Can you figure out what's wrong with this picture of a half-naked 16 year-old girl with breast implants the size of her head?

boing
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It would be nice, in my opinion. But… as I’ve said before in response to some other things … it’s their blog, they can post what they want. Of course if they do so sloppily, they have only themselves to blame.

And I’m willing to give Rob the credit of assuming that this was sloppiness rather than deliberate abuse of the medium. I’ve done things equally stupid when I was really too tired to be posting.

CAUTION: To prevent damage to reputation, ensure that brain is engaged before putting keyboard in gear.

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Me too, but perhaps moreso if I hadn’t been the subject of his deliberate abuse.

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I’m assuming that was misplaced defensiveness. “Can’t have been that I made a mistake, so it must be everyone else’s fault.”

But, yeah, the RIGHT answer once it was clear that this was going offtrack would have been to admit that the post failed to do what it was intended to do, discard it, archive this under “oops”, and try again with something edited a bit more carefully.

That option does still exist, Rob, if you’re serious about wanting to refocus the discussion.

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Do you have any idea how creepy you’re coming off?! Wow.

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BTW, on the digression, a good (though brief) in-comics-world discussion of superheroine (and -hero) shapes can be found starting around Page 137 of Grrl Power.

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Probably, but it depends how much assuming you’ve done.

What exactly did you find creepy about me pointing out the existence of women who are both slender and improbably-chested?

Do you think I should leave bullshit unchallenged because I might reveal myself to be conversant on the subject of large-breasted pornstars?

Is that what makes me a creep to you?

Or was it that the mods deleted the images, inviting you to assume they were NSFW?

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Seems like a dud link, dude

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What the hell do large-breasted porn stars have to do with this discussion? Your obsession with it in this completely unrelated post is what is incredibly creepy. You’re obsessed and have officially made your creepy obsession a big part of the comments even though it’s completely and utterly off fucking topic.

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Oh, I remember you - you’re inclined to kneejerk harder than Rob.

I’m not gonna waste my time with you.

Click that link to the definition of nuance instead - you need it bad.

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Link works for me, but… http://www.grrlpowercomic.com, and I presume you can figure out how to work the archive.

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The ironic thing about this comic is that the example she used to show that women being wank material in comics for men is a bad thing is of a style that is used in comics that are wank material for women.

You guys really do come off as prudes lazily criticizing straight men for being attracted to sexy women. That’s not to say there isn’t a problem with the way women are represented in media. But it’s a nuanced problem and throwing a fit every time a man draws a women sexy isn’t going to do much more than make you look like prudes. Sex appeal in the media isn’t going away any time soon. I think the best you can hope for is a more egalitarian approach to it which I think is already happening is some media.

I don’t even read comics like this. I think they are stupid and gross. The only reason I’m responding is that I think your criticism is really lazy and pointless. I agree with your goals. I want less sexist society that treats women better. But I just don’t think taking a single picture of a sexy women, telling the men who like that sort of thing they are creepy and gross and implicitly bundling them up with men who threaten and harass women is going to help. At all.

I see alot of internet feminists (who I am not implying represent all feminists) who know alot about the problems they face because of male culture but they don’t have a deep or nuanced view of male culture. Maybe it’s men’s job to fix male culture but if you want to garner sympathy from more men to fix their culture maybe you should show some understanding about their culture as a whole instead of just the problems it causes you. The men who threaten women don’t deserve sympathy but they are not representative of male culture as a whole. Most men are well meaning and generally good but still exist in a misogynistic culture. You want them to see things from your perspective but to successful communicate with them you are going to have to first see things from their perspective.

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Reading this thread has been like watching a car wreck. Horrifying, but you can’t look away. I feel icky. I could have been doing other things. I noticed halfway through, the lack of any female voices. Thank you. I need a shower now. Brrr…

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Mod note:

I know it’s been an exciting evening, but please try to avoid a certain level of hostility–especially chains of short back-and-forth posts that repeat themselves–lest the dragon be displeased when it awakens.

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Funny, it works for me now I’ve been there. Not the best behaviour for a link…

Topic seems to keep up till page 141.

