I've been noticing that people are being intentionally obtuse and ignoring the fact that the whole point of this video is that someone being conventionally unattractive shouldn't mean they are dehumanized.
also being too attractive is apparently dehumanising (objectification), for example marylin monroe, hollywood actors/actresses, Influencers.. etc. it’s like two sides of the same coin. ya know?
What really annoys me is how, if there's a flat chested character in anime, their whole joke is that they wish they had bigger boobs and get super pissed whenever someone mentions the topic... Also how people with bigger chests are CONSTANTLY sexualized :/
It's men writing women chicken-egging culture. Men dont know what women (and girls) talk about, and that media is sometimes presented to kids which lead them to actually talking that way
I have bigger breasts and haven't really found that lol I'm like DD or E UK size and people never comment on it, I'm not even hit on more then the average woman. Particularly with how I'm 5 foot and how small in frame I am, it's pretty obvious proportionally I have big breasts. In anime and media sure, but none of that attitude has carried over to real life in my exsparience. The only person to comment on it is my husband 😂
I may give Owl House a lot of credit, but Owl House includes a fat-and-athletic character in Willow Park. More than that, she was crushed on first, before she reciprocated said crush. Even Boscha, a bully at the school Willow goes to, does not bully Willow for her weight- but because initially, Willow struggled with keeping up with magic expectations. Nothing to do with her weight, and she even keeps her glasses (there's no "more beautiful without glasses" trope).
I've been reading a lot of manhwa (korean cartoons) lately, and almost every character in a romance story has mentioned 'dieting' at least once to become 'more attractive', even if they're already drawn attractive and skinny. Also in media, every single 'hot' man has abs? Like come on now, no way that every guy 'naturally' has bodybuilder-level of visible toned muscles
I have a species that do that that I made, but like... They're literally a genetically-engineered abandoned bioweapon merfolk species who uses their muscles as their exoskeleton to pressurize their body (they're able to dive below the bottom of Challenger Deep, or to get thrown into space, and their outermost muscular system can resist the crushing depths AND the vacuum by exerting an equal amount of pressure to counter it), so they store their fat reserves by having marbled inner muscles and fatty-cell-lined organs instead of normal fat deposits, to avoid interfering with their exoskeleton and the way it anchors to their endoskeleton to help achieve the adjustable pressure stability. (they also would die of heat if they had blubber like a marine mammal predator, since the high metabolism means they also use their skin and breathing to shunt out all the heat their hypermetabolism generates) I'm pretty sure most anime protagonists aren't from a species that has those exact adaptations.
I feel like that too everytime when I see a fat character, they are seen as "pigs", "ugly", "slobs". I really hate that trope because I'm also a plus-sized person(female). Thank you so much for pointing out this issue.
@@NiloNova I actually am trying. I used to be smaller but then after the quarantine, I gained weight and I also started to have depression over the years.
@@NiloNova being plus-sized doesn’t necessarily mean you’re unhealthy, and assuming all people who fit that term are being irresponsible with their health can be harmful
@@NiloNova if you were going to be fatphobic, take your shit somewhere else dude. No one cares about what you THINK about fat people, quit being the problem and feeding into the trope of fat = unhealthy. You can be perfectly fine and still be overweight (you, like many people just jump to the conclusion we're trying to glorify morbid obesity, if someone is fat and can still do almost everything a skinny people can do, stfu).
Unironically, a video game called rain world has a really good fat playable character. They are a slugcat (the creatures you play as ingame), and they are strong, intelligent and resourceful. Their character is portrayed as a legend and a strongman. They do require a large amount of food in the game mechanics, but so do a lot of the smaller slugcats. Also they are good with the tribe's slugpups :)
@@noctuabird Rainworld is awesome, definitely recommend it. It’s also really hard, though, but the creature AI is some of the coolest and most complex in a game I’ve ever seen.
One great example of a good plus-sized character in media is (in my opinion) Diane from Bojack Horseman. She started as a more skinnier woman and throughout the series she gained more and more weight. And it wasnt played for a joke or something like that. It was a part of her character and it was used for her development. Her weight change was caused by antidepressants and by her changing mental state.
Also bothers me when people draw fanart for characters and they change the body type to fit in 'conveniently attractive' bin. It doesn't take much, internet.
In anime there's near to no fat characters because obesity rates are extremely low so when there is an obese person their only thought is "they must eat a lot" so that becomes the trope. Anime always plays on tropes to an unhealthy degree
I would bet there are not much women with massive breast, tighs and butt in Japan (some may argue anywhere) Which is weird why they are so common as people find a different body type more attractive in real life. Would they count as fat characters or does fat have to be stored or shown in certain places for a person to be considered fat?
@@sugarzblossom8168 "I would bet there are not much women with massive breast, tighs and butt in Japan (some may argue anywhere)" You'd be surprised. "Would they count as fat characters or does fat have to be stored or shown in certain places for a person to be considered fat?" Being fat is determined by their BMI and waist size.
It regardless shouldn’t be used as an excuse, just because you don’t see many people of different skin tones where you live doesn’t mean you shouldn’t draw any people of different skin tones, just because you don’t see many plus sized people doesn’t mean they don’t exist, etc. If you don’t know how to draw them because of that it’s not an excuse, educate yourself and draw them, use references!
@@uanime1 how susprised exactly? People in Japan generally prefer thin to voluptuous. Just find it rare that they are more common not that those characters exist at all. The hourglass figure may not be rare and having big breast and but may not be either but having a very thin waist with those other features is rare.
I remember when I was younger the whole unrealistically thin trope was almost always a thing with females which I heavily dislike to this day- all females that had an ‘hourglass’ body shape were considered attractive and had many men all too fond of them whereas the characters considered more meek (both with men and women) were thin although also beautiful which I myself disliked, villains were overweight and ‘ugly’. So I definitely agree with the points made in this video which as always was of very good quality, thanks for posting this :D Edit: that’s a lot of likes, cheers people!
"I remember when I was younger the whole unrealistically thin trope" You mean a healthy body weight. "was almost always a thing with females which I heavily dislike to this day" Because they remind you that you're overweight? "all females that had an ‘hourglass’ body shape were considered attractive" They still are. "whereas the characters considered more meek (both with men and women) were thin although also beautiful which I myself disliked" Because they were more attractive than you? "villains were overweight and ‘ugly’." What about the Dsiney villains Gaston (muscular) and Jafar (slim)?
Yeah even as a kid I didn’t like when the villain was super overweight and the mc was perfect hourglass unrealistically skinny, it just really annoyed me for some reason
@@uanime1 That’s a fair point and I definitely phrased that sentence wrong, thank you, Gaston is very much an example that goes against the point I made with the overweight villain trope. However I have to disagree with the point you made about the healthy body weight somewhat, yes characters can be thin but when a full cast of female characters (maybe male) are unrealistically skinny for the sake of beauty standards: take equestria girls for example, that just makes a whole thing about them all being thin without representation. This also happens a lot in anime (I rarely watch it but I have seen trailers and UA-cam videos commenting on it) But yes this still happens, I should have stated that more clearly, thanks :>
@@sageourplanetmeow Also "healthy body weight" still tends to ignore many factors like muscle mass, bone density, metabolism, actual weight distribution, one's actual lifestyle, et cetera and just reduces things to "who gets me hard".
One of my ocs is a little bit chubby, but is also attractive, which is a step in the right direction. She’s super energetic but also awkward and insecure. I was gonna make her insecure about her body, but this video made me reconsider that. It’s definitely better for her weight to have nothing to do with her character. So thank you, Celestia, for bringing this to my attention
She sounds like a good character!! but the "It’s definitely better for her weight to have nothing to do with her character." part is something i disagree with. While it is a fine concern, having your oc be insecure about her weight isnt inherently a bad thing. As humans, we all have various insecurities, and in today's world it'd make sense for her to be insecure about that sort of thing if you feel that it'd fit her. The problem (as addressed in this video) comes whenever her weight (or, in this case her insecurity about her weight) becomes a huge part of her personality and how she's portrayed. You seem to have more ideas for her personality beyond just her weight, so I personally don't see any issue!
I also have one that's a bit chubby but also no one dares mock him for it because he's a god. I have 2 characters that are mean and would mock him for it, but they are scared of him
People say that fat characters exist like that because of the whole fat is dangerous thing, but if that's the case, wouldn't depicting them more neutrally rather than bumbling buffoons or villains be more effective at possibly convincing larger people to lose weight? After all. stress eating exists, and can be caused by bullying.
"People say that fat characters exist like that because of the whole fat is dangerous thing" Medical evidence proves being overweight is bad for you. "wouldn't depicting them more neutrally rather than bumbling buffoons or villains be more effective at possibly convincing larger people to lose weight?" Why would they lose weight if they have positive fat role models?
They don’t care about your health tbh. They just want you to fit their image of what’s “correct.” I have long hair as a man, and get compliments all the time about how nice it’s kept (which is a little weird tbh like it’s expected for me to have dirty hair?), but I also get lots of comments that men shouldn’t have long hair, that I should cut it, that they would “totally be into” me if I cut my hair and…. I don’t care lmao. They don’t care that my hair makes me happy, they want me to look the way they expect/desire.
@@anubis7457one of my friends is a guy with long hair and the fact that anyone, and not even just one person has asked me to ask him to cut it??? Honestly my respect for those people plummeted when they said that, they can’t even say it to his face
"My love story!!!" is an AMAZING anime when talking about stereotypes. Takeo (the main character) is seen as an "ugly" character, yet he still is the most amazing character i've ever seen in an anime. I really recommend watching this anime if you're looking for some smiles and a cute love story
A thing that also annoys is when the actual creator DID include a little bit more diversity but when it’s adapted to animation, that’s removed or edited. In the MHA manga, several of the girls are drawn with a little extra weight on them. It’s more of an average/slightly bigger size but that matters! As an aside, Miruko is also different when drawn by the mangaka than she’s animated in the show, she’s a few shades darker. Most of the time the excuse I see is that it’s “harder” to animate diverse bodies (usually from fans, not animators) and that really peeves me off. It’s also difficult to animate exciting fight scenes, highly detailed characters etc, but that certainly doesn’t stop anyone!
thank you so much for bringing up underweight representation!! it's not as severe as what fat people face, but as a severely underweight cosplayer i've never been able to comfortably do it in public. it sucks when i ask for ideas on who to cosplay and the only answers are either child or creepy/ill characters, and it's even worse that no one ever brings this up😭
Such an interesting topic and important as well. If anyone needs suggestions of animated series with a lot of body diversity, I recommend "She-ra and the Princesses of Power": the characters all having different bodies was an highlight for me, in addition to a lot of other qualities of the show.
Love that show. Regarding body types, I was super happy with it. Glimmer especially having a square body type, but never having it brought up or insulted because shes a princess/eventual queen. She doesn't ever change her body because she's perfect the way she is!
Exactly! Glimmer is such a cool character, one of my favourites! My only regret about character design in "She-ra" is that there is not the same body diversity for the male characters.
I remember there was this anime about a chubby protagonist girl who got very depressed due something bad happenning to their favorite character in an anime/show(?) (I'm being kinda ambiguous because I don't remember the details, not even the anime's name). By consecuence of her depression, she locked herself in her room for a whole week where she starved herself in the process. When she came out, she magically was reduced from chubby, to "pretty attractive underweight girl". The author really made sure to emphasize the attractive part since her facial features (like the eyes and lips) got a major glowup that she somehow didn't have when she was chubby? I remember the anime being pretty funny overall and a good watch, but the way they projected mental illnesses and eating disorders as "funny", "relatable" or a gateway for our problems without the show being remotely serious or "deep" (meaning they included them just for the sake of comedy) was very upsetting.
YES! Yes to all of this! Thank you so much for delving into this topic - as an artist who draws fat characters all the time, we need to normalize that any character of any weight can play ANY role, no matter their weight. Good, bad, smart, dumb, straightlaced, sexy - it's all about variety and not reducing them to tropes and stereotypes. Thank you for your input! ☺💖
A big issue i had with learning character design was how dependant so many designers were on skinny bodies with bulky clothing and hair to make interesting silhouettes, but ive found since then that plus size bodies have way more potential for stylisation via shape language. Thick thighs save lives but also are very visually interesting and can be soft and curved, squarish with muscular calves, or sharp and angular. Though bulky clothing may look odd, I'd advise designing clothing alongside the body shape rather than trying to make it bigger. Big stylised hair still works a treat, but I'd recommend adding more visual intrigue with the angles at which the clothing item's relate to eachother (eg: seam lines over the body, tight vs loose articles, layering, etc). Dont fight against plus size bodies! They arent an obstacle, they're a guide! And they're really fun to draw!
