Viva La Revolución?
This Wired article made me feel really good.
Apparently, there is a very popular video game in Japan in which the goal is to restore a 220-pound ex-beauty queen to her former, date-able weight by restricting her calorie intake and forcing her to exercise. When she’s finally thin and beautiful again, she gets a hot boyfriend.
It’s actually a very clever idea for a video game, but at the same time it holds a lot of prejudices.
First of all, Japan is not known for being a country with very many overweight citizens. Thus, the emergence of the game within this context is full of a lot of judgments from the “other side” (aka the Skinnies.)
Second of all, it’s sending bad messages to the people who play it who actually have weight issues – it’s basically telling them they won’t be accepted until they’re hot again.
Really thinking about it, though, this game really should horribly offend me, but instead I’m only slightly miffed/saddened. It’s a little annoying, but I’m already get over it.
Perhaps I’m desensitized to the whole anti-fat people thing. And honestly, I’m just sick in general of the militant members of the fat acceptance movement who get tetchy about every single little thing about weight issues. While it’s nice to know people out there are fighting for my rights/freedoms/feelings, at the same time, it’s a little irksome to hear the same complaints over and over and over again.
I can’t help but see this video game through my “logical lenses” as well as my “I’m fat and discriminated against” lenses. It’s actually a very smart way of demonstrating how to lose weight healthily. And frankly, the goal and execution of the game is realistic. People all over the world want to lose weight in order to be attractive to someone good-looking. Everyone who’s ever been overweight feels it, or at least fantasizes about it at least once. And if they tell you they accept themselves for “who they are” and has never thought about it, they are 100% lying.
Maiden Love Revolution doesn’t necessarily make me feel great about myself, but maybe that’s the point. Maybe the makers see it as a way to inspire young people to treat their bodies better by eating right and exercising. Just because I’m fat myself doesn’t mean I don’t think that kind of lifestyle is the best way to be. I don’t live it because I’m lazy.
And that’s the truth, Ruth.
Poor Hitomi, the protagonist, is made fun of by some neighborhood boys for not being hot anymore.
Hitomi loses a half a pound and raises her Courage and Education stats!
The hot boyfriend she’s going to snag when she’s thin again!
Wow, that game’s like a literal example of what society’s brainwashed to think…and yeah I do get annoyed of hearing the same thing over and over again, maybe it’s just because most people aren’t listening?
I think it’s sad that some many people (including the heroine of this game!) want to lose weight to be attractive to OTHERS.
Why not lose weight to be healthy? To like the way you look? To be happy with yourself?
I’m currently a size 16/18. I’m trying to lose weight to be a size 10/12. Maybe a little smaller, but my goal is a 10/12. I don’t have a great need to be super skinny. I’m doing this for myself – so I can love how I look again. I’m married with a baby girl. My husband loves the way I look and I know he’ll love the way I look whether I’m a 22 or an 8. So I’m doing this to be healthy and happy. Not to snag a guy. Not so people will like the way I look. For myself.