The best stories in fiction always have some truth in them, and nowhere is that more apparent than in Victoria Ying’s newest graphic novel, Hungry Ghost. While not a memoir, it’s clear that this book is written from a real place of dealing with eating disorders, cultural values, trauma, and coming to terms with not…
REVIEW: A Dialogue on Body Positivity in Embrace Your Size Manga
When I first heard about Embrace Your Size, I was super pumped and immediately shared it with a friend of mine. She and I read a lot of manga together, and we both noticed how rarely manga depicted anyone who looks like us. So for us, having body positivity be the central theme of a…
My Boyfriend Is a Bear: The Consequences of Fat-Shaming in Comics
We tend to avoid mirrors after we see that the number on the scale has ticked upward. Even if your body hasn’t visibly changed in shape, numbers seem like an immutable fact. There is a certain pressure surrounding the scale, which breeds an obsession with everyone else’s numbers. Then come the diets, the reluctant exercise,…
Fatphobia in the Never Changing Comic Book Landscape
EDIT: an incorrect fact has been removed from this article. Superhero comic books retain the ability to deeply wound their audiences. What do they propagate a desire for? Thinner women. “Superheroine” is still, despite occasional pushback from Marvel’s (Adrian Alphona’s) Gert Yorkes and Valiant’s Faith, synonymous with “titty, yet thin.” They define a “correct” template, and…
Others, Mothers and Monsters: Body Diversity and Fatphobia in Video Games
Like many people, I’m beyond excited for the next Mass Effect game, Mass Effect: Andromeda. So excited I want to know every bit of information about the game as it (slowly) comes out. I got super excited when they finally started to release character dossiers a few weeks ago, because character information is something that…