I am done reading Questionable Content. Just took it off my syndication list; am no longer going to request any of his T-shirts (I don't own any, and I don't want to
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to jephco@mac.com, date Jan 4, 2008 1:17 AM subject Comic #1049 and body image mailed-by gmail.com
Hello Jeph, I wanted to let you know that, though I am a long-time reader of QC, I am very disappointed and upset by #1049. I have stopped reading the RSS feed, and will not be ordering any of the shirts I had planned to buy.
I noticed that you drew Faye to suggest she had put on weight, although she still looks proportionate and curvy to me. Penelope's dialogue in panel 2 is essentially blaming Faye's personality problems on her weight, and asserting - far beyond suggesting - that if Faye doesn't let herself be bullied into exercising, she's both fat and a lesser person.
I think it's really wonderful that you've had lesbian, queer and sex-positive characters, which are other issues that matter to me, and you've tackled some fairly big issues in an otherwise lighthearted strip. But this story arc with Faye is sending a disturbing message about QC's attitude towards women bigger than Dora. I think it's a highly toxic social statement, given all our culture's problems with body image. Women with normal body proportions do not deserve to be portrayed as too fat, and women who *are* obese don't deserve to be called lesser human beings. I hope you will understand the impact that your comic can have on our culture as a whole.
Thank you. I'm honestly more bothered by this because, up 'til now, I had a lot of respect for Jeph, which I wanted to get across. I was so pleased he had lesbian and bi characters, and Marten's mom as a fetish porn star who's also a decent person, and mentally ill characters portrayed with more depth than just their disease. So much coolness that I was really surprised he'd go for the fatphobic gag.
Yeah, somehow no matter how tolerant someone seems to be otherwise, making fun of fat people is always not just okay but cool and edgy, and anyone who dares to call the writer on it usually gets accused of OMG POLITICALLY CORRECT FASCISM. *sigh*
date Jan 4, 2008 1:17 AM
subject Comic #1049 and body image
mailed-by gmail.com
Hello Jeph,
I wanted to let you know that, though I am a long-time reader of QC, I am very disappointed and upset by #1049. I have stopped reading the RSS feed, and will not be ordering any of the shirts I had planned to buy.
I noticed that you drew Faye to suggest she had put on weight, although she still looks proportionate and curvy to me. Penelope's dialogue in panel 2 is essentially blaming Faye's personality problems on her weight, and asserting - far beyond suggesting - that if Faye doesn't let herself be bullied into exercising, she's both fat and a lesser person.
I think it's really wonderful that you've had lesbian, queer and sex-positive characters, which are other issues that matter to me, and you've tackled some fairly big issues in an otherwise lighthearted strip. But this story arc with Faye is sending a disturbing message about QC's attitude towards women bigger than Dora. I think it's a highly toxic social statement, given all our culture's problems with body image. Women with normal body proportions do not deserve to be portrayed as too fat, and women who *are* obese don't deserve to be called lesser human beings. I hope you will understand the impact that your comic can have on our culture as a whole.
-- Ari [last name]
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