Archive for July, 2008
As if the world of gaming wasn’t unfriendly enough for women. Feministing caught wind of the latest steaming pile of circuits from Sony: a game called Fat Princess. The premise is capture-the-flag, except here the flag is a woman. Each team feeds their kidnap victim as much cake as possible in order to render her too heavy to carry back to the other side.
Sometimes I wish I wasn’t bound to family-friendly vocabulary. I am exceedingly creeped out by the way the woman is shown as inert, with no free will, no ability or desire to refuse forced feeding. I am upset by the idea that the GOAL is to render a woman immobile. And I can bet you that the game won’t show her fighting off your advances or struggling too much. No, no, that would be too disturbing, too weird. After all, who doesn’t like cake?
I wonder how many women were in the boardroom when they came up with this trash.
Some womenландшафт are criticizing this game for being offensive to the obese. And it is. The idea that a (victimized, abused) heavy woman can’t just stand up and walk out on her own is disgusting. Let me go a step further though, and say this game is offensive to all women. I’m no gamer, but it seems that our choices are either this or the hydraulic anatomy of Lara Croft. Mario is no bodybuilder and he gets around just fine on his own!
Do you ladies have experiences with video games that you want to share? What do you make of Fat Princess? Vent here or contact PlayStation yourself.
-A.I.
July 31st, 2008
A couple new About-Face events for you, Bay Area-ites! A series of Wednesdays: August 6, 13, and 20. We’d love to see you in person, so check out the details over on our Volunteer page.
- J.B.
July 28th, 2008
When Lorrie A. appeared on cosmetic-surgery reality show “The Swan” back in 2004, she didn’t know what she was getting herself into. Now she’s scarred and damaged. Have a look at her (very short) interview on E! News from Sunday:
About-Face took action around “The Swan”’s airing. The result: We sent in about 500 letters to Fox, the production company, and everyone else involved who we could find. Of course we didn’t hear back from them. We wish we’d been wrong about the show’s effects: More and more women feel they are inadequate enough to take a risk like cosmetic surgery, and the women on the show were harmed — just take Lorrie’s story.
What do you think? Was Lorrie duped by the show, or was she simply making poor choices at rock bottom?
(And by the way, please be compassionate and civil — Lorrie is a real person who may just be reading your comment.)
– J.B.
July 22nd, 2008
Recently we came across an honest, enlightening account of a mother and daughter’s experience with eating disorders, and we thought you should know about it. Distorted, a book by Lorri Antosz Benson and her daughter Taryn Leigh Benson, chronicles the experiences they respectively shared while Taryn was battling eating disorders as a teenager.
Distorted is an honest and holistic account of what happens when a loved one is struggling with a disease. I’m keen on emphasizing the word disease because this was the first time I deeply understood the fact that an eating disorder is a disease. It may play out differently than alcoholism, but the common link is that both alcoholics and people with eating disorders are consumed by their addiction.
The book is made up of journal entries submitted by the mother and daughter as they live through their experiences. This helps the reader understand the full impact of the disorder and how it affected the lives of everyone involved. Taryn’s entries recount the time of her disorder, and go in depth to explain her battle, the amount of time, energy and focus she put into her disorder, and how she covered it all up to keep it from her parents and her friends. The entries by Lorri, Taryn’s mother, account for the sadness, helplessness, and struggle the family faced and how the family was affected by Taryn’s disease. In great detail, we hear how she, as a mother, did everything possible to research and find solutions to help Taryn and how she coped with watching someone that she loves spiral downward. The reader is able to experience the transformation of both of these women. Through various methods of treatment, therapy, and personal conviction, Taryn finally gets to a place when she realizes she wants to survive and to treat herself well, and Lorri realizes that the only way Taryn will get better is if she wants to. The reader is able to see Lorri struggling with this concept in most of the book.
It was powerful to see the honesties (and dishonesties) of emotions unfold in the book. There is a moment when Taryn returns from her first eating disorder facility. Her parents hope she really is okay and has recovered, and her younger sisters, being more naïve and hopeful, think she is “cured.” However, as the weeks pass, the family begins to see familiar patterns and see Taryn’s drastic mood swings. One entry made by Lorri is particularly powerful for a mother to admit and feel:
“As I a saw my other two girls suffering, it was hard not to feel resentment towards Taryn. Although I intellectually knew she was also hurting, emotionally I hated what her inability to cope was doing for the rest of us. And of course, I couldn’t confront her, although my instincts told me to. I could hear the party line playing in my head. ‘She is harder on herself than we could ever be.’ So I journaled.”
While we have heard of stories in the media about girls with eating disorders, some simply sensationalistic, Taryn and Lorri’s account is real and sincere. This book is great for anyone to read who is recovering from an eating disorder and for those whose loved ones are dealing with one.
To buy the book, click here. Amazon.com gives About-Face a percentage of the proceeds from sales from our web site.
- A.J.
July 21st, 2008
Is it just me, or is the term “sex sells” getting as old as the phrase “surf’s up?” CNN, being the intellectual news source that it is (ha!) reported on something quite relevant. Yes, they did a short piece on bikini-clad baristas in Seattle, Washington. Apparently, these baristas are making double and triple the usual tips because they are wearing bikinis while brewing coffee instead of um…clothes. The coffee kiosk is located across from the needle landmark Seattle is best known for.
(Click the photo to watch the video on CNN’s site.)
The first thing I felt while watching this news clip was a distinct chill. The second was an extreme sense of irritation. I thought back to my family vacations as a child and wondered how I would have felt as a little girl seeing two young women in bikinis selling their, ahem “merchandise” (pun intended). How awkward would that be, especially if my parents were around? I would wonder if that is what it meant to be a woman — that in order to double my income, I would need to “flaunt it.”
And can we bring it back to the weather? What happens when it rains? Do they accessorize with Ugg boots to keep warm? Does someone make Ugg pasties for these poor girls? It all looks pretty gloomy in the video clip.
I could go on about the continued sexualization of women. I could also comment on the body types of these women. Would they receive less tips if they were 15 pounds heavier? Does the employer discrminate against applicants based on their sizes?
Instead, I am going to encourage action. If you live in Seattle and you know the coffee stand this news story is referring to, write or call them. Tell them to put clothes on their employees! Write to your local government’s tourism department and file a complaint. What is the real attraction to Seattle? And if you’re traveling to Seattle, please don’t encourage it by going to this stand, unless you’re going to take a stand.
–A.J.
July 14th, 2008
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