I think a really good example of a character with an unconventional body type in media would be Sophocles from the Pokémon Sun & Moon games. His appearance is pretty much never brought up in the games and he’s allowed to simply exist as an individual in the universe without his body type being a caricature or the receiving end of any kind of negative joke. In fact, one of the the primary things he’s characterized by is his intelligence and inventive ability, and he’s also in a ‘Trial Captain’ position, making him basically THE Electro Pokémon user in the Sun & Moon games. And even if occasionally it could be argued that the Sun & Moon anime falls into some negative stereotypes regarding his body type, his portrayal in the animated series is also overall pretty good as well. The series establishes his goals and also showcases his intelligence and love and curiosity for all things technology, and the anime gives him some really funny moments that don’t rely on making fun of him (like when he asks to dissect Rotom in episode 3). Regardless of what anyone’s opinion is on the Sun/Moon anime or games or on the Pokémon series as a whole, I do think the existence of Sophocles as a character provides a rather healthy outlook on plus-size people that’s good to see in media, especially for a franchise that’s geared towards children.
my main annoyance with animated stuff that has "plus size characters" is that most of the time its not real size diversity its like one person wears a small instead of an xxxs which IK sizing is chaos but thats the best way I could word it. The other way that I see is when the bigger person is really big and then everyone else is practically a stick figure, with no in between sizes like at all
"THE FAT CHARACTER IS BAD!" yet shows a Danganronpa character in the thumbnail... While yes Hifumi is portrayed with stereotypical traits like you mentioned in the video, he still plays an important role in trial 1 and 3. Not to mention that Hifumi isn't the only fat character in Danganronpa too. The ultimate impostor and Teruteru are fat characters too. Teruteru also suffers from being pervy but he's not one dimensional and has a pretty rich character for dying in the first chapter. However I think the ultimate impostor is a example of a good example of a "fat character" (i'll only mention the games as i havent and dont really plan to watch the anime loll.) He's incredibly caring and protective of his fellow classmates. Hell, he even risked his (and lost) his life just to save everyone from a potential murderer. Sure he brings up his weight for a couple jokes but it's really only brought up by him, he isn't stereotyped for his weight by the other characters. But in the short time he's alive his character blossoms as he's shown to be a natural leader to the rest of the class and has his own one to one scenes with the protagonist; Hajime. He's also shrouded in mystery as his true identity is hidden from the player until *the last chapter*. If he isn't an important character then I don't know who is! TLDR: using danganronpa on the thumbnail is weird because there are other fat characters that arent bad
The impostor is one of the most heroic characters in the anime. He rescues his classmate when he pretends to be him and gets him a nurse when he sees his health is failing. He only fails because of Junko. But no one wins against Junko.
@meat3958 they literally have relationships and date each other, they act like adults a lot of the time, Tweek and Craig are literally canonically gay and dating
@@Haunted_Plush Yeah, and… They’re still 10? Just because they write it into the show doesn’t mean a bunch of mfs should be fixated on shipping fictional children together, that’s what we have adults for 👍
Can you talk about Ugly or unattractive female characters compared to ugly or unattractive male characters. One seems to be more prominent that the other and seem to be less of a problem to people in general than the other. It is not just being ugly but being creepy, scary, alien, monstrous and being unconventional when it comes to gender traits. Male characters to me seem to have more allowance.
Hey, while I agree with male characters having more freedom, just because one group has it worse than the other doesn’t mean that the other group isn’t also negatively affected by such representation. I grew up as a fat male and was bullied by my peers for it. I’m pretty sure the media played the part in how those boys and girls saw me. Also think about characters like Dudley who are given wide proportions to accentuate their bad qualities. There are some but not MANY positive portrayals of fat men in both live-action and animated media. Think about comic book guy from The Simpsons or Recess. I personally believe that patriarchy requires mind to embody some really stifling gender norms, which include being overly ambitious, a constant hard worker, and possessing an almost unrealistic, hard body.
thank you for talking about how underweight people also can be affected by this, they seem to get not as much recognition and attention as people who are overweight from what i've seen (but idk that's just me, maybe i'm wrong) the world is full of different body types too, and it sometimes seems like the really "cool", curvy/muscular, slender and "attractive" character vs. the really "lame", overly fat/skinny, lazy/incompetent, weak, "unattractive" character thing is doing almost as much if not more harm than good, even if the big media makers are doing it to appeal to a certain demographic and be more successful, it will offend a lot more and if they just did a cast of characters which had a variety of body types in "good" and "bad" characters each it would appeal to everyone
if anyone is willing to help, i'd like some opinions on an OC design: is it problematic to have a character that is the most "shut-in" of the group also be the chubbiest one? she spends most of her time at home and doesn't really like to go outside. she's also somewhat socially inept due to her weird interests and way of speaking but she's also charismatic and a go-getter of sorts. her entire personality isn't defined by that, but i'm worried (especially at the beginning of the story when the viewers know barely anything about her) that it'll come off as "fat, nerd, socially inept" stereotype.
I don't see a problem with it, and I'm fat. I could see it potentially being a problem ONLY IF there were other red flags accompanying it, like being slobbish/dumb/etc where skinny characters aren't, but you're coming at it from a good place and I think people will be able to tell that. I really appreciate you asking! It shows a lot of care :)
Depends on how you're framing it. I'd figure a recluse would undoubtedly be a bit out of shape, but again, I don't see the inherent problem with it as long as their character traits are positive.
As long as she's a proper well-rounded character with more depth than just "fat socially-inept shut-in" I think it's fine. Just because certain traits put together might superficially resemble a stereotype doesn't mean you can't write a non-stereotypical character with those traits. Hell you might even use that to deconstruct the stereotype, which could be pretty cool if done right
Don't'chu worry, you're not the one needing to burden yourself with the need to balance the tropes, the fact that you're considering the place your art has as a representation of the group is well enough. Have fun, and make your character as you please, the baseline is not using the body-type to shame them for having it.
For the past year now, I live at my father's place instead of my toxic mother's place, and since I started having a lot more freedom on what I eat and that I don't go out as much as I used to, it caused me to gain a bit of weight. The show I plan to create someday, though it won't happen in a long time because I'm an unemployed burden to society, will have a "me" in it. She won't be a Mary Sue since I'm extremely wary of Mary Sue personas and I'm extremely careful to not create one. And since I have a bit of extra weight now, so will she. She'll be a bit chubby, just like me. I personally like chubby body types. I think it's cute.
@@aisldqz Thank you ^^ You don't know how much it means that someone cares ^^ Also my father isn't perfect (transphobia but not as bad as my mother's and he never tries the things I like while I always try the things he likes), but it's still better. Also if you want I could tell you about the show (story, character and all that). I have MANY ideas and I'm sure it'll be great ^^
I sometimes wish fat people being seen as cute, because they can be really cute or attractive. It’s such a same mainstream media won’t show this anytime soon.
As someone who's overweight, and has been actively making healthier choices since late 2021. I have a few things that I wanna say (sorry for the essay btw) : I feel like people leaving more recent comments should know a few things before automatically assuming that people who *look* overweight are automatically unhealthy. Or trying to tell people to lose weight because it's unhealthy to be fat. There exist people who have dieted & exercised for months and even years, without their appearances ever changing. People with actual allergies to vegetables. Those who have an intolerance to exercise, due to health issues need treatment from a doctor, which makes it difficult to start exercising. I could probably keep going. Even if someone actually is obese, overweight, or just unhealthy in general. They could have a food addiction, I.E. binge eating disorder. Which isn't that easy to get rid of since it's an addiction/ disorder. One that could stem from things like stress and using food (often in large quantities) as a coping mechanism. Either way. And again as a fat person, I have personally never felt motivated when anyone told me to lose weight, exercise, or diet. I only ever started feeling motivated when someone told me to try to become the inspiration that I've never had. And it worked. I went from around 310 Ibs (141 Kg) to 285 Ibs (129 Kg) within the first year of starting. So needless to say. I feel like we should try to at least be a bit considerate when telling people those things. Who knows. Maybe a gentle nudge in the right direction to inspire them, could work far better than just saying that being fat is unhealthy. I guess that it just bothers me when I see people putting fat people down, all for the sake of health. Without even knowing anything about them (especially on the internet because of anonymity). I'd much rather see people not just give nonchalant answers or opinions. And instead. Try to uplift people and motivate them to get healthier. Because we're all going through a lot on this planet no matter where we are. And the last thing we need to do to each other is rip each other apart whether intentionally or not. And just a quick side note. It's not out of touch to say that a country has a lot of work to do in a social sense. Just because different types of people are treated differently in other places. Things like culture or societal norms do not excuse the mistreatment of those people. And if it is culture at hand. Cultures can always be redefined, not completely changed, but changed enough to avoid further hostility & ill-treatment towards others.
P.S. Just some tips for anyone who wants to lose weight. Try to practice some forms of self love as well. Self respect is important. I tried to be easier on myself and go with the flow. Slowly starting up a yoga routine daily. Monitoring how much sugar that I'd consume in a day and count calories (but eat a little bit more if I felt starved or malnourished). If I felt like eating a snack, I'd just drink water unless I was hungry for a full meal. Starting off slowly and making it a life routine/ change has made it easier for me to keep going. Adding healthy eating habits, some form of exercise, and self-respect will help you not only feel healthier, but also feel happier with yourself. Best of luck, I believe in you! ❤
the message at 11:50 is all the more prevalent in the infamous kids' book Maggie Goes on a Diet, in which the title character Maggie is scorned and looked down on for being overweight, but once she loses weight, she's treated with great respect and becomes popular. This is the exact type of toxic thinking writers need to get away from.
This is something that will most likely never change. Artists tend to draw things that are attractive and skinny people are seen as attractive. Unless you fundamentally change the way humans perceive what is attractive, this problem will always persist. It's also the reason why the most common thing drawn is attractive girls/women
Maybe i haven't seen enough anime or cartoons but pretty much every fat character i've seen is the trope of a likeable, chill and loveable person, the trope of a big fluffy ball of love to put it bluntly. Also when they're portrayed in a bad light pretty much always are portrayed as a part of a group of losers or nerds instead of being isolated by themselves, with bad personality traits that are shared among the others in the group and the main reason why those chatacters are unlikeable, while one of them happens to be fat. The times fat people are portrayed as you point on the video pretty much everytime the audience sides with the fat person because the antagonist of the chatacter, is mainly a highly disrespectful asshole that is intended to be dislikeable to begin with. So maybe it's me but i dont see direct discrimination and hostility towards fat chatacter, and when i see it is not because they're fat, its because they're a highly flawed human being that *happens* to be fat.
Reminds me of that one comic by Merryweather with a big character and his wife and the wife was defending him from some d*ckhead who was berating her husband assuming the husband was an ugly bastard(y'know, THOSE ugly bastards).
I have seen some of each. Some series where being fat is an seemingly important character trait as it is brought up a lot. I have seen things that are meant to be comedic because a person is fat or everyone making fun of a character because of their size. On the other hand I have seen fat characters exist without their weight coming up or being laughed at and insulted
@@sugarzblossom8168I’ve seen an anime where the entire first few episodes is them making fun of the over weight mc, and praising her for unhealthy eating. Like UH- nah
A weird example for me would be "The Fat Controller" from Thomas and Friends. On one hand, he's often presented as a firm but fair boss/father figure. But, on the other hand, there's a running gag about how whenever he gets a phone call, he's always eating something or drinking tea. It didn't really help that outside observers perpetuated the idea that he was a tyrant who over works his engines, although it's not canon.
Pokemon characters show more diversity, theres different weights, skintones, strength and personalities that don't revolve around their weights or other trait. Theres the belly folds and six packs with all genders at not only makeing men stronger than women like various other media does
I really love fat characters and skinny characters or normal body characters but i hate how people calling that fat characters are worst,I really love Owen from total drama island because he so silly! Love all bodies❤
Thank you for speaking about this. It really makes me think. In my current comic story, most of the main cast is lean/a bit muscular, but that's because they're in the military. I realized that the bodies weren't diverse enough, so I decided to have my MC be a bit chubby before joining the military, and to have more side characters be fatter as well. I mean, it takes place on Mars, so it would make more sense for people to have more body weight in general. I also decided that I want to be more deliberate about shape language to differentiate the lean bodies mostly seen throughout the story. I grew up with the German FKK culture (naturist), and have seen MANY different types of bodies, yet I'm heavily inspired by anime and manga. I can definitely improve in that area of my art. I have already taken steps to introduce more diversity! Queer diversity is nice and all, but visual diversity is important as well. Dunno how to end this comment lmao
I like to see people talking about the actual issues when it comes to the portrayal of fat people in media. I feel like a lot of the time people get mad over meaningless things when it pertains to this topic. Cough cough Sashley drama cough cough.
I’m someone who does meet “impossible” standards (I’m not really pretty, I just am a little underweight and naturally skinnier than most at a healthy weight) I have still been irked at the way fat people were portrayed in media. I feel like it contributes to my negative self image and perception of others who are fat. Im seriously working on it so thanks for the video.
This reminds me of a quote from a very goofy movie, said by PJ : "It is endemic of the current culture that those with large stature are overlooked, except by vultures, with no regard for the depth of their souls, the height of their passion, the beauty of their moments"
Sort of an aside, but the ridiculous idealized body types in anime are detrimental to the tranfem community as well. Anime is very popular among a lot of transfeminine people and too many of us look at these impossibly curvaceous and beautiful 2d figures and compare ourselves to them rather than actual flesh and blood women.
