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I'll spare ya the "Is it just me" cliche question, because I know it's not just me, but children's media is really freakin' fat-phobic!

Case in point: Kim Possible (oh how I love this show [/sarcasm]): Kim and Ron Stoppable are at a fast food restaurant. Ron, who is sweet but scatterbrained eats a hamburger and fries like pretty much every other fast food customer would do. Kim flaunts her sickeningly "perfect" Mary-Sue-for-the-new-generation health habits by eating a salad and warning Ron about his eating habits. Ron proceeds to eat too many hamburgers, which make his waist size expand tremendously (as well as several feet taller, but the artists didn't bother correcting this fatal flaw) and goes on a "ramapge" on the city. And then Ron has to go all OOC and lecture kids about healthy eating at the end. By the way, may I add that there is also a fat character, but he's a sedentary geek who spends too much time in front of a computer. Way to go, Disney. Dispel stereotypes about black people by reinforcing stereotypes about fat people and geeky, intellectual people. Way to be PC. Assholes.

And by the way, no, I do not watch Kim Possible on my own free will. My sister does. She's thirteen. Why don't I just leave the room? Because she leaves two TVs on, showing the same channel and turns the volume up really LOUD. gonk

Also, in Harry Potter Harry looks emaciated compared to his foster family (his uncle, aunt, and cousin). Each one of them are fat, rude, and opressive and tactless. And Neville is plump and socially inept and stupid. Okay, I lost all respect for J.K. Rowling now.

And there is this book by Marc Brown (author of the Arthur series) and Rosemary Wells called The Gulps in which a trim child encourages her fat family (whose weight breaks down the family vehicle and gets themselves stuck in water slides not unlike Homer Simpson in the episode of The Simpsons where the family goes to Mt. Splashmore) to eat "healthfully" (if health meant abstaining from fat and calories, thus halting growth and brain development) and be more active (The rest of The Gulp family does nothing but watch TV).

I've had enough of this. TV is evil. Not for the reasons that undereducated conservative soccer moms say it is, but because every fifteen seconds you see Shrek, a fat, bitter, hideous ogre (reminds me of my father. rofl ) instructing kids that they should just "get out and play". Um...don't kids do that ANYWAY? If they aren't energetic and very sedentary, then they're probably depressed! Telling them that they will be or are fat, lazy, abnormal slobs will make them even MORE depressed than they already are.

And even in anime fat-phobic messages. Just read or watch Yu-Gi-Oh! or Transformers: Armada. As much as I enjoy YGO, I sometimes think it's pro-ana. Yami no Yuugi looks like he's dying of starvation, for crying out loud, with those bony girl arms. I often make jokes about Joey Wheeler (Katsuya Jounouchi) being bulimic, though I know that bulimia is a mental illness and not a "vanity disease". Japan is a little behind in the size-acceptance movement, even behind the United States.

It may be just me going to be an old-timer in a few years with a splash of idealism, but I wish kid's entertainment was filled with joy, rather than lectures about who or what is bad in society. I wish it were an escape from the hustle-and-bustle and humiliation of elementary school life. I wish kids were taught that healthy eating does not involve excluding nutrients such as carbs or fat from your diet, rather, involving all foods in your diet, eating when you are hungry, stopping when you are full, paying attention to your appetite and when you are satisfied, even learning about what people of different cultures eat. I wish the "get out and play messages" were replaced with "kids are naturally fun, so they deserve to have fun and move their bodies in ways that feel comfortable and enjoyable" rather than those over-sugared "let's make fun of fat kids!" commercials. I wish that there was a "respect the diversity of bodies" movement rather than an "anti-obesity" movement, because not all kids want to become athletes or supermodels. I JUST WISH THEY'D LEAVE THE FAT KIDS ALONE!

So...what other stereotypical garbage have you seen in the media?

How did you react to it (I just turn off the TV or think of a complaint letter or laugh at how stupid the stereotype is)?

What do you wish that the media would show? Remember, the media is not limited to just TV and video games. It's books, magazines, internet, even word of mouth.

Have you seen some pretty kickass fat characters (like Emiry from FAKE or Junpei from Digimon)?

And did you know that I actually just hate kids? I'm just rather bitter.

[executive producer]No, because they're all lazy, socially inept, and it was their fault for getting fat in the first place. They watch too much TV and they're making us all this money![/executive producer]

Yeah, I remember that one episode. Kind of reinforces the saying that "Ninety percent of science fiction is crap." (Yes, someone said it. I forgot who. And no, I don't like science fiction most of the time. I wish it had some actual science rather than aliens or spaceships.) Okay, maybe Osmosis Jones isn't really science fiction, but it sure as hell deviated from its original goal in that one episode. Hel-looo! Every time you eat a burger, your body does NOT make more fat. Fat in the body =/= fat in the diet. And fat cells don't really make you fat or store fat. They protect your bones and muscles and other organs. They reinforced the belief that "calories in, calories out" is possible in all human beings. No, calories are absorbed. Humans are not garbage disposals. If all we did was purge the calories immediately after they were ingested, then we'd all be chronically tired and unable to concentrate. Calories are a nutrient, which research shows that Americans (especially women) are consuming less of.

