The incentive for today's post comes from a comment that I saw in WoW chat. It wasn't the first time, in fact, I've seen similar comments very frequently in the past month or two. The comment was referring to Pandaren and Dwarf being "fat races".
Obviously, anyone that reads this blog will know I am a fan of the WoW Dwarf race, but my objection to them being referred to as "fat" has nothing to do with my appreciation of them. I couldn't care less if they had huge great beer bellies or were stick thin (both of which would probably look a little odd), I like them because they are Dwarves. I am also one of the people that were very pleased to see Blizzard openly saying that they felt the Pandaren race should be more of a plump look given their culture's fixation on food and cooking. Far too many races with anatomies that look like they would snap if they tried to move in this game.
The trouble for me is that if Dwarves are openly viewed as fat, this only highlights the way our society is viewing body types. It is particularly disturbing as Dwarves are a muscley build with washboard flat tummies. I dug out a midriff-showing transmog to highlight the physique for anyone that doesn't usually get to see Dwarves (I know, they are often overlooked).
As you can see from the above images, they do have well-defined hips and boobs, but there's no fat there at all. Not even a tiny bit!
It doesn't matter whether you like the Dwarf race or whether you don't. It doesn't matter if you find them attractive or ugly. If we allow people to keep saying that this is "fat" then we are all responsible for the self-image problems that the more impressionable players take away from the game. That may sound like an exaggeration, but its the little things like this that build up to create a whole picture and go unnoticed until its too late.