Yes! Transmascs also feel it, with massive chiseled skinny tall men or tiny teenage looking boys. Like some of us are more androgynous or chubby or shorter. Basically, trans people get the short end of the representation stick lol.
@@tinnedteainsyrup8943 Realized I literally had two transmasc OC ideas in mind where one of them was just a straight up gigachad (thought also effectively a centuries-old demi-god lore-wise) and the other was an effeminate/GNC guy (my mentality was that too many GNC male characters are or are assumed to be cisgender men or AMAB so I wanted to shake things up with an AFAB example who also has a twin sister). I'll definitely admit that I indeed mostly want to draw things that appeal to myself but thanks for the insight.
I really appreciate this video, thank you for making it. This is a topic that is *very* close to my heart to the point where it can be upsetting to think about for too long. I've been fat basically since childhood, and it's really messed with my self worth. I have this innate feeling of being disgusting and unworthy of love because of my body. And whenever the topic gets brought up, I always feel like I have to defend myself, and I'm really tired of doing that. I'd like to be able to exist in peace without having to justify myself. I don't want to feel disgusting for what my body looks like. But it has been getting better...very slowly. Thank you to everyone who's contributed to that, everyone who's ever made an OC who just *happens* to be fat, rather than it being their whole personality. An aside: My favorite portrayal of a fat character in media is Barney in Dead End: Paranormal Park. He's just allowed to exist as himself and I think it only really comes up once, in a way that feels authentic and relatable, and not too heavy-handed. (I recommend that show to anyone who likes fun ghost mysteries with occasional mortal peril.)
ohhh that is my situation here too! SO sorry you also have to deal with all of that bc its one of the most annoying things ever, feeling like you dont have the right to live like everyone else does - that you need to defend shit
That's why i love sword girl from Danganronpa eden garden. Even tho she is chubby and she is fast as wind. Plus she's very adorable looking innocent girl.
i see a lot of people in the comments arguing against this by saying being fat is unhealthy. i just wanna know why, even if it is unhealthy, you think fat people warrant being put into these negative tropes in media and why you think more people shouldn't represent them normally. i don't see how showing fat people as normal characters is gonna 'promote obesity' because if someone's overweight to the point it's unhealthy then they're either going to work on that for the sake of their own health, or not ( in which case it's fine they can experience the consequences but its none of your business )
Oh yeah, forgot to mention that "overweight" merely means "above average" in overall weight without consideration for other things like muscle mass, bone density, or just how people's body types and metabolism will vary. It's also worth noting that nowadays, obesity is more characterized by mental health related issues such as eating disorders atop the physical health problems that DO come with being very overweight physically.
The funniest part is that Hifumi from Trigger Happy Havoc isn't close to being the most morally reprehensible character. He's just an anime fan (bad start, cringe) and made fun of for being overweight
I like drawing different body types, I've always had starting out because I thought it was fun. I want to make a show and ive been drawing a bunch of concept and think hard about all the plot n stuff and plan of having a chubbier hot character in it >:3
Shouldn't we also talk about the topic of "health" when talking about this topic? As much as it sucks, but a certain amount of over weight IS unhealthy to varying degrees. The same way beeing skinni till your bones show is unhealthy. They partly even share the same negative health symptoms: low stamina, weak hearts, tiredness, etc. This is probably a loaded question that can't be really answered, since morals varry from person to person, but: Should we push something that can negatively effect our health, or is alredy coused by a negatively effected health (like a sickness), as something desireable? ESPECIALLY in a country like america where the amount of unhealthily over weight citicens, including children, is so incredibly high? (This applies to extremly underwaight as well.) (Edit: just to clarify, I'm talking about the extrems here. Not the avarage body. Specifically the extrems of dangerously over weight and dangerously under weight)
not trying to be rude here so sorry if my tone is like that but. . in my experience and opinion, its less harmful to portray a diverse cast so that people *dont* feel pressure to be one specific body type. you have no idea the kind of mental health benefits that have come of it. liking or at least not hating my body has led to me treating it better! the moment someone mentions wanting representation of *realistic* bodies/chubby characters, theres always retort with a discussion of health as if they asked *specifically* for there to be representation of 5000 pound people like in that one reality show with the crane and o n l y 5000 pound people. .im tired of it lol. . people can be genetically predisposed to being fat. although it can be changed via lifestyle, its not *entirely* determined by lifestyle. . some people are just like that even with healthy lives, weightlifters sometimes look fat because their muscles arent as defined as bodybuilders' but this is an extreme example, some people just have a higher metabolism & store more carbs because of it. thanks for reading this.
It depends really, while yes to some point overweight can be unhealthy to a certain degree there have been some people who are overweight and had some sort of treatment for certain health risk through dieting and medication. Some overweight people can live out a healthy life due to those treatments, however losing some weight for an extremely overweight people can be good for their health but isn't always need due to surgery choices but that depends if it's truly need. However some form of mental health exist such as eating disorders which make's it a bit difficult for people who are normal weight/overweight to eat something, or people who are normal weight/overweight to stop eating something, most cause for the loss of eating are, depression, anorexia, avoidant/restrictive food intake (ASFI, for sort), and most causes for eating too much are, stress, bulimia, and binge-eating, which all is really difficult to mange if not treated or medicated if medication is need. Though even with eating disorders it's still possible to mange it and live a healthy life despite it being difficult, since most disorders are psychological and or emotional it take's a bit more time to overcome something though with the right treatment for it can still benefit greatly to one's health. For me personally since i have, tiredness and somewhat out of shape despite be being cubby and not super overweight, i am highly healthy for my age though i take medication for my celastrol due to my eating habits despite me being semi vegetarian and lacking vitamin d which i also take despite me eating stuff with vitamin d in it. Also it is so hard to get healthy foods in america, they make it so expensive that i can't even get any vegetarian plant meats, chicken, and fish, i mean the fruit, veggies, and dairy products are decent to get but still, no wonder the health system in america is so bad because the food is expensive, even for those who are struggling with money.
I remember when they used to show smoking as being cool or a rebel before people realised it led to lung cancer. Now it's always shown negatively. I wonder if one day they'll have to restrict fat characters for the same reason.
@@galacticpotato607 "in my experience and opinion, its less harmful to portray a diverse cast so that people dont feel pressure to be one specific body type." Even though some body types are more unhealthy than others? "liking or at least not hating my body has led to me treating it better!" If you're fat no matter how much you might like your body it's putting extra strain on your organs. "the moment someone mentions wanting representation of realistic bodies/chubby characters, theres always retort with a discussion of health as if they asked specifically for there to be representation of 5000 pound people like in that one reality show with the crane and o n l y 5000 pound people." The problem is those people are correct as fat people have been medically proven to be less healthy than slim ones. "people can be genetically predisposed to being fat." So what. They still suffer the same health problems because they're fat. "some people are just like that even with healthy lives" No they're not, that's why many countries have low obesity rates. "weightlifters sometimes look fat because their muscles arent as defined as bodybuilders'" So what. Muscles don't harm your body the same way high levels of fat do. Your entire post ignored that being fat is unhealthy because you want fat people to feel better about being fat. That's like saying we shouldn't tell people smoking causes cancer so smokers won't be sad.
the first time i saw a character with a similar body shape to me in an animation who wasn't just there to be ugly or a joke, i literally cried. that character and that show are so, so important to me now, and will be forever. these things are important. i wish i'd had that character when i was growing up, and i hope with all my heart that kids today and in the future get to see themselves represented in media more than i did.
I’ve been trying to learn how to draw different body types, I still think I’m not all that great at it, but at least I don’t draw fat characters as offensively as the Danganronpa team would 😬 They knock it out of the park with the Muscular characters though
honestly, I'd say I've seen many cases where "ideal" weight isn't always associated with the quality of a character. How many stories are there where there's this ripped gym bro who is sexually harassing women and needs to be put in his place by the protagonist? It seems like yesterday when all the media I saw on tv as a kid were school dramas that had a buff jock from the foot ball team picking on the skinny nerd. From my observation, I think the public has portrayed buff muscle men in a bad light than fat people who many times are portrayed as bully victim under dogs.
On a positive note, I think a really good character on the larger side is Cyanna by P.M. Seymore. She's so gorgeous and really proves the point being made in this video. Not all fat people are ugly. Cyanna is such a pretty character.
I used to have an eating disorder in high school becasue I wanted to be so so thin. I am still skeletal becasue I got my dads metabolism but please please please PLEASE never ever starve yourself to reach a weight. It will harm your body and your mind and your health is so much more important
If you want to see a positively portrayed and complex fat lead character in animation that already exists I’d highly recommend Dead End Paranormal Park. The lead is a fat trans man who is complex as well as depicted as deserving of love, he has a love interest who reciprocates to. Just in general that show is pretty great. A lot of interesting characters and a diverse cast. Really recommend it in general.
TW// overweight people being made fun of for eating too much (which is not true in MANY cases) gave me an ed LMAO (AND IT DIDN'T WORK I'M STILL OVERWEIGHT 💀) anYWAYS I CAN'T WATCH ALL OF THIS CUZ IT'S TRIGGERING FOR ME BUT YEAH
*Recent Wario-inspired indie games* and a cartoon show I used to watch back in 1st year of high school: *Oggy and the Cockroaches* neutralize my outlook towards everyone and made me adore fat and ugly yet competent and lovable protagonists. So thank heavens I no longer watch anime that much after quitting back in March.😮💨
On the topic of fat characters being main characters. Would a story where there was a main character who was overweight due to a eating disorder that was developed, But was consider quite attractive inside and out to the point where he gets the girl over the "Prince charming" who is a support to him in conquering the disorder as in what is causing it be interesting? I want to write a story but don't want to people offended anyone. The character does get over the disorder and loses some weight, but they never become a thin guy.
As someone who is a literal 2 by 4 I know people see me as weak or like they view me as a child because I'm small and easy to shove around because of it but I'm not and I've been constantly told I should eat more and it only messed with my depression I've had people tell me they wish they could be as thin as me but I actually don't like it because I have no padding on my bones and I get injured easily and bruised alot because of not having padding from extra meat and I've had people questioning me if I eat enough and do I need help? But I don't and it hasn't led to ED yet but it has gotten me to the point where If someone tells me to eat more I won't I'll lose my appetite and not wanting to eat but when they ask me if I'm being mistreated I force myself to over eat and if I think someone is think these things while I'm eating around them and it's very unhealthy for me and I also have a stomach issue where I don't get hungry or digest my food and the muscles in my stomach just are failing and forget the movements ( gastric paresis) which caused me to have to eat slower even with my meds and also my stomach shrinked and hasn't really stretched back out because to stretch it back out I would have to over eat and my Appetite isn't that big since I'm a smaller person and also I have a high metabolism and always have been in like the 5% section of healthy weights because of it I wasn't a big baby I was so small the doctor thought I wouldn't be alive and my size had Alot to do with it and it bugs me so much when people get on my case saying I need to eat more or I need to go to the doctor because I look I'll I get that the people who want me to go to the doctor are just trying to make sure I'm okay but you can go about it a much nicer and less hurtful way (this is such a aggravating thing to me that I'm ranting). Also what's the deal with people wanting to like touch your ribs to point out how thin you are like it's a good thing I'M NOT A DAMN XYLOPHONE! it also always hurts psychically and mentally because A lot of my classmates would do this to me and at the time and even now I think a kid's fingers can easily poke in-between the spaces of my ribs and it's worse than stepping on Legos ! I get that kids don't know boundaries and are curious but even when I yelped in pain because they jabbed me hard on accident they then would tickle me between my ribs on purpose and I would have to shove them off or my actual friends or teachers would have to get them off me ( it probably didn't help I was a easy target for bullying since I didn't talk to many people and was viewed as weird and a creep because I was awkward ) but wtf?! Why did they attack me like that sometimes I had to get the kids sent to the principal office because they wouldn't stop even after my friends or teachers scolded them and it separated me from social circles more because I seemed like a snitch but in reality I didn't know what they were doing was wrong I didn't know why they did it but I never wanted to tell people my friends had to make me tell the teachers or else I would just let it happen and not to mention crying in public is just so embarrassing and I would have constant break downs in school from confusion, pain, discomfort, over stimulation, and fear . I was in so much distress that I would end up having two break downs in one week be my minimum amount because of this stupid "tickle" attack thing they did
While I do agree with parts of your rant I think it's more of a trope that thick set people are used as good characters. In shape language, rounder shapes read as soft and lovable. That's why characters like Winnie the Pooh, Garfield etc...are depicted as pudgie. Skinny characters are used quite a lot as villains, like Jafar, Prince Zuko etc...Because narrow, sharp shapes can read as dangerous. I don't think a character has to be "beautiful" to be likeable, just appealing in some way. However I'm glad you made this video. A lot of character design does rely on stereotypes and exaggeration. I used to be fat and was very ashamed. Larger people are made to feel bad about their bodies through media, there's no denying that. And it's important you drew attention to it in an intelligent way.
