Well, at least it isn't foot binding...

Wife-fattening farm
Also known as America.

i like big butts and i can not lie, those other brothers can't deny...

Mmm. Tubby pedophilia...gawwchhhwh

UncleScam, nice Grand Theft Auto 3 tag.

Thanks, LincolnLogolas. Now excuse me while I poke out my mind's eye.

Hotel Hell

SE7EN comes to mind... Gluttony.

built for comfort not for speed...

my title: "Mauritians like big butts and they do not lie."

/bah

I think a couple of farkers said it already. There's nothing new about holding women to unattainable beauty standards, no matter what those standards are. Foot binding, force feeding, starving, mutilation, injecting your face with rat poision. All sides of the same twenty-sided die.

/resentful female geek

Holy hell! We need to invade and RESCUE those poor girls!

*snicker*

linewalker

Thanks, LincolnLogolas. Now excuse me while I poke out my mind's eye.

That's nothing near as bad as another I could've posted. It was one of those that would warrant a NSFL tag (Not Safe For Lunch). Let's just say it involved butter.

This is Spinal Tap

Big Bottom

The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin'
That's what I said
The looser the waistband, the deeper the quicksand
Or so I have read

My baby fits me like a flesh tuxedo
I'd like to sink her with my pink torpedo

Big bottom, big bottom
Talk about bum cakes, my girl's got 'em
Big bottom drive me out of my mind
How could I leave this behind?

I met her on Monday, twas my lucky bun day
You know what I mean
I love her each weekday, each velvety cheek day
You know what I mean

My love gun's loaded and she's in my sights
Big game is waiting there inside her tights, yeah

Big bottom, big bottom
Talk about mud flaps, my girl's got 'em
Big bottom drive me out of my mind
How could I leave this behind?

According to that article, the men are "fed up with fat women" and want "skinny women". I guess so!

Kymry/Rillion:
I would say on the scale of atrocities making them fat is a lot nicer than female cirumcision. At least fat is reversible, ain't no clit reattachment surgery.
/it's still farked up, of course

Wow, the thread seems to be evenly divided between the America-bashers, the multi-culti defenders, and the flippant-FARKers.

Who shall reign supreme?!

Kymry

Just out of interest, do you not think that maybe the women themselves play a big part in 'being held to unattainable beauty standards'. I don't want to start a flamewar or anything here, but do you not think that there is a point where you draw a line and accept responsibility, if not entirely for yourself, then at least mostly? It just seems a little to easy to blame others, or specifically, as is always the underlying implication, men.

/genuinely interested

Just send those girls here to America. We seem to have a knack for fattening people up.

Just send those girls here to America. We seem to have a knack for fattening people up.

Yea, but then she'll want half...

_{Half, Eddie! I want HALF!}

Commander_Keen-- I'm actually very much a fatalist in general, but I think there are degrees of responsibility here. I don't think a girl physically forced to fit some standard of beauty has as much freedom as a girl whose family compels her to fit a standard of beauty, who doesn't have as much freedom as a girl who is raised from birth to believe that some standard of beauty is necessary to pursue, who doesn't have as much freedom as a girl who is presented with a variety of options for beauty but some of which are much more prevalant than others....etc.

Yeah, it's important to emphasize volition to point out that there is a choice (when there is one, that is) to break away from standards, but it's also important to not ignore the role that psychological training has in the process. The penalties for deviation don't always take a form so obvious as being beaten in the streets.

(I know you didn't direct your question to me, but thought I'd answer anyway). :-)

"Me, I've seen 10-year old girls give birth. I tell you, 10 years old!

When a female gains enough fat to lean mass, she will start menustrating earlier. Anorexic women stop menustrating.

This is just another example of Islamic fundamentalists controlling women so they can feel powerful. This is better than Sharia courts.

Pathetic asshats.

It's quite common for tubby women to be seen as prettier in poor countries. In those areas, only the rich are fat.

When you're only skinny because you can't get enough to eat, being fat is a mark of wealth and distinction.

Better headline:

Femme-fattening farm for fat-fetish farks in Mauritania

I'd hit it.

...on second thought...

Fat used to be the beauty standards in Europe for the same reasons. Fat = Prosperity. The poor were starved and the rich had food. Therefore, if you were fat, you were rich. Look at Ruben's nudes. All very round. (Not fat but very rounded) Scrawny didn't become fashionable until health improved and the middle class began to emerge.

/history lesson

shader

I'd club it like a baby seal! Did I get that right?

It seems a little ironic that they have to send girls to "farms" be force fed to gain weight and get fat...

when the United States just had to let out the belt another notch again as the number of obese in America jumped to a record high.

*sigh*

When will "healthy" be the "in" look?

Cola: Just another form of body oppression and ideas of beauty used against women. Nothing new.

You're starting at the assumption that women do not perpetuate these standards of beauty. Why is there is no responsibility there? No one blames anyone but men themselves for creating the "frat boy" ideal which brainwashes so many young boys into a life of idiocy. Are women regarded as so weak that they have no personal responsibility? This is the basis for denying rights also...

I think I read in one of Mario Puzo's books (the Sicilian, perhaps?) that man with a belly was the idiom for a Mafioso, meaning that he had wealth and power as well as girth.

Rillion

I agree in a sense. It goes without saying that the qualitative levels and degrees will differ across the spectrum and that in some cases people will feel more of a pressure to confrom than in others. However, I think that too often nowadays people are too ready to seek blame instead of a solution. To me that's whats unhealthy. I mean isn't choice the whole point of Democracy? It seems absurd that people in the Western world are so quick to deny responsibility for thier own situation, even if they genuinely have been dealt a bad hand.

