Questionable Bodies

This week in QC: Jeph Jacques decides to stop drawing Marigold's AnthroPC Momo as an adorable little chibi, and turns her into another thin girl instead. BLAH. As if that isn't bad enough, we get a dose of the old "if you're not skinny, you're fat" crap. So Marigold should just exercise more and eat better, and she'd be skinny like Dora and Hannelore, right? Now where have I heard this before? Oh yeah, every single time Faye's eating is mentioned.

Sometimes I get an overpowering urge to rewrite a comic. So here we go.
Momo: "If you are unhappy with how you look, you could eat better and exercise more."
Marigold: "Right, that would solve my body image issues. Thanks for the tip."

Or maybe:
Marigold: "You know what, if you get an attitude, I can take your chassis back and switch it to a fat one."

Or even:
Marigold: "Well, but I like eating and don't like exercise. I'm still allowed to have bouts of low self esteem, right?"

Anything other than "That's so much work!" See, it's all about willpower. Thin girls are thin because they work hard, and chubby girls are chubby because they don't do anything about it. As soon as you pick up the slack and start exercising, you get skinny, simple as that. It's particularly ironic that Momo, who did absolutely nothing to earn her figure, is saying this.

The problem with how women - and men too, as a matter of fact - are depicted on QC is twofold:
1. everybody is skinny, apart from a few people, so their slight chubbiness stands out as an anomaly. This is the opposite of how things are in the real world. There are quite a few skinny people, of course, but they're not the norm, and a girl of Faye's or Marigold's size wouldn't raise any eyebrows.

2. Every time Jacques tries to address body image and beauty ideals, he ends up being an ass about it. I'm not sure if he means to be; probably not. I'll admit that it's a really difficult topic to write about, and it's hard not to make some generalizations, since we do live in a culture where skinny is seen as both healthy and ideal. But I do feel like he should look into the issues a little bit before he writes about it. I'm tempted to say "no female body, no opinion", but I won't, because men can and do understand the pressures women are under.

If, by any chance, I've  misinterpreted Jacques and he actually means to say "it's tough to be a chubby girl when everyone else is skinny", I have this to say: learn to write outside of the box of "skinny girl lectures chubby girl about lifestyle". I remember one sweet conversation Faye had about her body with Marten, but every time she brought it up with the other girls, she got this same attitude (including Penelope dragging her to the gym for a torture and taunting session). The question is why Faye chooses to hang out with such bitches.

Last time I dared question the brilliance of Mr Jacques, I got a mob of angry QC fans attacking me for a month, including snide comments on the comic's forum. So if you're a fan and think this is unfair, argue your point in a calm manner. I'm not going to publish flames.