As a person who is insecure about their weight, I can’t help but wonder why this is so common in media. Is it because of the impossible beauty standards that a lot of people around the world have? This is not only a problem in the western part of the world but the eastern part as well, as demonstrated in anime. I personally feel portraying characters this way is harmful to real people, and that it causes eating disorders and unrealistic beauty standards. Even if that isn’t their intention, they still did it. Also to cover the topic of “Fat = Ugly individuals,” I hear the term woke being thrown around a lot for people who disagree with that notion. If you could make a video covering why people perceive wokeness wrong, I would appreciate it. I myself want to make a video like that too.
I may have some bias, considering the fact that my type IS bigger women, but one of my most powerful characters in my story is a big woman who's INCREDIBLY wealthy, intelligent, and powerful, with her biggest flaw being greed in the financial sense, and I want to portray her as very attractive but VERY terrifying as she's incredibly volatile, strong, and combat skilled The main reason she's even big is for physical dramatic presence, and the fact that she's essentially a monarch which were typically bigger as a sign of wealth Also, as previously mentioned, I just like big women lmaooo
I have to admit that I do link tropes to some body types. I rarely make characters that are explicitly fat, especially important characters. I often never think about a character's weight and assume everyone I write has average weight. I recently wrote a fat character, somewhat realising my problem with everyone having the same body type. The character doesn't have a name (as are most characters in the story) and she's only called "the therapist". I wanted to write her as fat because I think it shows her softness. She's large and short, compared to the main protagonist being so skinny she disappears into the couch. The therapist's fatness ended up being a footnote in the mental picture because what matters is that it's this kind woman trying to help a kid heal from her domestic abuse. The main protagonist is written to be conventionally attractive. I have no idea whether paralleling how I describe her features with the therapist's features might make the therapist seem unattractive. I hope that isn't the case.
Angoramon, a big round rabbit Digimon was a great example of 'fat' character with personality of wise and intelligent, plus a protective father figure towards his partner Ruli and her friends Although his entire body was technically fur, he's one of the fat character who does not eat compare to the baby dinosaur Gammamon
I had this idea for a show where the short chubby gal was going to dress in clothing she felt made her look beautiful and was to be depicted as such. It could never go anywhere because I have...no idea how I'd even start, lol.
Okay but I don't agree with putting ursula in the thumbnail. I think she's beautiful, and I don't think her being a villain has anything to do with her weight - a fat person
I agree but at the same time I understand why she’d be there, she’s one of the first examples a lot of kiddos see of a plus sized woman on the screen in an animated film, so the reaction to her from their adults or guardians, who most likely already have preconceived bias, would matter a lot for a kiddo. I honestly have a hard time seeing Ursula as a villain given her actual lore from the little mermaid book about her put out by Disney. What I love about Ursula is that she CHOSE her form, she looked at herself and knew that she felt the most beautiful as a fluid, exaggerated, multi-limbed fat kraken, and that was what she chose. Triton, as revealed in the book, is Ursula’s brother. And he took one look at the form she chose, curled his nose up at her, and told her that in order to be welcomed into the kingdom she’d need to change to a ‘superior’ mermaid form, when she refused, he banished her from the kingdom completely, leaving us with the rightfully jaded, and arguably not that evil Ursula. The merfolk that come to see her for spells are using her magic for vain reasons and vanity, we can assume that not all of the shriveled merfolk were seeking her help for vanity, but she never actually ever LIES to Ariel, not once, she tricks her absolutely but if she was really listening to what Ursula was singing in poor unfortunate souls, she’d never have signed the dotted line. Personally, I like to think that Ursula really only does trick those that come to her seeking vanity or selfish gain, given the reason that she was banished (Simply for choosing a form that she found the most beautiful for her), it makes a lot of sense that the merfolk she tricks, like those she mentions in the song, only sought her out for selfish reasons
I wonder if there's also a discussion to be had on the inverse case regarding fetishization. I am saying this as someone who does actually find somewhat pudgier people attractive.
Great vid, thanks for sharing your perspective. I'd love to see examples of how to stylize larger or skinnier body types in a positive way, since some stylized works focus on making bodies ridiculously thin or large as a part of their silhouette.
Thanks for the PSA, and I appreciate your civil calm speech. Reality is reality however; I'm gonna consume fictional media featuring the 6'5" chadster saving the hourglass babe over someone might make it as the 7th string guard for the Seattle Seahawks. Speaking as a 5'3 manlet twink. Peace
One of the first shows I saw somewhat positive plus sized rep was the shortlived CN show Megas XLR, While it still had a lot of the fat guy tropes, Coop was the protagonist and fairly competent in his own way.
Yeah, I'm gonna be THAT person and I don't care how unpopular this comment will be. Anyway, I find your complaining about the lack of fat characters in Japanese anime/media a tad out of touch (in terms of Japanese society) It's mainly because in the East, obesity is not as big a problem there like it is in the West and it's not considered "normal" neither. Because of that, of course Japanese manga & anime artists aren't gonna dedicate time to making fat characters. Why would they? Obesity in Japan makes up 3.0% of the population compared to a place like America where it's 32% of the population. More than half of their population is slim to average and seeing really fat to obese people in that part of the world is a rarity (in comparison to the Western world where it's a more common) and this rarity further fuels their notion to not even think about creating fat characters, especially not as main character. As for them making fat characters unappealing in the rare times they do feature overweight characters, I won't disagree that it's not particularly kind or forgiving and sure,they could try to change with that but the likeliness of that is very low because obesity is seen as a disease in Japanese society.and they don't accommodate for it either, there's a reason why Japanese clothing sizes run quite small and not many of their companies see point in making larger sizes. Their society doesn't want to normalize it at all. Also I'm just gonna add another caveat to this. You kept tailing back to how fatness is considered "unattractive" which is why there is not much focus on this body type and while you're not wrong that a huge part of the population don't view overweight bodies as "attractive", the other part of the reality is that to many people, it signals unhealthiness. And before anyone says that being skinny is just as unhealthy, that can be true but last I checked, the world is not glorifying people with the body build of Eugenia Cooney and the whole "heroin chic" look of the 90s and early 2000s is not encouraged at all anymore, at least not in mainstream. In Japan, yes thinness is deemed much healthier but the average Japanese person is not anorexic looking, they just have smaller portions of food they eat and a lot of it is much more healthier than Western food, plus it's a lot more common in Japanese society for people to walk more since driving can be a bit of a hassle if you live in the cities. Anyway the point is, fatness can be unhealthy but it also depends on how fat. A little overweight is fine but it's funny you mention the "body positivity" movement because the most prominent "activists" tend to be obese to morbidly obese and sorry but it's no surprise that a lot of people are against that. Including myself because I've seen where that kind of denial can lead which is an early grave. In my own personal life, I've lost my grandmother, mother, and uncle as well as a lot on my mom's side of the family that all had weight-related issues due to being more overweight to obesity and yeah no, no way in hell will I ever glorify that ridiculousness. Anyway, It's good that you specified at the end that no one is obligated to draw fat characters if they don't want to because that's the simple truth. And it's why it's good that more people are taking matters into her own hands creating what they want to see and yes, there have been fat character portrayed in a more flattering way. But it's not surprising at all that most of the people doing this are not from the East which circles back to while hoping to see fat protagonists in Eastern media is a waste of time. Should they at least try to make fat characters not look so grotesque or unappealing? Ideally sure but realistically, that just is no gonna happen because of the way that particular place views fatness and obesity. So just take the strides that have been made outside that area. --- Also side note, you could've also drawn out an example of the type of fat body you want to see as an example for the video ---
Yeah, I find it kind of hypocritical of the video maker talking about giving fat people better representation. While both her avatar and the character she's drawing are skinny and attractive characters.
@@Victimxofxprogress I'm not sure if hypocritical is the best word but what you said is kinda funny because it made me think of those videos when people would compliment non-overweight women who believed in fat acceptance (which is really just obesity acceptance) and they tell them they look "pretty like Lizzo" and they get a bit put off. And with Japan where obesity is not as common there as it is in America, I think it's a bit silly to want them to portray fatter characters when it's just not the norm in their country.
@chiebukachibee-zoraedu if you mean in the sense that some people have confused what obesity looks like where you have people calling someone like Britney Spears circa mid 2000s as "obese", sure I agree. But the term does have a medical meaning and is important to be aware of for general health and wellbeing.
Thank you for inspiring me. For a while I’ve been working on learning to draw sexy anime girls with a fuller or more normal body type and while watching this I was working on art for a card game my friend is making. Thanks to you I will include some of these body types as well even if they won’t necessarily make sense for cave people just to prove it can be done and show respect where it is well overdue.
The biggest issue with how it’s so difficult to get good representation is the fact that there’s an entire extremist idealogy (cult more like) that are using every bone in their bodies to disgrace the idea of ANY representation, no matter what it is, this includes fat characters being more than just stereotypes. It’s too “woke” for a huge amount of media influenced people and they will actively try to destroy anything that isn’t based on them and them only. The more representation there is, the better, but it’s just that it is so difficult to get anything out there when the world is primarily funded by bigotry as its’ driving force of finance. In example the only gay representation Disney ever put out there was shoveled it into the dirt with the shittiest marketing they could possible give it, just because of the neo nazis crying about the idea of a character being openly gay and the movie not being ashamed of this.
Then people of said representations need to make what they want to be represented. I don’t see why you have to force creators that already exist to adhere to what YOU want. I’ve personally never really seen the importance of body diversity or diversity really in general. The only purpose it serves is making your characters more recognizable and distinct, but you can do that with hair and other factors as well.
I have what I would categorise as a conventionally attractive body type, and yet, I am hideous and lazy. Where is my representation in animated media? No but for real, I very much agree with this, I wish there was more diverse representation of all body types, not only for the sake of people's body image, which of course is very important, but also because like... I'm bored with the narrow array of representation. It's uninteresting!
Click here for one full month free of Skillshare! skl.sh/duchesscelestia08231
celestia could you talk about csp it´s been a year since all the mess
I would love to see a video on the difference between stylization and characitures.
Same
Same!!
Sameee
Mhm, same!
Same!
Another thing that I hate is when they make the fat character’s trait only to always be hungry. It’s a dumb trait and it’s a harmful on top of it
Fr
Or in art when they just have the plus size character holding/eating food while everyone else isn’t
They're fat because they eat a lot, just like how all the muscular characters exercise a lot.
like Owen from total drama :(
@@uanime1 or because they don't exercise a lot. Maybe they ask for seconds but doesn't mean they eat every single minute
I've been noticing that people are being intentionally obtuse and ignoring the fact that the whole point of this video is that someone being conventionally unattractive shouldn't mean they are dehumanized.
also being too attractive is apparently dehumanising (objectification), for example marylin monroe, hollywood actors/actresses, Influencers.. etc. it’s like two sides of the same coin. ya know?
The problem is that being fat causes health problems, so it will never be seen as attractive.
@@thatstockin balance is the word of the day here folks
What really annoys me is how, if there's a flat chested character in anime, their whole joke is that they wish they had bigger boobs and get super pissed whenever someone mentions the topic... Also how people with bigger chests are CONSTANTLY sexualized :/
It's men writing women chicken-egging culture. Men dont know what women (and girls) talk about, and that media is sometimes presented to kids which lead them to actually talking that way
I agree. Big breasts are normal...not a fetish.
I have bigger breasts and haven't really found that lol I'm like DD or E UK size and people never comment on it, I'm not even hit on more then the average woman. Particularly with how I'm 5 foot and how small in frame I am, it's pretty obvious proportionally I have big breasts. In anime and media sure, but none of that attitude has carried over to real life in my exsparience. The only person to comment on it is my husband 😂
I may give Owl House a lot of credit, but Owl House includes a fat-and-athletic character in Willow Park. More than that, she was crushed on first, before she reciprocated said crush.
Even Boscha, a bully at the school Willow goes to, does not bully Willow for her weight- but because initially, Willow struggled with keeping up with magic expectations. Nothing to do with her weight, and she even keeps her glasses (there's no "more beautiful without glasses" trope).
Finally someone mentions this cause Willow is loved by everyone, and never had any issues with her weight! 😊
I've been reading a lot of manhwa (korean cartoons) lately, and almost every character in a romance story has mentioned 'dieting' at least once to become 'more attractive', even if they're already drawn attractive and skinny.
Also in media, every single 'hot' man has abs?
Like come on now, no way that every guy 'naturally' has bodybuilder-level of visible toned muscles
I have a species that do that that I made, but like...
They're literally a genetically-engineered abandoned bioweapon merfolk species who uses their muscles as their exoskeleton to pressurize their body (they're able to dive below the bottom of Challenger Deep, or to get thrown into space, and their outermost muscular system can resist the crushing depths AND the vacuum by exerting an equal amount of pressure to counter it), so they store their fat reserves by having marbled inner muscles and fatty-cell-lined organs instead of normal fat deposits, to avoid interfering with their exoskeleton and the way it anchors to their endoskeleton to help achieve the adjustable pressure stability.
(they also would die of heat if they had blubber like a marine mammal predator, since the high metabolism means they also use their skin and breathing to shunt out all the heat their hypermetabolism generates)
I'm pretty sure most anime protagonists aren't from a species that has those exact adaptations.
