Black men don’t like fat women (well, maybe fat WHITE women as Chris Rock discussed in one of his comedy shows and as was spoofed by Rachel Dratch on SNL).  They like small to medium women with large, round butts (large breasts are optional).  But the ideal waist would still be small and the stomach would be flat, and yes, some thickness in the thighs is preferable to stick legs for a lot of them. But not fat or obese.  If you are in fact larger then you’d still better have a nice hourglass figure with  a small waist.  And that body type does NOT increase your risk for heart disease or diabetes.  It’s called steatopygia, and there is a reason why women of African descent sometimes have this shape (it increases reproductive fitness/fertility while minimizes body area, a necessity in hotter climates).  

I’m kind of tired of the fact that black women who aren’t fat get described as fat b/c they have thicker thighs and larger butts (no, not all black women have this but I’m not going to pretend that this particular fat distribution isn’t more common in black women).  For some reason, the skinny legs, flat bottom, and visceral body fat distribution found more frequently on whites is never attacked as being fat(or ugly for that matter).  But thick thighs and a large bottom on a small waist becomes “fat.”  I actually am fat but it is clear that my bottom will always be prominent(and as I work out and lose weight, it stands out more) and I like it, and anyone who has a problem with that can suck it.  My goal is to be healthy and my butt is a permanent feature of that journey.  

So even if we wanted to pretend that this is based on male preference and not genetics, it still comes down to something that is associated with black women being deemed ugly by the mainstream.  

And at the end of the day this is Sarah Baartman all over again.  The othering of black women, and the message that they have no right to have any pride in a society that puts them down, and that their “features” are ugly when compared to non-black women.  It really bothers people that black women don’t internalize these messages, and they won’t ever let us forget that they think we are ugly.

In the grander scheme of things, I don’t think it’s helpful to try to define fatness or what someone SHOULD weight b/c no one knows where healthy eating and exercise will take their body, and people should not feel that they are doing something wrong just because it doesn’t take them to a size 4 jeans.

I wish people would focus on diet and exercise and stop trying to divine people’s medical histories based on their pants size.

Seriously, picking my black sisters as if they were somehow different from me?  Get a life, and find some real answers, or leave us alone.

Well written.

Elsewhere on the internet nobody has been able to bring up the idea that there may be just a little more T&A than is necessary to provide exposition without being howled down as a sexually-repressed prude by defensive fanboys who obviously didn’t even read the articles. Testament to the high standards of commenters on this website.

Elsewhere on the internet nobody has been able to bring up the idea that there may be just a little more T&A than is necessary to provide exposition without being howled down as a sexually-repressed prude by defensive fanboys who obviously didn’t even read the articles. Testament to the high standards of commenters on this website.

Could have mixed up races instead of having stereotypical white civilised north/dark wild tribes in the south, had a few or at least one important family of non-whites instead of all of them white.  I doubt that would have made books unpopular, Earthsea series did just fine. 

Nudity wise, the brothel was supposed to cater to all tastes, meaning there would have been boys/men, trans people, more services than just appealing to straight men – what about rich women of the city or people of different sexualities? But the only thing shown, in either books or on tv was girls being available to men/ girls being taught to preform lesbian sex for men. 

Could have mixed up races instead of having stereotypical white civilised north/dark wild tribes in the south, had a few or at least one important family of non-whites instead of all of them white.  I doubt that would have made books unpopular, Earthsea series did just fine. 

Nudity wise, the brothel was supposed to cater to all tastes, meaning there would have been boys/men, trans people, more services than just appealing to straight men – what about rich women of the city or people of different sexualities? But the only thing shown, in either books or on tv was girls being available to men/ girls being taught to preform lesbian sex for men. 

Interracial relationships have to be downplayed or avoided altogether.  How can you have a relationship with WOC characters? They are ciphers, fetishes – without agency, history or desires of their own. Allowing them to have desires rocks the boat too deeply.

The relationship between the adaptation of Games of Thrones and the racist backlash against the Hunger Games casting makes it clear how much is at stake, in the imaginary and at the box office.

As for getting Joffrey laid, in the books Tyrion considers this solution after Joffrey has Sansa disrobed before the court in the throne room.  The thought was that maybe his extreme dickishness was a result of repressed sexual urges.  I think the television scene involving the outcome of this strategy was important in that it illustrated that Joffrey is rotten to the core, and not as a result of any burgeoning sexuality.  It strengthens the idea that his family and advisors have little control over him, directly or (in the case of trying to get him laid) indirectly.

The character of Ros is indeed problematic though.  She has no agency.  She has only but the most vaguely defined goals – to make it to the big city (King’s Landing).  To devote so much time to a character that has no purpose but to be the audience stand in as other characters plot and scheme or as the target of occasional physical and emotional abuse is curious at best.  I hope that this character, for the most part original to the tv series, is given a story arc of some sort.  She’s earned it.  I can, however, understand combining the various brothel characters to streamline the storytelling.  Chataya and Alayaya are great characters, but hardly important to the story.  Having Tyrion lust for them in the show would diminish what they’re trying to do with Shae.  Of course, part of this is logistical necessity – the books have more time to differentiate between his relationship with Shae and his attraction to Chataya and Alayaya.  A sad loss – along with Jalabhar Xho – and hopefully one that can be counteracted in later seasons with further adventures across the sea and north of the wall.