I Get Letters

The Fat Princess mail is still—yes, still—coming in, including an angry emails from a dude whose email I published, telling me I missed the point of his thoughtful missive.

In your post, "More Fat Princess Mail", you quote me, and ridicule the fact that I said "It did seem to boost you into the blogosphere", and go on to talk about the more important issues you have covered. Now, while I do appreciate your sense of professionalism displayed by not sharing my name or email, I find this to be an asinine remark to throw my way. You yourself said "The original "Fat Princess" post is probably my most linked post of all time." in your blog post, "Saddest Thing Ever", so why does my statement deserve ridicule when you previously admitted that it was your most linked to article?

Was it simply to show off to your readers that everyone that emails you is an insensitive man who is completely against all of your ideals.

Um, no. It was not. And, considering that lots of "my readers" email me on a fairly regular basis, I'm sure they already know that everyone who emails me is not "an insensitive man who is completely against all of [my] ideals," since they don't live on Planet My Perspective Dictates Reality.

As an aside, it's really amazing how many of my gamer correspondents, despite the large amounts of time they brag about spending on the internetz, don't seem to have the foggiest idea how blogs actually work. "Most linked" does not necessarily mean "most traffic." A link from a dozen gaming forums on the same day still frequently yields fewer hits than one link from, say, Feministing or Crooks and Liars.

None of which has anything to do with the fact that Shakesville was already a well-known blog long before my first post on Fat Princess last year, anyway. Being a dude who never heard of Shakesville before that doesn't change that fact, at least on Planet Earth. Although you wouldn't know it based on my emails from men who assert that feminism is pointless, stupid, irrelevant, etc., even as they totally diminish my work (and the work of the other contributors), or, worse yet, claiming responsibility for Shakesville's success, because they'd never heard of Shakesville before a random link in a gaming forum brought them here. Hmm, men deeming (primarily) women's work unimportant and/or claiming ownership of a woman's success? Now where have I heard that before? Oh, yes, that's right—filed under: A primary reason feminism exists. Ironic, no?

You ridiculed me, and missed the entire point of my email. You are obviously a lot younger than i thought to display said behavior, and it is apparent that you do not display the amount of professionalism that I had thought you would.

Oh, dearie me. I just feel terrible about being called immature and unprofessional by someone who doesn't even have a basic understanding of how blogging works. Anyway...

My favorite long-ass rant from over the weekend, care of yet another Dude Who Sends This Stuff Using His Real Name, is below. Enjoy!

Hi. I stumbled across your blog whilst googling Fat Princess, and read your articles.

I don't see how you can think it promotes fat-hating JUST because there is a fat character in the game. I guess by that logic it means that every episode of Seinfeld featuring Newman is totally trying to get you to hate fat people. The only real explanation for feeling this way would be if you somehow found some hidden mode in the game where you brutally murder all the fat princesses but leave the other ones unscathed.

Now re-read the above paragraph but replace 'fat' with 'female' and Newman with Elaine.

You hadn't played the game at the time of writing and part of me thinks you just wrote that article for the hits. If you actually wrote it in anger then your anger is laughably misplaced. Sure the princess is sometimes chubby (not always) but even so the Male and Female combatants still fight and die to bring her back.

Demanding some kind of 'political perfection' is a terrible thing. Please take a step back and try to see the situation here without your biased eyes that search for any reason to cry about why everything's offensive.

Also, your letter about fat princess shouldn't be addressed to Sony as the developer is Titan Studios, an offshoot of Epic Games. Do your wikipedia-ing first next time.

and then I read your feminist pages....

I really enjoyed reading this page (http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2006/10/theres-something-about-men.html), but your pages are written in such an accusatory tone of hatred that I can't take any potentially valid point you make seriously.

"[Males never] have his ass grabbed on a train by another commuter"

There are so many things I hate in this sentence. First off, I am a male. I have never grabbed a woman's ass outside of make out situations, and my male friends are all the chivalrous type. I have had my ass grabbed, slapped and commented about by females many times, even by the girls I think of as good people. I have 4 incidences I can think right off the top of my head.

"...or have his boss stare at his breasts instead of looking him in the eye."

People oggle each other. By people I mean males and I mean females. If my boss was zoning out on my crouch or my biceps I wouldn't think that she was somehow objectifying me at all, I would think that my arm happened to enter her gaze of zoning and I wouldnt be offended.

I hate how some anti-male females always resort to the same fucking concept: Males are all sex-crazed, testosterone fueled assholes who we would all be better off without.

Don't you understand that its these sorts of blanket statements and accusations that fuel the remaining inter-gender hatred?

I honestly believe, with my whole heart that it's feminists themselves that make women seem less than 'equal'. Feminists were featured on Fox news to talk about how awful Fat Princess is and all that appearance did was reinforce some people's thoughts that women are easily offended and never satisfied.

I really hope you are able to read this email with an open mind to my opinion and not instinctively get defensive and dismiss it as something written by another testosterone fueled jerk.

I have a ton of respect for alot of women outside of highschool, but most highschool girls are ab-so-fucking-lutely fucked in the head.

The juxtaposition of those last three paragraphs may be the greatest thing I've ever read in my life. Perfection.

[Fat Princess: Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven.]