Lol abs aren't even that hot in my opinion. My one exception goes to Miguel O'hara
I feel like that too everytime when I see a fat character, they are seen as "pigs", "ugly", "slobs". I really hate that trope because I'm also a plus-sized person(female). Thank you so much for pointing out this issue.
@@NiloNova I actually am trying. I used to be smaller but then after the quarantine, I gained weight and I also started to have depression over the years.
@@NiloNova being plus-sized doesn’t necessarily mean you’re unhealthy, and assuming all people who fit that term are being irresponsible with their health can be harmful
@@NiloNova I’m sorry if my reply sounded like an opinion but it’s not
@@NiloNova
if you were going to be fatphobic, take your shit somewhere else dude. No one cares about what you THINK about fat people, quit being the problem and feeding into the trope of fat = unhealthy. You can be perfectly fine and still be overweight (you, like many people just jump to the conclusion we're trying to glorify morbid obesity, if someone is fat and can still do almost everything a skinny people can do, stfu).
@@CakePopArtist16I wish you good luck on your journey to becoming healthier ❤
Unironically, a video game called rain world has a really good fat playable character. They are a slugcat (the creatures you play as ingame), and they are strong, intelligent and resourceful. Their character is portrayed as a legend and a strongman. They do require a large amount of food in the game mechanics, but so do a lot of the smaller slugcats. Also they are good with the tribe's slugpups :)
yooo i wanna get rain world slugcatsocute
@@noctuabird It's great! Definitely worth investing in, especially with the new DLC :)
the gourmand!!! love that guy fr. (i love rain world in general sm)
@@noctuabird Rainworld is awesome, definitely recommend it. It’s also really hard, though, but the creature AI is some of the coolest and most complex in a game I’ve ever seen.
Gorm is the best scug :}
One great example of a good plus-sized character in media is (in my opinion) Diane from Bojack Horseman. She started as a more skinnier woman and throughout the series she gained more and more weight. And it wasnt played for a joke or something like that. It was a part of her character and it was used for her development. Her weight change was caused by antidepressants and by her changing mental state.
Also bothers me when people draw fanart for characters and they change the body type to fit in 'conveniently attractive' bin.
It doesn't take much, internet.
Spoiler: people like drawing attractive people.
@Thedemonicsxreech I couldn't have said it better myself.
@Thedemonicsxreech Also applies for muscular people as well, among other body types.
I don't have realistic body's in my style it's literally just shaped like a brick
and does attractive only means fitting into 'conviently attractive' bin? @@uanime1
In anime there's near to no fat characters because obesity rates are extremely low so when there is an obese person their only thought is "they must eat a lot" so that becomes the trope. Anime always plays on tropes to an unhealthy degree
I would bet there are not much women with massive breast, tighs and butt in Japan (some may argue anywhere)
Which is weird why they are so common as people find a different body type more attractive in real life.
Would they count as fat characters or does fat have to be stored or shown in certain places for a person to be considered fat?
@@sugarzblossom8168
"I would bet there are not much women with massive breast, tighs and butt in Japan (some may argue anywhere)"
You'd be surprised.
"Would they count as fat characters or does fat have to be stored or shown in certain places for a person to be considered fat?"
Being fat is determined by their BMI and waist size.
It regardless shouldn’t be used as an excuse, just because you don’t see many people of different skin tones where you live doesn’t mean you shouldn’t draw any people of different skin tones, just because you don’t see many plus sized people doesn’t mean they don’t exist, etc. If you don’t know how to draw them because of that it’s not an excuse, educate yourself and draw them, use references!
@@uanime1 how susprised exactly? People in Japan generally prefer thin to voluptuous. Just find it rare that they are more common not that those characters exist at all.
The hourglass figure may not be rare and having big breast and but may not be either but having a very thin waist with those other features is rare.
@@sugarzblossom8168 Also isn't BMI generally not that accurate for people besides cis men and doesn't account for muscle mass either?
I remember when I was younger the whole unrealistically thin trope was almost always a thing with females which I heavily dislike to this day- all females that had an ‘hourglass’ body shape were considered attractive and had many men all too fond of them whereas the characters considered more meek (both with men and women) were thin although also beautiful which I myself disliked, villains were overweight and ‘ugly’.
So I definitely agree with the points made in this video which as always was of very good quality, thanks for posting this :D
Edit: that’s a lot of likes, cheers people!
"I remember when I was younger the whole unrealistically thin trope"
You mean a healthy body weight.
"was almost always a thing with females which I heavily dislike to this day"
Because they remind you that you're overweight?
"all females that had an ‘hourglass’ body shape were considered attractive"
They still are.
"whereas the characters considered more meek (both with men and women) were thin although also beautiful which I myself disliked"
Because they were more attractive than you?
"villains were overweight and ‘ugly’."
What about the Dsiney villains Gaston (muscular) and Jafar (slim)?
Yeah even as a kid I didn’t like when the villain was super overweight and the mc was perfect hourglass unrealistically skinny, it just really annoyed me for some reason
@@uanime1shut up bro nobody wants your opinions anymore please go back to your mom’s basement and watching anime
@@uanime1 That’s a fair point and I definitely phrased that sentence wrong, thank you, Gaston is very much an example that goes against the point I made with the overweight villain trope. However I have to disagree with the point you made about the healthy body weight somewhat, yes characters can be thin but when a full cast of female characters (maybe male) are unrealistically skinny for the sake of beauty standards: take equestria girls for example, that just makes a whole thing about them all being thin without representation. This also happens a lot in anime (I rarely watch it but I have seen trailers and UA-cam videos commenting on it)
But yes this still happens, I should have stated that more clearly, thanks :>
@@sageourplanetmeow Also "healthy body weight" still tends to ignore many factors like muscle mass, bone density, metabolism, actual weight distribution, one's actual lifestyle, et cetera and just reduces things to "who gets me hard".
One of my ocs is a little bit chubby, but is also attractive, which is a step in the right direction. She’s super energetic but also awkward and insecure. I was gonna make her insecure about her body, but this video made me reconsider that. It’s definitely better for her weight to have nothing to do with her character. So thank you, Celestia, for bringing this to my attention
She sounds like a good character!! but the "It’s definitely better for her weight to have nothing to do with her character." part is something i disagree with. While it is a fine concern, having your oc be insecure about her weight isnt inherently a bad thing. As humans, we all have various insecurities, and in today's world it'd make sense for her to be insecure about that sort of thing if you feel that it'd fit her. The problem (as addressed in this video) comes whenever her weight (or, in this case her insecurity about her weight) becomes a huge part of her personality and how she's portrayed.
You seem to have more ideas for her personality beyond just her weight, so I personally don't see any issue!
I actually have an OC who is also chubby but just really terrible with drawing the fat of their body tbh
I also have one that's a bit chubby but also no one dares mock him for it because he's a god. I have 2 characters that are mean and would mock him for it, but they are scared of him
"a little bit chubby, but is also attractive" so being fat is unattractive. not to attack but how you worded it makes it sound that way.
@@rofecoxib no… I said she was those two things simultaneously
People say that fat characters exist like that because of the whole fat is dangerous thing, but if that's the case, wouldn't depicting them more neutrally rather than bumbling buffoons or villains be more effective at possibly convincing larger people to lose weight? After all. stress eating exists, and can be caused by bullying.
"People say that fat characters exist like that because of the whole fat is dangerous thing"
Medical evidence proves being overweight is bad for you.
"wouldn't depicting them more neutrally rather than bumbling buffoons or villains be more effective at possibly convincing larger people to lose weight?"
Why would they lose weight if they have positive fat role models?
They don’t care about your health tbh. They just want you to fit their image of what’s “correct.”
I have long hair as a man, and get compliments all the time about how nice it’s kept (which is a little weird tbh like it’s expected for me to have dirty hair?), but I also get lots of comments that men shouldn’t have long hair, that I should cut it, that they would “totally be into” me if I cut my hair and…. I don’t care lmao.
They don’t care that my hair makes me happy, they want me to look the way they expect/desire.
@anubis7457 and frankly that sucks. 😢 wear your hair however ya want.
@@anubis7457one of my friends is a guy with long hair and the fact that anyone, and not even just one person has asked me to ask him to cut it???
Honestly my respect for those people plummeted when they said that, they can’t even say it to his face
Moral orel flashbacks
"My love story!!!" is an AMAZING anime when talking about stereotypes. Takeo (the main character) is seen as an "ugly" character, yet he still is the most amazing character i've ever seen in an anime. I really recommend watching this anime if you're looking for some smiles and a cute love story
A thing that also annoys is when the actual creator DID include a little bit more diversity but when it’s adapted to animation, that’s removed or edited. In the MHA manga, several of the girls are drawn with a little extra weight on them. It’s more of an average/slightly bigger size but that matters! As an aside, Miruko is also different when drawn by the mangaka than she’s animated in the show, she’s a few shades darker. Most of the time the excuse I see is that it’s “harder” to animate diverse bodies (usually from fans, not animators) and that really peeves me off. It’s also difficult to animate exciting fight scenes, highly detailed characters etc, but that certainly doesn’t stop anyone!
well we also have good plus sized characters, like shrek, fairy godmother,mrs potts
Unfortunately they're very few and far in-between, but at least we got a pool the size of my palm of good representation
I NEED A HERO
Good points, but unfortunately those characters are usually overlooked or overshadowed by the sheer amount of bad plus sized characters
Well fairy godmother was the villain in Shrek 2 wait are you talking about the one in shrek or one in Disney movies
@@Angel_BunGacha the disney one
hifumi is actually a super nice character in danganronpa :C
And super relatable, too.
Kinda funny honestly, he's one of the least evil characters in the game 😂
doesn't he associate an actual child with lolis/shotas in drs
isnt he a pervert
thank you so much for bringing up underweight representation!! it's not as severe as what fat people face, but as a severely underweight cosplayer i've never been able to comfortably do it in public. it sucks when i ask for ideas on who to cosplay and the only answers are either child or creepy/ill characters, and it's even worse that no one ever brings this up😭
Such an interesting topic and important as well. If anyone needs suggestions of animated series with a lot of body diversity, I recommend "She-ra and the Princesses of Power": the characters all having different bodies was an highlight for me, in addition to a lot of other qualities of the show.
Love that show. Regarding body types, I was super happy with it. Glimmer especially having a square body type, but never having it brought up or insulted because shes a princess/eventual queen. She doesn't ever change her body because she's perfect the way she is!
Exactly! Glimmer is such a cool character, one of my favourites! My only regret about character design in "She-ra" is that there is not the same body diversity for the male characters.
Yes the cheesy remake
The modern audience really enjoyed it🙄
Also Steven Universe and many of the gem characters. I agree though She-Ra was 30 times better than the original version.
Also ARCANE!
I remember there was this anime about a chubby protagonist girl who got very depressed due something bad happenning to their favorite character in an anime/show(?) (I'm being kinda ambiguous because I don't remember the details, not even the anime's name). By consecuence of her depression, she locked herself in her room for a whole week where she starved herself in the process. When she came out, she magically was reduced from chubby, to "pretty attractive underweight girl". The author really made sure to emphasize the attractive part since her facial features (like the eyes and lips) got a major glowup that she somehow didn't have when she was chubby?
I remember the anime being pretty funny overall and a good watch, but the way they projected mental illnesses and eating disorders as "funny", "relatable" or a gateway for our problems without the show being remotely serious or "deep" (meaning they included them just for the sake of comedy) was very upsetting.
OMG??? IT'S MY COMMISSION!!!! SO HAPPY TO SEE YOU SHOW OFF THE DRAWING PROCESS IN THE VIDEO
I thought I recognized Layla. This is such a cute idea. Girl deserves it
YES! Yes to all of this! Thank you so much for delving into this topic - as an artist who draws fat characters all the time, we need to normalize that any character of any weight can play ANY role, no matter their weight. Good, bad, smart, dumb, straightlaced, sexy - it's all about variety and not reducing them to tropes and stereotypes. Thank you for your input! ☺💖
as a person who struggles with ed, i hate that too. its literally one of the biggest things that causes it.
Same with me
A big issue i had with learning character design was how dependant so many designers were on skinny bodies with bulky clothing and hair to make interesting silhouettes, but ive found since then that plus size bodies have way more potential for stylisation via shape language. Thick thighs save lives but also are very visually interesting and can be soft and curved, squarish with muscular calves, or sharp and angular. Though bulky clothing may look odd, I'd advise designing clothing alongside the body shape rather than trying to make it bigger. Big stylised hair still works a treat, but I'd recommend adding more visual intrigue with the angles at which the clothing item's relate to eachother (eg: seam lines over the body, tight vs loose articles, layering, etc).
Dont fight against plus size bodies! They arent an obstacle, they're a guide! And they're really fun to draw!