I hate American kids shows sometimes. The side characters are only meant to make the hero of the story look more like a Gary-Stu than he actually is (and heaven forbid that the female main character be anything but girly or or a cheerleader who is overdressed and says 'like' before, during, and after every sentence). Japan has a more group-oriented culture, and in the lecture about how Japanese storytelling is different from American storytelling in my writing for animation class, I realized why anime has better side characters. I even like them better than the main characters sometimes. However, I still dislike it when characters are walking, talking stereotypes. Like if you've read the YGO manga, there are lots of obese villains who are greedy and conniving and some extras like that one girl who kinda looks like Kid Muscle, making fat girls feel like s**t. And in Transformers: Armada, you have that one kid whining about his blood sugar, and the audience is supposed to believe that it's an excuse for him to eat more or maybe he does have diabetes because fat people "automatically" have diabetes, when it's really a condition not unlike lactose intolerance. Do people who drink too many milk products get lactose intolerance later on in life? No. Does type 1 diabetes turn into type 2 diabetes? No. Do kids get type 2 diabetes? Yes, but only in extremely rare cases. Are some kids born with diabetes? Yes, and it has nothing to do with their weight or body fat percentage.

Okay, I just went on another massive tangent, sorry. But please bear with me I'm sick of seeing stuff like those "Exercise Lately?" commercials that were aired in the late 90's. It's hard being a fat kid in this day and age. It's like being a black or Asian kid in the '50's and '60's.

Iloveyou.

When I watch cartoons, just give me some good ol' comical violene. Hell, maybe it's just me but the last thing I want is some cartoon character to end up preaching to me about morals, or at least trying to stereotype everything into this tight box of doom. They fail to see that I like to escape reality once in awhile. Everyone does. Morals? Good. Just not when I'm being lectured about it in a fifteen-minute cartoon.

VIOLENCE! GIMMIE MALLETS! *raises hands*

Haha, no wonder educational TV sucks. Ren and Stimpy and Spongebob Squarepants pwn all, well except that they both had some fat stereotypes. However, Stimpy had many redeeming qualities and wasn't really as stupid as Ren made him out to be, and I think Patrick's being stupid is mostly a play on the fact that starfish have no brains. wink

And anything on the Disney channel is pure trash. Except for Dave the Barbarian. God, I miss that show. gonk

Political correctness is all fine and good in my opinion, but nowadays they took out the "correctness" part, and now it's all politics. I may be a psycho bleeding heart liberal, but one can only take so many "save the world or we'll all DIE!" speeches. And no one needs "compulsory volunteering". So, kids shows today are just as biased as adult's shows. And both genres are pretty damn fat-phobic, especially if you watch anything on Fox.

And making fun of fat people =/= political correctness. I wish the moralistic shows would actually not be so retarded and do it right! And yes, I did say "retarded", and I've been diagnosed with a mental illness.

By the way, have you ever seen anything like Honey We're Killing The Kids? I hope they tore that off the air. I wish The Learning Channel was about learning again. Now it's The Yuppie With An IQ Of Ten Channel.

And this has nothing to do with kid's entertainment, but Cartman seems to be the favorite character in South Park. Probably because he's a d**k. xd

Eh, to each his own I guess. I know quite a few people that can't stand the show, and I know just about the same amount that love it. I think it's an acquired taste that may or may not depend on upbringing really...I mean, my family was the kind that would fart at the kitchen table and laugh about it...it's just the way we were...toilet humor is funny to me, I can't help it.

Accordingly, we were HUGE R&S fans...no surprise there. I still have a Stimpy plushie that has a butt-flap on his PJ's...it's from a certain episode...I think it's adorable. xd

Also, I respect your opinion and your dislike of the show, but do you have to be so descrptively negative about it? I think your comment was well written, as most of your posts are, but really... confused

Aww...you didn't have to do that...I was just curious as to why you disliked the show with such articulate enthusiasm.

Anyhoo, don't get me wrong, I don't think R&S is the only show worth watching...it just holds a special place in my heart that bring back silly childhood memories.

Other shows I like include: Invader Zim, The Grim adventures of Billy and Mandy, Foster's home for Imaginary Friends, old Tom & Jerry and Looney Toons(mainly Marvin the Martian), Scooby Doo, Transformers, and the old Doug(from the mid 90's).

The old Doug had good but subtle messages to teens about things like falling into a bad crowd, cheating on tests, lying to impress friends, etc. The new Doug took those messages and warped the entire episode into one big annoying PSA to teens. It was overkill, so I stopped watching.

But I digress... sweatdrop

Hmm...I guess the only reason I included R&S in my arguement was because it was the first thing that came to mind when I thought of a show completely opposite of a potically correct toon chock-full of stereotypical characters and plotlines.

That, and I just like silly toons filled with grotesque violence and jokes. heart