Today I came across two entries on Yingna’s blog to do with long entries and “fat” people and looking “best”. Firstly I applaud her for speaking her mind, and rather controversially at that, but that’s about as much applauding as I can go. For context, she was also the person who expressed, what I thought, were rather thinly veiled racist remarks on a messageboard mentioned here (sorry the board thread has been removed since then). I feel bad to be seemingly targetting her, but if it’s any disclaimer, the following criticisms aren’t supposed to be personal attacks on the the blog writer, just her opinions, with my own opinions. At the end of the day, this is just an extra opinion on the matter. With that said, I am going to rip into her “observations”.
Regarding her first post
Firstly, I can’t help but note that she uses the word “fat” in two different lights. Contrast:
My denotation of fat may not be the same as yours.
and
Since, people with excess fat are usually overly sensitive to the topic…
If she really has a non-pejorative, specific definition of “fat” why does she go and make the overarching statement that people with “excess fat” are “overly sensitive”? Does she mean “excess” according to her definition or what is objectively considered “excess fat” (i.e. overweight -> obesity range)? In fact she goes on to say,
What this means is that when the girl is wearing a shirt and standing, bumps can be seen around her abdomen area. Any muffin top. Many times, the people who I consider fat are only considered chubby by others.
I don’t think most people who are merely “chubby” or even have a muffin top are “overly sensitive”. Heck, I’m developing somewhat of a muffin top, especially visible if I wear tight pants, and I’m 44kg (around 90 pounds). Does that mean I have excess weight? Umm, how about no? Even with my increasing potbelly, given my height (around 152cm -_-) my BMI is around the bottom ranges of “normal”. According to her definition, given my APPEARANCE (totally dependant on the tightness of clothing too), should I be “oversensitive” about my “hamburger shaped” body?
Another point is if the girl [presumably a "fat" one] writes that she is emo. I’ve only started to hear so many people utilizing the term emo in blog entries and descriptions of themselves. A few years ago, this word was not as popular.
Because of course, there weren’t any “fat” people before a few years ago. A few years ago (if I am to assume, two to three), blogging was never as popular as it is today anyway. The writer is linking “depressed”, “emo” entries to “fat” bloggers. She wrote in her comments that these are her observations, but did she note that maybe her observations are skewed to confirm her existing biases? Being depressed and emo is generally a social, teen problem and it doesn’t sound much more than just prejudicial to say that it is mainly correlated to a weight problem.
Days pass by and only the computer remains on, the screen never flickering as fingers type madly away at the keyboard. And then, a year later, when the girl discovers she’s gained another 10 pounds, no, maybe 20 pounds, will she give up the Internet? Most wouldn’t. Girls don’t give up opportunities to rant their little hearts out…
Yes, because girls don’t eventually have to go to high school, graduate, find a job or go to college/Uni. While it IS a problem in Japan with young adults (fat and NON-FAT ones of both genders) being incredibly anti-social, in the Western blogs that she seems to use as a stereotype, that is not the problem. She’s created this exaggerated, pessimistic, almost downward pit of anti-socialness that “fat” girl bloggers seem to necessarily descend into, without acknowledging that most of them would be forced by their environments to go out and change their lifestyles in some way. Oh and of course, we’re talking about girls with muffin tops. And finally, her advice,
Take a diet. Look better.
Not sure what she means by “look better”, but since when is a muffin top not good enough? Why take a diet when you can just eat healthy? Because I personally think there is a difference between telling someone to eat healthy rather than going on a diet. I think what most angers me about her post is the idea that girls can’t be comfortable with the way they look, muffin-top or no. Advocating for HEALTH is a good thing (e.g. with exercise), but her advice of “dieting” and “looking better” smacks of incredible superficialness. I guess it comes back to her definition of fat being no way connected to what is healthy amounts of fat (e.g. with BMI), but simply any fat that one can see.
Regarding her second post
Her first few paragraphs sound reasonable so there’s no need to comment on those. But I balked at her statements,
So, if a girl wants to win the heart of some boy, she will have to look her best.
Wait, WHAT? The easiest (non-ranting) way to put it is that it’s simply not true. There IS this thing called personality. Studies have found that knowing about a person’s behaviour can influence how you think of them. Pictures of the exact same woman, could get an “ugly/bitchy” or “pretty/kind” verdict depending on what subjects were told the woman in the picture was like. Even if one “looks their best” that would not necessarily win the “heart of some boy” (unless you want to date someone who’s going out purely by your looks). Yes, first impressions last but the first impression would very much depend on how down-to-earth, approachable, friendly, open you are. People who get together based on looks… I don’t think that’s a very viable solution.
By having an attractive figure and knowing you are attractive… this will help raise self-esteem.
What’s attractive? One can argue that someone who might not have model figure, and IS plump and chubby (I guess what she defines as a “hamburger person” -_-) does think of herself as attractive. Furthermore, her statement of course assumes that you need to have an attractive figure in order to raise self-esteem. What if already you have high self-esteem because you’re accomplished in academic/work and have a great social network; couldn’t that in itself boost your view of yourself and your appearance? Even if it doesn’t, if you’ve already got what you want, why would you need an “attractive figure” to raise self esteem?
Looking good can also lead to better health. There are many times when girls feel overshadowed by others because of their image. If the girl just started by having a good diet and exercised regularly, she wouldn’t be faced with the problem of being considered fat…
GUESS WHO ISN’T HELPING THE PROBLEM?!?! I find it odd that her conclusion to teen insecurities brought on by social standards is to simply conform to those standards. What happened to fighting back against cookie-cutter stereotypes and simply being happy with one’s body? Why isn’t the answer to teen girls being depressed about being overshadowed to reach out and tell them it’s okay for them to be the way that they are, rather than saying that they should try not to be what society (and the writer) calls “fat”?
Another reason for being good looking is just because of opportunities. You will gain more opportunities if you look your best. People would rather hire a slimmer girl than a fat girl for a job.
If I was a smart employer I’d hire someone who can do the job, not someone who looks a certain way. Unless you’re a modelling agency, if you’re looking to make money by hiring someone to perform a task, you’d want someone who’s capable, smart, a team player, a good learner etc etc. I’d think the profits made in a company overrides any notions of “appearance”. I really think the whole idea that the prettier/slimmer girl gets the job is probably decades old and the writer’s opinions comes across as mysognistic in the reasoning. If the writer believes in such archaic stereotypical notions, I wonder if she’d also think that men would get hired over women (not true as much anymore these days, thank goodness) because hey, that’s what happened during the “Industrial Revolutions of America”.
Phew, long post.
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