I think a really good example of a character with an unconventional body type in media would be Sophocles from the Pokémon Sun & Moon games. His appearance is pretty much never brought up in the games and he’s allowed to simply exist as an individual in the universe without his body type being a caricature or the receiving end of any kind of negative joke. In fact, one of the the primary things he’s characterized by is his intelligence and inventive ability, and he’s also in a ‘Trial Captain’ position, making him basically THE Electro Pokémon user in the Sun & Moon games. And even if occasionally it could be argued that the Sun & Moon anime falls into some negative stereotypes regarding his body type, his portrayal in the animated series is also overall pretty good as well. The series establishes his goals and also showcases his intelligence and love and curiosity for all things technology, and the anime gives him some really funny moments that don’t rely on making fun of him (like when he asks to dissect Rotom in episode 3). Regardless of what anyone’s opinion is on the Sun/Moon anime or games or on the Pokémon series as a whole, I do think the existence of Sophocles as a character provides a rather healthy outlook on plus-size people that’s good to see in media, especially for a franchise that’s geared towards children.
my main annoyance with animated stuff that has "plus size characters" is that most of the time its not real size diversity its like one person wears a small instead of an xxxs which IK sizing is chaos but thats the best way I could word it. The other way that I see is when the bigger person is really big and then everyone else is practically a stick figure, with no in between sizes like at all
"THE FAT CHARACTER IS BAD!" yet shows a Danganronpa character in the thumbnail... While yes Hifumi is portrayed with stereotypical traits like you mentioned in the video, he still plays an important role in trial 1 and 3. Not to mention that Hifumi isn't the only fat character in Danganronpa too.
The ultimate impostor and Teruteru are fat characters too. Teruteru also suffers from being pervy but he's not one dimensional and has a pretty rich character for dying in the first chapter.
However I think the ultimate impostor is a example of a good example of a "fat character" (i'll only mention the games as i havent and dont really plan to watch the anime loll.) He's incredibly caring and protective of his fellow classmates. Hell, he even risked his (and lost) his life just to save everyone from a potential murderer.
Sure he brings up his weight for a couple jokes but it's really only brought up by him, he isn't stereotyped for his weight by the other characters.
But in the short time he's alive his character blossoms as he's shown to be a natural leader to the rest of the class and has his own one to one scenes with the protagonist; Hajime. He's also shrouded in mystery as his true identity is hidden from the player until *the last chapter*. If he isn't an important character then I don't know who is!
TLDR: using danganronpa on the thumbnail is weird because there are other fat characters that arent bad
The impostor is one of the most heroic characters in the anime. He rescues his classmate when he pretends to be him and gets him a nurse when he sees his health is failing. He only fails because of Junko. But no one wins against Junko.
Casing a casual side glace at those in the South Park fandom that draws Cartman skinny or ugly or just refuses to draw him
They also forget these kids are like 8-10 years old and they draw them like 14-18 year old highschoolers so they can ship them 💀
@meat3958 I mean there's nothing wrong with shipping, I like shipping myself, but I'm talking about the people who demonize Cartman’s weight
@@Haunted_Plush they’re like 10 😭
@meat3958 they literally have relationships and date each other, they act like adults a lot of the time, Tweek and Craig are literally canonically gay and dating
@@Haunted_Plush Yeah, and… They’re still 10? Just because they write it into the show doesn’t mean a bunch of mfs should be fixated on shipping fictional children together, that’s what we have adults for 👍
Can you talk about Ugly or unattractive female characters compared to ugly or unattractive male characters.
One seems to be more prominent that the other and seem to be less of a problem to people in general than the other.
It is not just being ugly but being creepy, scary, alien, monstrous and being unconventional when it comes to gender traits.
Male characters to me seem to have more allowance.
Hey, while I agree with male characters having more freedom, just because one group has it worse than the other doesn’t mean that the other group isn’t also negatively affected by such representation. I grew up as a fat male and was bullied by my peers for it. I’m pretty sure the media played the part in how those boys and girls saw me. Also think about characters like Dudley who are given wide proportions to accentuate their bad qualities. There are some but not MANY positive portrayals of fat men in both live-action and animated media. Think about comic book guy from The Simpsons or Recess. I personally believe that patriarchy requires mind to embody some really stifling gender norms, which include being overly ambitious, a constant hard worker, and possessing an almost unrealistic, hard body.
thank you for talking about how underweight people also can be affected by this, they seem to get not as much recognition and attention as people who are overweight from what i've seen (but idk that's just me, maybe i'm wrong)
the world is full of different body types too, and it sometimes seems like the really "cool", curvy/muscular, slender and "attractive" character vs. the really "lame", overly fat/skinny, lazy/incompetent, weak, "unattractive" character thing is doing almost as much if not more harm than good, even if the big media makers are doing it to appeal to a certain demographic and be more successful, it will offend a lot more and if they just did a cast of characters which had a variety of body types in "good" and "bad" characters each it would appeal to everyone
if anyone is willing to help, i'd like some opinions on an OC design: is it problematic to have a character that is the most "shut-in" of the group also be the chubbiest one? she spends most of her time at home and doesn't really like to go outside. she's also somewhat socially inept due to her weird interests and way of speaking but she's also charismatic and a go-getter of sorts. her entire personality isn't defined by that, but i'm worried (especially at the beginning of the story when the viewers know barely anything about her) that it'll come off as "fat, nerd, socially inept" stereotype.
I don't see a problem with it, and I'm fat. I could see it potentially being a problem ONLY IF there were other red flags accompanying it, like being slobbish/dumb/etc where skinny characters aren't, but you're coming at it from a good place and I think people will be able to tell that. I really appreciate you asking! It shows a lot of care :)
Depends on how you're framing it. I'd figure a recluse would undoubtedly be a bit out of shape, but again, I don't see the inherent problem with it as long as their character traits are positive.
I think it’s ok as long as she isn’t the only fat/average character. Just make sure her character has a lot of depth. Awesome of you to ask btw.
As long as she's a proper well-rounded character with more depth than just "fat socially-inept shut-in" I think it's fine. Just because certain traits put together might superficially resemble a stereotype doesn't mean you can't write a non-stereotypical character with those traits. Hell you might even use that to deconstruct the stereotype, which could be pretty cool if done right
Don't'chu worry, you're not the one needing to burden yourself with the need to balance the tropes, the fact that you're considering the place your art has as a representation of the group is well enough. Have fun, and make your character as you please, the baseline is not using the body-type to shame them for having it.
For the past year now, I live at my father's place instead of my toxic mother's place, and since I started having a lot more freedom on what I eat and that I don't go out as much as I used to, it caused me to gain a bit of weight.
The show I plan to create someday, though it won't happen in a long time because I'm an unemployed burden to society, will have a "me" in it. She won't be a Mary Sue since I'm extremely wary of Mary Sue personas and I'm extremely careful to not create one.
And since I have a bit of extra weight now, so will she. She'll be a bit chubby, just like me. I personally like chubby body types. I think it's cute.
aw I’m glad u moved out of ur moms house :) I hope u get to make the show!
@@aisldqz Thank you ^^ You don't know how much it means that someone cares ^^ Also my father isn't perfect (transphobia but not as bad as my mother's and he never tries the things I like while I always try the things he likes), but it's still better.
Also if you want I could tell you about the show (story, character and all that). I have MANY ideas and I'm sure it'll be great ^^
I sometimes wish fat people being seen as cute, because they can be really cute or attractive. It’s such a same mainstream media won’t show this anytime soon.
As someone who's overweight, and has been actively making healthier choices since late 2021. I have a few things that I wanna say (sorry for the essay btw) :
I feel like people leaving more recent comments should know a few things before automatically assuming that people who *look* overweight are automatically unhealthy. Or trying to tell people to lose weight because it's unhealthy to be fat. There exist people who have dieted & exercised for months and even years, without their appearances ever changing. People with actual allergies to vegetables. Those who have an intolerance to exercise, due to health issues need treatment from a doctor, which makes it difficult to start exercising. I could probably keep going.
Even if someone actually is obese, overweight, or just unhealthy in general. They could have a food addiction, I.E. binge eating disorder. Which isn't that easy to get rid of since it's an addiction/ disorder. One that could stem from things like stress and using food (often in large quantities) as a coping mechanism.
Either way. And again as a fat person, I have personally never felt motivated when anyone told me to lose weight, exercise, or diet. I only ever started feeling motivated when someone told me to try to become the inspiration that I've never had. And it worked. I went from around 310 Ibs (141 Kg) to 285 Ibs (129 Kg) within the first year of starting. So needless to say. I feel like we should try to at least be a bit considerate when telling people those things. Who knows. Maybe a gentle nudge in the right direction to inspire them, could work far better than just saying that being fat is unhealthy.
I guess that it just bothers me when I see people putting fat people down, all for the sake of health. Without even knowing anything about them (especially on the internet because of anonymity). I'd much rather see people not just give nonchalant answers or opinions. And instead. Try to uplift people and motivate them to get healthier. Because we're all going through a lot on this planet no matter where we are. And the last thing we need to do to each other is rip each other apart whether intentionally or not.
And just a quick side note. It's not out of touch to say that a country has a lot of work to do in a social sense. Just because different types of people are treated differently in other places. Things like culture or societal norms do not excuse the mistreatment of those people. And if it is culture at hand. Cultures can always be redefined, not completely changed, but changed enough to avoid further hostility & ill-treatment towards others.
P.S. Just some tips for anyone who wants to lose weight. Try to practice some forms of self love as well. Self respect is important. I tried to be easier on myself and go with the flow. Slowly starting up a yoga routine daily. Monitoring how much sugar that I'd consume in a day and count calories (but eat a little bit more if I felt starved or malnourished). If I felt like eating a snack, I'd just drink water unless I was hungry for a full meal. Starting off slowly and making it a life routine/ change has made it easier for me to keep going. Adding healthy eating habits, some form of exercise, and self-respect will help you not only feel healthier, but also feel happier with yourself. Best of luck, I believe in you! ❤
the message at 11:50 is all the more prevalent in the infamous kids' book Maggie Goes on a Diet, in which the title character Maggie is scorned and looked down on for being overweight, but once she loses weight, she's treated with great respect and becomes popular. This is the exact type of toxic thinking writers need to get away from.
This is something that will most likely never change. Artists tend to draw things that are attractive and skinny people are seen as attractive. Unless you fundamentally change the way humans perceive what is attractive, this problem will always persist. It's also the reason why the most common thing drawn is attractive girls/women
Maybe i haven't seen enough anime or cartoons but pretty much every fat character i've seen is the trope of a likeable, chill and loveable person, the trope of a big fluffy ball of love to put it bluntly.
Also when they're portrayed in a bad light pretty much always are portrayed as a part of a group of losers or nerds instead of being isolated by themselves, with bad personality traits that are shared among the others in the group and the main reason why those chatacters are unlikeable, while one of them happens to be fat.
The times fat people are portrayed as you point on the video pretty much everytime the audience sides with the fat person because the antagonist of the chatacter, is mainly a highly disrespectful asshole that is intended to be dislikeable to begin with.
So maybe it's me but i dont see direct discrimination and hostility towards fat chatacter, and when i see it is not because they're fat, its because they're a highly flawed human being that *happens* to be fat.
Reminds me of that one comic by Merryweather with a big character and his wife and the wife was defending him from some d*ckhead who was berating her husband assuming the husband was an ugly bastard(y'know, THOSE ugly bastards).
Yeah it’s just you. As in, there are so many media demonizing fat characters and people, you just haven’t seen them.
I have seen some of each.
Some series where being fat is an seemingly important character trait as it is brought up a lot. I have seen things that are meant to be comedic because a person is fat or everyone making fun of a character because of their size.
On the other hand I have seen fat characters exist without their weight coming up or being laughed at and insulted
@@sugarzblossom8168I’ve seen an anime where the entire first few episodes is them making fun of the over weight mc, and praising her for unhealthy eating. Like UH- nah
you gotta tell us what you've been watching, man, cause i'd love to find more media that doesn't do an unbelievably poor job representing fat people
A weird example for me would be "The Fat Controller" from Thomas and Friends. On one hand, he's often presented as a firm but fair boss/father figure. But, on the other hand, there's a running gag about how whenever he gets a phone call, he's always eating something or drinking tea. It didn't really help that outside observers perpetuated the idea that he was a tyrant who over works his engines, although it's not canon.
Pokemon characters show more diversity, theres different weights, skintones, strength and personalities that don't revolve around their weights or other trait. Theres the belly folds and six packs with all genders at not only makeing men stronger than women like various other media does
I really love fat characters and skinny characters or normal body characters but i hate how people calling that fat characters are worst,I really love Owen from total drama island because he so silly!
Love all bodies❤
Thank you for speaking about this.
It really makes me think. In my current comic story, most of the main cast is lean/a bit muscular, but that's because they're in the military. I realized that the bodies weren't diverse enough, so I decided to have my MC be a bit chubby before joining the military, and to have more side characters be fatter as well. I mean, it takes place on Mars, so it would make more sense for people to have more body weight in general. I also decided that I want to be more deliberate about shape language to differentiate the lean bodies mostly seen throughout the story.
I grew up with the German FKK culture (naturist), and have seen MANY different types of bodies, yet I'm heavily inspired by anime and manga. I can definitely improve in that area of my art. I have already taken steps to introduce more diversity! Queer diversity is nice and all, but visual diversity is important as well. Dunno how to end this comment lmao
I like to see people talking about the actual issues when it comes to the portrayal of fat people in media. I feel like a lot of the time people get mad over meaningless things when it pertains to this topic. Cough cough Sashley drama cough cough.