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Hmm… I thought it was settled long ago that cartoons are not people. Or am I the only one that remembers the criminalization in certain places of Manga images? And if we are going to give that up do I re-shelve Nabokov high up in the “dirty” books or in high literature where books get dirty? Anyone seeking realism of any sort in comic books is barking up the wrong tree, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

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It’s not the fact that he likes that sort of thing, but that he has spent an inordinate amount of time making sure we know it, even though it’s really not at all in any freakin’ way on topic. The point is that I don’t care and no one else cares what turns him on and it is not at all relevant to this topic. You mean there are some men attracted to this sort of nearly-unattainable and often over-stylized and airbrushed standard of beauty? No way, man! Not the point, and his personal desires are even less the point, and yet…he’s still going and now you’re defending him.

@jake0748 But hey, I’ve already been called insane! And a prude. Of course.

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Perhaps the problem is rather that the analytics will show this:

3, Number of female BB commenters: ~1

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The main issue here has been whether Rob was perfectly fair, or even passably fair.

I agree with your sarcasm; it’d certainly be a more interesting discussion if it was centered on the uncool responses to Asselin.

Although it is interesting that they have a mirror here in the folks tearing strips off those calling for accuracy in headlines. Bloodlust much?

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I completely agree that female Superheroes’ physique and fashion should in general be modelled on active women like top athletes etc. and I’ll even allow some exaggeration for it to reach the Ubermensch-ness implied by the genre moniker. I’m also okay with the protagonists being attractive and even a little sexy to both genders, even though I wish that there was a wider gamut of what is considered sexy and attractive in a superhuman. In general though, superhero fashion is horrible. I can see why the skin tight outfits are practical on one level, but they seem horrible impractical on several others. At least Bat Man has the good sense to at least carry a tool belt of sorts for his knick-knacks and car-keys.

Personally, it’s part of the disbelief-parcel I’m struggling with when it comes to the typical American Superhero genre. I probably would be okay if they inhabited a fantasy world that was clearly distinct from our own, but placing them in what is ostensible a representation of the world of us ordinary people just tickles all my bogus-senses… and my guess is that the people criticizing the physics-defying body-shapes of the superheroes feel the same way, even if it makes for convoluted arguments about what level of reality we should expect in fantasy fantasies.

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Can you figure out what’s wrong with this picture of a half-naked 16 year-old girl with breast implants the size of her head?

That description is.
The heroine’s sexuality is almost cartoonishly exaggerated.
Enough said.

But I can say more.

When I was that age, girls had sexuality. More-so than I did.

The age of consent is 13 in Spain. It is 14 in Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Montenegro, Portugal, San Marino and Serbia. It is 15 in Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, the Faroe Islands, France, Greece, Iceland, Monaco, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden. It is 16 in Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Finland, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Switzerland, Ukraine and the UK. In the Vatican a girls age of consent is 14, if she is married.

One could argue that depiction of a teenager’s sexuality is automatically exploitation, but I wouldn’t.

Many years ago and miles away, a then 17 year old, still very dear friend of mine seriously considered breast reduction surgery.
For reasons.
The weight of her enormous mammal glands caused her tall, slender frame orthopedic issues. Back and neck pains, numbness in her fingers.
More importantly to her, her enormous breasts got all sorts of negative attention by girls her age and many older women.
It was obvious she was treated differently by females and by males. While it irritated me, all the lecherous, drooling male interest was not so much a problem to this sexually awake young woman. Often she enjoyed the attention, when it got past her breasts to her shy person. Women, when initially meeting her, often were outright mean.
I cannot mansplain why. But it was clear to see.

Do women really get silicone filled plastic bags implanted because men like that weird rubbery feel, unnatural look and inhibited bounce?
Men, do you really like fake tits?
Really? (RealDoll prosthetic fetish?)
It seems obvious to me that dressing, blinging and hair styling are largely done to impress one’s own sex. The same goes for cosmetic surgery.
Are surgeons just really, really bad sculptors?

Breast are the supreme food-source for babies.
Latin for breasts is mammae.
Mom, Mommy, Mum, Maman, Mami, Mama, …
A society of people that shave off all their body hair and focus so much on boobs is infantile. Not?

A society that doesn’t allow for a sixteen year old to gladly have hooters is just wrong.

Today I would have really hated to be in one room with all of y’all IRL. Aggressive bickering. Imaginary made for profit 2-D teenage super-tits got too many of you too riled up. But if I had been locked in a room with commenters threatening rape on an author, I would have turned violent until they whimpered.

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