Forum - View topicAnime hates fat chicks?
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animefan4ever4848
Posts: 1 |
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I was perusing around this Asian American entertainment site called AAtheory.com and their headline read something like this:
"Anime Hates Fat Chicks," with a fat anime girl on the front. It has some pretty interesting arguments. http://aatheory.com/2010/10/op-ed-anime-hates-fat-chicks/ |
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dageiver
 Posts: 39 |
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You have to look at the target audience, in particular the people that buy anime in bulk. Its mainly Otaku and to a lesser extend younger women.
With the Japanese Otaku there seams to be a tendency for slight romanticising of characters. As for young women just google for studies on body image, women tend to be much more critical of the 'women body' then men. In both cases there is pressure to have a highly idealistic women's body. Also of note is the highly unrealistic bodies of most men in anime. Slim yet firmly toned, articulate collar bones and defined stomach. Really in the end I think this all falls under the category of body image in the media more then anything. |
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The King of Harts
 Posts: 6712 Location: Mount Crawford, Virginia |
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People need to stop blaming otaku for everything. Have you seen an American TV show? Yea, lots and lots of skinny people there too, so it's not a Japanese phenomenon.
For whatever reason, and I'm not saying it's right or wrong, the majority of both sexes seem to prefer lean and fit females as leads. Perhaps it's an instincts thing, I don't know, but I do know it's not the otaku's fault it's like that. Anime is just doing what every other country does by having 99.9% of it's females being lean. |
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Skylark
 Posts: 827 Location: ORE NO TSHIRT |
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I was going to say, you don't see that many fat women lead characters in movies or TV unless they're playing either the comedy or pity card. Which is kind of sad considering that obesity is plaguing the western world and is definitely an issue that needs addressing. I don't think it would be such a big thing in Japan though; afaik their obesity rates are very low, and being overweight has a social stigma attached to it; where here in Australia, (sadly I think) being overweight or obese is like a fact of life - as in people pretty much just acknowledge that it's what happens, as opposed to seeing it as something easily preventable, fixable, and one of the biggest causes of death and illness in the country.
Anyways, slight tangent, but the main point is unless it's making a statement about the fact, anime and media in general is going to stick with prevalent cultural norms of what is hot and what is not. EDIT: King of Harts got to it first. EDIT 2: I just read a bit into that article and honestly I think it's a bit of a joke. The guy gets offended at the pictures of anime chicks eating fatty food then becoming fat? People know the associated cost of living a high-sugar high-fat low exercise lifestyle; if they wanted to change they could. Those pictures aren't depicting anything anyone doesn't know. This article rubs me completely the wrong way; it shouldn't be a socially acceptable thing to be overweight for the fact that it is damaging to the individual. Weight issues are also linked to depression (like a downward spiral) and I've seen the firsthand effects of this in my mother. Articles like this are saying it's ok to be fat - you might think I'm cruel for saying this, but it's not. And I'm not talking about aesthetics, I'm talking about your personal health, wellbeing and happiness. There are people with conditions that can't help being obese for sure, but I'd bet that said people are in the minority in our mcdonald's loving west. Sorry, I went off on a bit of a rant there; actually reading it pans out a bit like a soapbox, which isn't really what I want. But I found that article very frustrating. I've seen the effects of being overweight and I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing for the media to instill the idea that being overweight is bad. I'm not saying that every person should be a supermodel swizzle-stick but our governments and societies could be doing more to help people who need it and will take it, in terms of weight issues. But no, they just keep smashing smokers. I paid $15 for a 25 pack of winfield blue and I'm going out to smoke one now. Health hypocrite for the win 
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15573 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I think the closest I have seen to positive images / main characters of over weight girls in anime is of Mitsudomoe, although she is not really often in a good light. And maybe of the girl in Ookami-san who used to be over weight, I think that was one of the first times in anime I saw that type of character being put in a sympathetic light.
Also one thing I have noticed is that often in anime character might be said to be getting big or something, though they look no different from others. It could be that the actual image we see of characters are sometimes meant to be a romanticised version of what they look like. Kind of like how in sci-fi movies people want to hate the ugly aliens, but like the attractive ones. I am waiting for maybe the time studios take the risk and pull what District 9 did for sci-fi. |
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hipnox
 Posts: 143 |
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What would Avatar have been if the Na'Vi looked like the xenomorphs from alien? or for that matter, what if the Na'vi where all fat? |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15573 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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It is easy to like exotic looking nature loving smirths, it is such more of a chalenge to want to see the good in scary looking groto living cockroach people. |
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Shenl742
Posts: 1525 |
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As pretty much summed up before, pop culture/media in general hate fat chicks. Remember the ****-storm that occured when Brittany Spears showed up at the MTV awards a couple years back?
It's all a very unfortunate, stupid stupid, thing...unless you're a guy on a sitcom, then you get to totally bang a hot chick 
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egoist
 Posts: 7762 |
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If anime really turned this girl on the left into this girl on the right, then why in the world is it not globalized yet!
Not saying that girl is cute, but I don't believe it. I must also add that we all know why McDonald's never succeeded at selling salads. Last edited by egoist on Tue Oct 19, 2010 9:46 am; edited 1 time in total |
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rwarwick
 Posts: 31 |
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In reading the article, these are the phrases that make me cringe:
"The fandom behind this entertainment cult is astounding" "Anime women are always over-sexualized." "You conform to the fantasy that is anime." All of the drawings, where the hell did he get these? "If you eat, you’ll become a fat-ass anime woman" (Has anyone ever gotten that message?) Op-eds always do this to me
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poilk92
 Posts: 433 Location: Long Beach California |
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uuuuuuuum. So what, the entire entertainment industry hates fat chicks this isn't new. Why do they hate fat chicks? Because no one likes fat chicks, its just with anime there is never any reason to have them because characters can have whatever body shape they chose. Barring a few outliers if we had a choice there would be no fat chicks in real life either
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DuelLadyS
 Posts: 1705 Location: WA state |
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Exactly- if you need real proof, grab a catalog/ad for a plus-sized clothing line. me and my brother's girlfriend were complaining about this just the other day... it's really obvious they're finding the absolute smallest women who can fit into these clothes, instead of, y'know, actually getting models the size of their main customer base. It's hardly anime exclusive. The modern world culture finds skinny people attractive. Anime consists of drawings, therefore, they can play up this interest unbound by reality. Personally, I would find it more demeaning if anime tried to add in overweight girls so real-life ones could 'feel better about themselves'. I mean, it's not like it's magically going to make the obessed otaku suddenly want to date overweight girls- and why would you want a guy that easily influenced by TV anyway? |
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The Holy American Empire
 Posts: 31 |
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Skylark is correct in noting low levels of Japanese obesity:
http://www.economist.com/node/17118939?story_id=17118939&fsrc=rss If you have nearly 35% of Americans being obese, and you never portray American obese people in a positive light there is probably an issue. But in Japan, with less that 5% of the population being obese, you can't expect them to be common, let alone viewed positively. |
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egoist
Posts: 7762 |
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Interesting chart. I always thought GB would be in second place. Perhaps it's about time to start distinguishing between pregnant and overweight women. But, hmm, I never really thought about it as it never bothered me, but they probably don't have many overweight protagonists as it would go over the ink budget, take background space, and would be nearly impossible to draw one inside those amazingly compact Japanese apartments. I'd hardly discriminate, though. Percentage wise, there are just as many annoying characters in one side of the coin as there are in the other. |
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rwarwick
Posts: 31 |
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Or mech cockpits 
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