I’m someone who does meet “impossible” standards (I’m not really pretty, I just am a little underweight and naturally skinnier than most at a healthy weight) I have still been irked at the way fat people were portrayed in media. I feel like it contributes to my negative self image and perception of others who are fat. Im seriously working on it so thanks for the video.
This reminds me of a quote from a very goofy movie, said by PJ : "It is endemic of the current culture that those with large stature are overlooked, except by vultures, with no regard for the depth of their souls, the height of their passion, the beauty of their moments"
Your videos are so interesting to listen to when drawing it’s so amazing and your art in general is amazing!
I love ur profile pic, it’s so interesting to look at-
I was going to change it but now I won’t @@That_Russel_Pup
Since when did we stop teaching the lesson to not judge a book by its cover? Because as corny as it may sound, beauty on the inside is what counts.
Sort of an aside, but the ridiculous idealized body types in anime are detrimental to the tranfem community as well. Anime is very popular among a lot of transfeminine people and too many of us look at these impossibly curvaceous and beautiful 2d figures and compare ourselves to them rather than actual flesh and blood women.
Yes! Transmascs also feel it, with massive chiseled skinny tall men or tiny teenage looking boys. Like some of us are more androgynous or chubby or shorter. Basically, trans people get the short end of the representation stick lol.
@@tinnedteainsyrup8943 Realized I literally had two transmasc OC ideas in mind where one of them was just a straight up gigachad (thought also effectively a centuries-old demi-god lore-wise) and the other was an effeminate/GNC guy (my mentality was that too many GNC male characters are or are assumed to be cisgender men or AMAB so I wanted to shake things up with an AFAB example who also has a twin sister).
I'll definitely admit that I indeed mostly want to draw things that appeal to myself but thanks for the insight.
I really appreciate this video, thank you for making it. This is a topic that is *very* close to my heart to the point where it can be upsetting to think about for too long. I've been fat basically since childhood, and it's really messed with my self worth. I have this innate feeling of being disgusting and unworthy of love because of my body. And whenever the topic gets brought up, I always feel like I have to defend myself, and I'm really tired of doing that. I'd like to be able to exist in peace without having to justify myself. I don't want to feel disgusting for what my body looks like. But it has been getting better...very slowly. Thank you to everyone who's contributed to that, everyone who's ever made an OC who just *happens* to be fat, rather than it being their whole personality.
An aside: My favorite portrayal of a fat character in media is Barney in Dead End: Paranormal Park. He's just allowed to exist as himself and I think it only really comes up once, in a way that feels authentic and relatable, and not too heavy-handed. (I recommend that show to anyone who likes fun ghost mysteries with occasional mortal peril.)
ohhh that is my situation here too! SO sorry you also have to deal with all of that bc its one of the most annoying things ever, feeling like you dont have the right to live like everyone else does - that you need to defend shit
There’s also a show called rainbow high, where the body types aren’t extremely skinny. The show is about fashion on top of that.
I clicked immediately when I saw Hifumi- Anyways time to draw an oc to this
I thought I was the only one.
That's why i love sword girl from Danganronpa eden garden. Even tho she is chubby and she is fast as wind. Plus she's very adorable looking innocent girl.
You mean Eloise yes she's freaking adorable
i see a lot of people in the comments arguing against this by saying being fat is unhealthy. i just wanna know why, even if it is unhealthy, you think fat people warrant being put into these negative tropes in media and why you think more people shouldn't represent them normally. i don't see how showing fat people as normal characters is gonna 'promote obesity' because if someone's overweight to the point it's unhealthy then they're either going to work on that for the sake of their own health, or not ( in which case it's fine they can experience the consequences but its none of your business )
Also just ignores muscular people with a fair amount of fat density (who more often than not are often physically stronger).
Oh yeah, forgot to mention that "overweight" merely means "above average" in overall weight without consideration for other things like muscle mass, bone density, or just how people's body types and metabolism will vary. It's also worth noting that nowadays, obesity is more characterized by mental health related issues such as eating disorders atop the physical health problems that DO come with being very overweight physically.
I don’t see a lot of people arguing against this tho
Queen, thank you for posting. I love every video you make and I really needed something like this today
The funniest part is that Hifumi from Trigger Happy Havoc isn't close to being the most morally reprehensible character. He's just an anime fan (bad start, cringe) and made fun of for being overweight
I like drawing different body types, I've always had starting out because I thought it was fun. I want to make a show and ive been drawing a bunch of concept and think hard about all the plot n stuff and plan of having a chubbier hot character in it >:3
At least they didn’t do my boy Spongy from BFDI dirty later on in the series 😎
XD
Shouldn't we also talk about the topic of "health" when talking about this topic?
As much as it sucks, but a certain amount of over weight IS unhealthy to varying degrees. The same way beeing skinni till your bones show is unhealthy. They partly even share the same negative health symptoms: low stamina, weak hearts, tiredness, etc.
This is probably a loaded question that can't be really answered, since morals varry from person to person, but:
Should we push something that can negatively effect our health, or is alredy coused by a negatively effected health (like a sickness), as something desireable? ESPECIALLY in a country like america where the amount of unhealthily over weight citicens, including children, is so incredibly high?
(This applies to extremly underwaight as well.)
(Edit: just to clarify, I'm talking about the extrems here. Not the avarage body. Specifically the extrems of dangerously over weight and dangerously under weight)
not trying to be rude here so sorry if my tone is like that but. . in my experience and opinion, its less harmful to portray a diverse cast so that people *dont* feel pressure to be one specific body type.
you have no idea the kind of mental health benefits that have come of it. liking or at least not hating my body has led to me treating it better!
the moment someone mentions wanting representation of *realistic* bodies/chubby characters, theres always retort with a discussion of health as if they asked *specifically* for there to be representation of 5000 pound people like in that one reality show with the crane and o n l y 5000 pound people. .im tired of it lol. .
people can be genetically predisposed to being fat. although it can be changed via lifestyle, its not *entirely* determined by lifestyle. . some people are just like that even with healthy lives, weightlifters sometimes look fat because their muscles arent as defined as bodybuilders' but this is an extreme example, some people just have a higher metabolism & store more carbs because of it.
thanks for reading this.
@@galacticpotato607 don't worry, you didn't come off as rude! ^^
I apreciate your input, especially since you worded it so nicely! :3
It depends really, while yes to some point overweight can be unhealthy to a certain degree there have been some people who are overweight and had some sort of treatment for certain health risk through dieting and medication.
Some overweight people can live out a healthy life due to those treatments, however losing some weight for an extremely overweight people can be good for their health but isn't always need due to surgery choices but that depends if it's truly need.
However some form of mental health exist such as eating disorders which make's it a bit difficult for people who are normal weight/overweight to eat something, or people who are normal weight/overweight to stop eating something, most cause for the loss of eating are, depression, anorexia, avoidant/restrictive food intake (ASFI, for sort), and most causes for eating too much are, stress, bulimia, and binge-eating, which all is really difficult to mange if not treated or medicated if medication is need.
Though even with eating disorders it's still possible to mange it and live a healthy life despite it being difficult, since most disorders are psychological and or emotional it take's a bit more time to overcome something though with the right treatment for it can still benefit greatly to one's health.
For me personally since i have, tiredness and somewhat out of shape despite be being cubby and not super overweight, i am highly healthy for my age though i take medication for my celastrol due to my eating habits despite me being semi vegetarian and lacking vitamin d which i also take despite me eating stuff with vitamin d in it.
Also it is so hard to get healthy foods in america, they make it so expensive that i can't even get any vegetarian plant meats, chicken, and fish, i mean the fruit, veggies, and dairy products are decent to get but still, no wonder the health system in america is so bad because the food is expensive, even for those who are struggling with money.
I remember when they used to show smoking as being cool or a rebel before people realised it led to lung cancer. Now it's always shown negatively.
I wonder if one day they'll have to restrict fat characters for the same reason.
@@galacticpotato607
"in my experience and opinion, its less harmful to portray a diverse cast so that people dont feel pressure to be one specific body type."
Even though some body types are more unhealthy than others?
"liking or at least not hating my body has led to me treating it better!"
If you're fat no matter how much you might like your body it's putting extra strain on your organs.
"the moment someone mentions wanting representation of realistic bodies/chubby characters, theres always retort with a discussion of health as if they asked specifically for there to be representation of 5000 pound people like in that one reality show with the crane and o n l y 5000 pound people."
The problem is those people are correct as fat people have been medically proven to be less healthy than slim ones.
"people can be genetically predisposed to being fat."
So what. They still suffer the same health problems because they're fat.
"some people are just like that even with healthy lives"
No they're not, that's why many countries have low obesity rates.
"weightlifters sometimes look fat because their muscles arent as defined as bodybuilders'"
So what. Muscles don't harm your body the same way high levels of fat do.
Your entire post ignored that being fat is unhealthy because you want fat people to feel better about being fat. That's like saying we shouldn't tell people smoking causes cancer so smokers won't be sad.
the first time i saw a character with a similar body shape to me in an animation who wasn't just there to be ugly or a joke, i literally cried. that character and that show are so, so important to me now, and will be forever. these things are important. i wish i'd had that character when i was growing up, and i hope with all my heart that kids today and in the future get to see themselves represented in media more than i did.
What show was it and who was the character
@@joshuabautch8936 steven universe, smokey quartz
I’ve been trying to learn how to draw different body types, I still think I’m not all that great at it, but at least I don’t draw fat characters as offensively as the Danganronpa team would 😬 They knock it out of the park with the Muscular characters though
honestly, I'd say I've seen many cases where "ideal" weight isn't always associated with the quality of a character. How many stories are there where there's this ripped gym bro who is sexually harassing women and needs to be put in his place by the protagonist? It seems like yesterday when all the media I saw on tv as a kid were school dramas that had a buff jock from the foot ball team picking on the skinny nerd. From my observation, I think the public has portrayed buff muscle men in a bad light than fat people who many times are portrayed as bully victim under dogs.
On a positive note, I think a really good character on the larger side is Cyanna by P.M. Seymore. She's so gorgeous and really proves the point being made in this video. Not all fat people are ugly. Cyanna is such a pretty character.
a silent voice did a good job with having a chubby character with less stereotypes
I used to have an eating disorder in high school becasue I wanted to be so so thin. I am still skeletal becasue I got my dads metabolism but please please please PLEASE never ever starve yourself to reach a weight. It will harm your body and your mind and your health is so much more important
Actually, Willow from the owl house is definetly a positive.
If you want to see a positively portrayed and complex fat lead character in animation that already exists I’d highly recommend Dead End Paranormal Park. The lead is a fat trans man who is complex as well as depicted as deserving of love, he has a love interest who reciprocates to. Just in general that show is pretty great. A lot of interesting characters and a diverse cast. Really recommend it in general.
TW//
overweight people being made fun of for eating too much (which is not true in MANY cases) gave me an ed LMAO (AND IT DIDN'T WORK I'M STILL OVERWEIGHT 💀)
anYWAYS I CAN'T WATCH ALL OF THIS CUZ IT'S TRIGGERING FOR ME BUT YEAH
*Recent Wario-inspired indie games* and a cartoon show I used to watch back in 1st year of high school: *Oggy and the Cockroaches* neutralize my outlook towards everyone and made me adore fat and ugly yet competent and lovable protagonists.
So thank heavens I no longer watch anime that much after quitting back in March.😮💨
A good show for body diversity is Netflix’s she ra and the princess of power 2018.
On the topic of fat characters being main characters. Would a story where there was a main character who was overweight due to a eating disorder that was developed, But was consider quite attractive inside and out to the point where he gets the girl over the "Prince charming" who is a support to him in conquering the disorder as in what is causing it be interesting? I want to write a story but don't want to people offended anyone. The character does get over the disorder and loses some weight, but they never become a thin guy.
This sounds like a fantastic story!
