| Ashadelo said: Why are there so many fat women in this game? I get that there are fat women in this world, but surely not this many? |
The game is set in the USA which has high obesity rates, yet overall
Key Global Statistics: Adults (18+): 43% are overweight and 16% are living with obesity.
The USA is actually getting a bit better
The current U.S. adult obesity rate is approximately 36.4% to 37%, showing a slight decline from a peak of 39.9% in 2022
'Fat' women or Rubenesque used to be desired, from 20,000 years ago until the 19th century.
Fat shaming started as a form of religious / social control and racism:
Figures like Reverend Sylvester Graham (inventor of the Graham cracker) promoted early dieting not just for health, but as a way to control sexual and moral urges through food.
Sociological research, including work by professor Sabrina Strings, shows that European and American colonists began linking larger body sizes to racial inferiority and a lack of discipline, contrasting themselves with populations they subjugated.
By the late 19th century, larger body sizes began to be openly stigmatized for aesthetic reasons. This transformed further in the 20th century as the medical establishment began quantifying body weight and associating it with mortality risks.
https://withinhealth.com/learn/articles/the-racist-history-of-fatphobia-and-weight-stigma
So the game is just reflecting society as it is, dropping the fat shaming that has been advocated against since the late 1960s. At least I hope they don't make the usual fun of fat people in the game.
Body positivity movement
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z2w7dp3
I would applaud R* for treating 'rubenesque' people like normal people for once rather than caricatures to be laughed at or pitied.