If I come over there and know you down, that's not your fault, but if I come back a week later and you're still lying there, that is...

hope that makes some sense...

They have something like that in Missouri, at least all the women here look like they do

15 bullets in their hat!

Thom

You're starting at the assumption that women do not perpetuate these standards of beauty. Why is there is no responsibility there? No one blames anyone but men themselves for creating the "frat boy" ideal which brainwashes so many young boys into a life of idiocy. Are women regarded as so weak that they have no personal responsibility? This is the basis for denying rights also...

That's because all men are evil cock-wielding oppressive bastards, who live for the sole purpose of keeping women down. Except for the gay ones. They're okay.

I dated a feminist once. She actually said I was oppressing her once. That ended VERY quickly.

That's because all men are evil cock-wielding oppressive bastards

Hey! Watch that 'evil' stuff!

Uh, I see nothing wrong with the idea of females being fat to be beautiful. From a purely er, scientific, I guess, standpoint, larger women tend to fare better raising children than the smaller ones, less complications in childbirth, and if she has to starve a couplea days, she can still produce milk to feed her offspring.

That might be totally wrong, of course, I've never studied it, but I have heard that in multiple places before...

Anyway, what's wrong is the fact that these girls are screaming and crying and being forced to conform to a standard of beauty that is considered outdated in even their own country....although, I think America's headed that way too... it seems like girls are trying to get thinner and thinner and more and more guys are starting to hate it.

But then, I'm a girl. I'm born with the instinctive knowledge that somehow, somewhere, guys think I'm ugly ^^;

/end babble

Feminists justify wifebeating.

I lived in Mauritania for 2 years when I was with the Peace Corps. I feel that I might be qualified to lend some thoughts on the article:

1. Not all Mauratanians like their women fat. There are four distinct ethnic groups in Mauritania, and it's only the Moors that like their women fat. The other ethnic groups are considered "black Africans", and they think that Moor women are disgusting.

2. Disgusting? Yeah, that's the correct word. The women in this article are pretty slim by Moor standards. The really fat ones are ENOURMOUS. They take up a quarter or the back of a pick-up truck and they can't get up there on their own power. You need four or five guys pushing on their huge butts to shove them up the truck.

3. Moor men, as you might imagine, are, as a race, some of the skinniest people I've ever seen. I suppose this isn't surprising.

4. Ironically, I learned intolerance in Peace Corps. Most Moors are jerks.

5. Screw Moors. Soninke is where it's at.

That's because all men are evil cock-wielding oppressive bastards, who live for the sole purpose of keeping women down. Except for the gay ones. They're okay.

I dated a feminist once. She actually said I was oppressing her once. That ended VERY quickly.

That's not feminism, that's misandry.

Commander_Keen-- I agree with you that people abdicate responsibility too much in general, however I don't think that that is an argument against seeking causes for the various kinds of repression that still exist. I agree that blame should not be the goal-- I don't think that any men in any point of history have gotten together and said to themselves "Let's keep women down. Let's oppress them through restriction to rigid gender roles and deny them education so they don't have the mental or physical tools to fight back," and it really pisses me off when people act as if that was the case. However, that doesn't change the fact that oppression still happens all over the world, and the sources of that need to be found and eliminated.

I think this can (and should) be done without villifying men in general, but distributions of power-- who has influence over who-- are a critical element in this consideration and need to be taken into account.

You mean "Moops".

Commander_Keen and Thom:

Of course men aren't the only ones to blame. I am sure you've heard the saying "women dress up for each other?" It's true. Most men I know wouldn't look twice at the cut of a skirt or the heel of a pump. They might think, "wow, she looks good in that outfit," but it's the women who fetishize the details.

I think the same thing goes for societal pressures on us as far as body image.

Men don't publish Cosmo. Dumb women do. Why? Because for generations untold we have wanted to appeal to our mates. We were told that they ONLY way we would have value was to appeal to our mates. So a cult of Self-Betterment-For-Your-Man sprung up. Women who didn't take part were useless. Other women who took part felt superior. And after all, we had nothing better to do besides raise rugrats.

Not that there's anything WRONG with being attractive, mind. I like to try to be, within reason.

I wish we would all cut it out with this extreme body modification crap, though. I don't want to be devalued in 20 years because I am 40 and look it. But I will be.

I dated a feminist once. She actually said I was oppressing her once. That ended VERY quickly.

So let HER get on top once in awhile!

(this isn't rocket science, guys!)

We were told that they ONLY way we would have value was to appeal to our mates. So a cult of Self-Betterment-For-Your-Man sprung up.

HA! Where be all these women?

Most men I know wouldn't look twice at the cut of a skirt or the heel of a pump. They might think, "wow, she looks good in that outfit," but it's the women who fetishize the details.

Plus we don't have hidden meanings to what we say. If I said I like chicken but I don't want chicken tonight it's not a subtle hint for that I want chicken tonight. How hard is it?

Us guys are simple.

Plus we don't have hidden meanings to what we say. If I said I like chicken but I don't want chicken tonight it's not a subtle hint for that I want chicken tonight.

linewalker gets a star for his work on today's assignment!

Rillion

Agreed... It's a fact that inequality exists in every society across the globe, the gulf being far greater in some places than others. Unfortuneately, I think that in reality, there's little that can really be done about as every social structure is a bit like a pyramid and capitalism gives you the biggest pyramid there is. That's sadly how I see it all working.

I also am at pains to avoid all this PC bollocks as well. When I used to work for Ealing council in London, my boss used to joke that someone was a black, disabled lesbian, they'd be the hottest employment commidity there is. I think that it's equally wrong to try and tackle the current inequality with "postive" inequality instead. If someone is good for a job, for instance, they should get it on those merits, not on the basis of race/gender/sexuality etc.