As someone who is a literal 2 by 4 I know people see me as weak or like they view me as a child because I'm small and easy to shove around because of it but I'm not and I've been constantly told I should eat more and it only messed with my depression I've had people tell me they wish they could be as thin as me but I actually don't like it because I have no padding on my bones and I get injured easily and bruised alot because of not having padding from extra meat and I've had people questioning me if I eat enough and do I need help? But I don't and it hasn't led to ED yet but it has gotten me to the point where If someone tells me to eat more I won't I'll lose my appetite and not wanting to eat but when they ask me if I'm being mistreated I force myself to over eat and if I think someone is think these things while I'm eating around them and it's very unhealthy for me and I also have a stomach issue where I don't get hungry or digest my food and the muscles in my stomach just are failing and forget the movements ( gastric paresis) which caused me to have to eat slower even with my meds and also my stomach shrinked and hasn't really stretched back out because to stretch it back out I would have to over eat and my Appetite isn't that big since I'm a smaller person and also I have a high metabolism and always have been in like the 5% section of healthy weights because of it I wasn't a big baby I was so small the doctor thought I wouldn't be alive and my size had Alot to do with it and it bugs me so much when people get on my case saying I need to eat more or I need to go to the doctor because I look I'll I get that the people who want me to go to the doctor are just trying to make sure I'm okay but you can go about it a much nicer and less hurtful way (this is such a aggravating thing to me that I'm ranting). Also what's the deal with people wanting to like touch your ribs to point out how thin you are like it's a good thing I'M NOT A DAMN XYLOPHONE! it also always hurts psychically and mentally because A lot of my classmates would do this to me and at the time and even now I think a kid's fingers can easily poke in-between the spaces of my ribs and it's worse than stepping on Legos ! I get that kids don't know boundaries and are curious but even when I yelped in pain because they jabbed me hard on accident they then would tickle me between my ribs on purpose and I would have to shove them off or my actual friends or teachers would have to get them off me ( it probably didn't help I was a easy target for bullying since I didn't talk to many people and was viewed as weird and a creep because I was awkward ) but wtf?! Why did they attack me like that sometimes I had to get the kids sent to the principal office because they wouldn't stop even after my friends or teachers scolded them and it separated me from social circles more because I seemed like a snitch but in reality I didn't know what they were doing was wrong I didn't know why they did it but I never wanted to tell people my friends had to make me tell the teachers or else I would just let it happen and not to mention crying in public is just so embarrassing and I would have constant break downs in school from confusion, pain, discomfort, over stimulation, and fear . I was in so much distress that I would end up having two break downs in one week be my minimum amount because of this stupid "tickle" attack thing they did
While I do agree with parts of your rant I think it's more of a trope that thick set people are used as good characters. In shape language, rounder shapes read as soft and lovable. That's why characters like Winnie the Pooh, Garfield etc...are depicted as pudgie. Skinny characters are used quite a lot as villains, like Jafar, Prince Zuko etc...Because narrow, sharp shapes can read as dangerous. I don't think a character has to be "beautiful" to be likeable, just appealing in some way. However I'm glad you made this video. A lot of character design does rely on stereotypes and exaggeration. I used to be fat and was very ashamed. Larger people are made to feel bad about their bodies through media, there's no denying that. And it's important you drew attention to it in an intelligent way.
As a person who is insecure about their weight, I can’t help but wonder why this is so common in media. Is it because of the impossible beauty standards that a lot of people around the world have? This is not only a problem in the western part of the world but the eastern part as well, as demonstrated in anime. I personally feel portraying characters this way is harmful to real people, and that it causes eating disorders and unrealistic beauty standards. Even if that isn’t their intention, they still did it.
Also to cover the topic of “Fat = Ugly individuals,” I hear the term woke being thrown around a lot for people who disagree with that notion. If you could make a video covering why people perceive wokeness wrong, I would appreciate it. I myself want to make a video like that too.
Don’t even get me started on the opposite end of the spectrum where people make characters fat to fulfill some sort of sick addiction to fat people.
I may have some bias, considering the fact that my type IS bigger women, but one of my most powerful characters in my story is a big woman who's INCREDIBLY wealthy, intelligent, and powerful, with her biggest flaw being greed in the financial sense, and I want to portray her as very attractive but VERY terrifying as she's incredibly volatile, strong, and combat skilled
The main reason she's even big is for physical dramatic presence, and the fact that she's essentially a monarch which were typically bigger as a sign of wealth
Also, as previously mentioned, I just like big women lmaooo
I have to admit that I do link tropes to some body types. I rarely make characters that are explicitly fat, especially important characters. I often never think about a character's weight and assume everyone I write has average weight.
I recently wrote a fat character, somewhat realising my problem with everyone having the same body type. The character doesn't have a name (as are most characters in the story) and she's only called "the therapist". I wanted to write her as fat because I think it shows her softness. She's large and short, compared to the main protagonist being so skinny she disappears into the couch. The therapist's fatness ended up being a footnote in the mental picture because what matters is that it's this kind woman trying to help a kid heal from her domestic abuse.
The main protagonist is written to be conventionally attractive. I have no idea whether paralleling how I describe her features with the therapist's features might make the therapist seem unattractive. I hope that isn't the case.
Angoramon, a big round rabbit Digimon was a great example of 'fat' character with personality of wise and intelligent, plus a protective father figure towards his partner Ruli and her friends
Although his entire body was technically fur, he's one of the fat character who does not eat compare to the baby dinosaur Gammamon
I'm still terrible at drawing bodies but I'll try learning to draw diverse body types.
I had this idea for a show where the short chubby gal was going to dress in clothing she felt made her look beautiful and was to be depicted as such. It could never go anywhere because I have...no idea how I'd even start, lol.
Okay but I don't agree with putting ursula in the thumbnail.
I think she's beautiful, and I don't think her being a villain has anything to do with her weight - a fat person
I agree but at the same time I understand why she’d be there, she’s one of the first examples a lot of kiddos see of a plus sized woman on the screen in an animated film, so the reaction to her from their adults or guardians, who most likely already have preconceived bias, would matter a lot for a kiddo.
I honestly have a hard time seeing Ursula as a villain given her actual lore from the little mermaid book about her put out by Disney. What I love about Ursula is that she CHOSE her form, she looked at herself and knew that she felt the most beautiful as a fluid, exaggerated, multi-limbed fat kraken, and that was what she chose. Triton, as revealed in the book, is Ursula’s brother. And he took one look at the form she chose, curled his nose up at her, and told her that in order to be welcomed into the kingdom she’d need to change to a ‘superior’ mermaid form, when she refused, he banished her from the kingdom completely, leaving us with the rightfully jaded, and arguably not that evil Ursula. The merfolk that come to see her for spells are using her magic for vain reasons and vanity, we can assume that not all of the shriveled merfolk were seeking her help for vanity, but she never actually ever LIES to Ariel, not once, she tricks her absolutely but if she was really listening to what Ursula was singing in poor unfortunate souls, she’d never have signed the dotted line. Personally, I like to think that Ursula really only does trick those that come to her seeking vanity or selfish gain, given the reason that she was banished (Simply for choosing a form that she found the most beautiful for her), it makes a lot of sense that the merfolk she tricks, like those she mentions in the song, only sought her out for selfish reasons
I feel like Paprika is the only anime I've seen that handled a fat character relatively decently
paprika is an banger i love it
The Heavy Weapons Guy from Team Fortress 2?
The drawing in the backround is so cute
I wonder if there's also a discussion to be had on the inverse case regarding fetishization. I am saying this as someone who does actually find somewhat pudgier people attractive.
I absolutely LOVE your content! You always seem to find the best words to express yourself and your opinion
I automatically thought of ‘My Love Story!!’ both the anime and manga are thoroughly enjoyable!! 🌟🙌
I did see many cartoons show fat people as wholesome innocent people but I can't remember them atm welp
Great vid, thanks for sharing your perspective. I'd love to see examples of how to stylize larger or skinnier body types in a positive way, since some stylized works focus on making bodies ridiculously thin or large as a part of their silhouette.
me when ppl draw cartman skinny
Thanks for the PSA, and I appreciate your civil calm speech. Reality is reality however; I'm gonna consume fictional media featuring the 6'5" chadster saving the hourglass babe over someone might make it as the 7th string guard for the Seattle Seahawks. Speaking as a 5'3 manlet twink. Peace
no one paid attention to how cute the Layla drawing is
One of the first shows I saw somewhat positive plus sized rep was the shortlived CN show Megas XLR, While it still had a lot of the fat guy tropes, Coop was the protagonist and fairly competent in his own way.
Not here for the vid, just here to say Hifumi ain't bad- he's a decent character whose morals were exploited by someone else.
Excellent points, Due Chess Sylvester. Good video
Thanks for the important video.
I heard muscular nerd and thought of gohan, lol.
Yeah, I'm gonna be THAT person and I don't care how unpopular this comment will be. Anyway, I find your complaining about the lack of fat characters in Japanese anime/media a tad out of touch (in terms of Japanese society) It's mainly because in the East, obesity is not as big a problem there like it is in the West and it's not considered "normal" neither. Because of that, of course Japanese manga & anime artists aren't gonna dedicate time to making fat characters. Why would they? Obesity in Japan makes up 3.0% of the population compared to a place like America where it's 32% of the population. More than half of their population is slim to average and seeing really fat to obese people in that part of the world is a rarity (in comparison to the Western world where it's a more common) and this rarity further fuels their notion to not even think about creating fat characters, especially not as main character. As for them making fat characters unappealing in the rare times they do feature overweight characters, I won't disagree that it's not particularly kind or forgiving and sure,they could try to change with that but the likeliness of that is very low because obesity is seen as a disease in Japanese society.and they don't accommodate for it either, there's a reason why Japanese clothing sizes run quite small and not many of their companies see point in making larger sizes. Their society doesn't want to normalize it at all.
Also I'm just gonna add another caveat to this. You kept tailing back to how fatness is considered "unattractive" which is why there is not much focus on this body type and while you're not wrong that a huge part of the population don't view overweight bodies as "attractive", the other part of the reality is that to many people, it signals unhealthiness. And before anyone says that being skinny is just as unhealthy, that can be true but last I checked, the world is not glorifying people with the body build of Eugenia Cooney and the whole "heroin chic" look of the 90s and early 2000s is not encouraged at all anymore, at least not in mainstream. In Japan, yes thinness is deemed much healthier but the average Japanese person is not anorexic looking, they just have smaller portions of food they eat and a lot of it is much more healthier than Western food, plus it's a lot more common in Japanese society for people to walk more since driving can be a bit of a hassle if you live in the cities. Anyway the point is, fatness can be unhealthy but it also depends on how fat. A little overweight is fine but it's funny you mention the "body positivity" movement because the most prominent "activists" tend to be obese to morbidly obese and sorry but it's no surprise that a lot of people are against that. Including myself because I've seen where that kind of denial can lead which is an early grave. In my own personal life, I've lost my grandmother, mother, and uncle as well as a lot on my mom's side of the family that all had weight-related issues due to being more overweight to obesity and yeah no, no way in hell will I ever glorify that ridiculousness.
Anyway, It's good that you specified at the end that no one is obligated to draw fat characters if they don't want to because that's the simple truth. And it's why it's good that more people are taking matters into her own hands creating what they want to see and yes, there have been fat character portrayed in a more flattering way. But it's not surprising at all that most of the people doing this are not from the East which circles back to while hoping to see fat protagonists in Eastern media is a waste of time. Should they at least try to make fat characters not look so grotesque or unappealing? Ideally sure but realistically, that just is no gonna happen because of the way that particular place views fatness and obesity. So just take the strides that have been made outside that area.
--- Also side note, you could've also drawn out an example of the type of fat body you want to see as an example for the video ---
Yeah, I find it kind of hypocritical of the video maker talking about giving fat people better representation. While both her avatar and the character she's drawing are skinny and attractive characters.
@@Victimxofxprogress I'm not sure if hypocritical is the best word but what you said is kinda funny because it made me think of those videos when people would compliment non-overweight women who believed in fat acceptance (which is really just obesity acceptance) and they tell them they look "pretty like Lizzo" and they get a bit put off.
And with Japan where obesity is not as common there as it is in America, I think it's a bit silly to want them to portray fatter characters when it's just not the norm in their country.
@@decadentgamer3108I think we as a species really need to rethink the word "obesity"
@chiebukachibee-zoraedu if you mean in the sense that some people have confused what obesity looks like where you have people calling someone like Britney Spears circa mid 2000s as "obese", sure I agree. But the term does have a medical meaning and is important to be aware of for general health and wellbeing.
Thank you for inspiring me. For a while I’ve been working on learning to draw sexy anime girls with a fuller or more normal body type and while watching this I was working on art for a card game my friend is making. Thanks to you I will include some of these body types as well even if they won’t necessarily make sense for cave people just to prove it can be done and show respect where it is well overdue.
The biggest issue with how it’s so difficult to get good representation is the fact that there’s an entire extremist idealogy (cult more like) that are using every bone in their bodies to disgrace the idea of ANY representation, no matter what it is, this includes fat characters being more than just stereotypes. It’s too “woke” for a huge amount of media influenced people and they will actively try to destroy anything that isn’t based on them and them only.
The more representation there is, the better, but it’s just that it is so difficult to get anything out there when the world is primarily funded by bigotry as its’ driving force of finance.
In example the only gay representation Disney ever put out there was shoveled it into the dirt with the shittiest marketing they could possible give it, just because of the neo nazis crying about the idea of a character being openly gay and the movie not being ashamed of this.
Then people of said representations need to make what they want to be represented. I don’t see why you have to force creators that already exist to adhere to what YOU want. I’ve personally never really seen the importance of body diversity or diversity really in general. The only purpose it serves is making your characters more recognizable and distinct, but you can do that with hair and other factors as well.
I have what I would categorise as a conventionally attractive body type, and yet, I am hideous and lazy. Where is my representation in animated media?
No but for real, I very much agree with this, I wish there was more diverse representation of all body types, not only for the sake of people's body image, which of course is very important, but also because like... I'm bored with the narrow array of representation. It's uninteresting!