ripple created, hopping from world to world, from time to time, encountering all sorts of problems and weird things. 

As is (annoyingly) expected, every main character fits the stereotypes of beauty that our culture promotes…though the women don’t look entirely like swizzle sticks, which is good.

However, in one of the earlier issues, they teamed up with many other superbeings in their current reality to fight a big bad. And one of these allies was a big fat lady superhero, named Frog:

Here’s a look at her closer-up:

Now, while it is annoying that they draw her somewhat unnattractively (what with all the wart-things and the very unkempt hair), I think its totally awesome that she a) shows up at all and b)  gets an important part in the Exiles’ plans, and even *gasp* a line! She appears to have enhanced strength of some kind, based on what she’s saying to Beast there. We aren’t given anything else, really, to go on as far as that. But women with super strength are awesome, in my opinion. And fat women with super strength are even more awesome

So, I felt I needed to point her out. I also plan on redesigning her and doing her justice through that sometime soon. Part of me wants to send that theoretical design to Marvel Comics once its done, but I don’t think I’m that brave. Still, I would love to do even more with her than just draw her. Can you imagine a comic about her? I think it would be great.

Here’s to hoping for that, even if I don’t get to do it.