Entry tags:

defensiveness ahoy, food, it's not easy wanking green, let them eat cake, otf_wank's thoughts on weight

The Serious Side of Salad
Once upon a time, someone in facebook posted a "Why Geeks Make Better Boyfriends" list. Britney St. Patience felt the need to point out its inaccuracies. She prefaces it with "Sure there are geek guys out there who are great partners. But being a geek does not guarantee that a guy will be a great boyfriend."

It's a pretty standard 'Nice Guy' deconstruction.

The main highlights are:

Myth #3: Geeks are low maintenance
Supposedly geek guys make great boyfriends because they can subsist on pizza, Mt Dew, and your affection. Just wait until you meet one who will ONLY eat pizza and maybe 3-4 other foods, like some sort of overgrown five year old. It took me nearly a decade to get my computer programmer ex husband to eat salad. My Star Wars obsessed ex boyfriend could not be taken to nice restaurants because he refused to wear anything except ripped jeans and nerdy tees and would not eat anything he could not pronounce. LOW MAINTENANCE MY ASS.

and

Myth #6: Geeks appreciate women
This one is, by far, my favorite geek guy myth. The myth of the guy who spent all of high school playing D&D but secretly wanting someone to love and when he finally gets a girl he imprints on her and covers her in puppy-like devotion. OMG WHERE DO PEOPLE GET THIS SHIT? You know what really happens when guys don't get laid in high school or college and spend all their time reading coming books and filling their spank banks with Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfic? They fill their little nerd brains with unrealistic expectations, waiting around for what one of my gamer friends calls a "magical pixie girl". An unattainably hot woman, who will love the nerd boy not in spite of his nerdiness but because of it and somehow his life will be transformed by her love. And he shall get a job. And he shall move out of his parents basement. And he shall cease to be whatever it is he dislikes about himself because the magical lady doth love him. But woe to any girl who does not live up to his fantasy. She will be treated with the same regard as yesterday's Mt Dew cans.

So, a little harsh, but all in all not a matter for anger, right? Wrong!

It gets posted to Metaquotes, and it starts to get weird.

First, the appetizer of rebuttals that only confirm the post.

The myth of the guy who spent all of high school playing D&D but secretly wanting someone to love and when he finally gets a girl he imprints on her and covers her in puppy-like devotion. OMG WHERE DO PEOPLE GET THIS SHIT?"

They get it from reality. That described me perfectly. It happened. It still happens. She completely ripped out my heart and shit in the hole eventually, and I got over this pattern... but it happens. That's where people get the idea.

The OP is demanding, high maintenance, dissatisfied with all the men out there... and yet continues to put herself into relationships with people SHE DOESN'T LIKE in some misguided attempt to make them into something she does like.

Of course it doesn't work, millions of people can tell you that (and probably did), and now she's bitter as a result of her mistakes, and is shifting the blame onto a large and diverse demographic that, in the aggregate, does NOT actually fit all the stereotypes she is perpetuating about them.

But then Candidgamera shows up and he Does. Not. Like. Salad.

If the girl I was dating was bizarrely fixated on me eating a salad, it wouldn't take me ten years to dump her sorry ass.

Making your husband eat a salad makes you a controlling harpy.

What follows is an extended debate over whether asking your spouse to eat salad is controlling, an act of deepest love for your dearest one, or something in between. Over salad.

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wankismyfandom
2011-10-13 05:52 am UTC (link)

the WiiFit hurt their feelings by telling them they're obese

I was bullied throughout school and it was worst in gym class. The first time I used a WiiFit, it reminded me so much of that experience that I cried for half an hour afterwards.

I tried to use the thing a couple more times because some of the games were kind of fun, but not nearly fun enough to make me run that gauntlet of triggers every single time.

I certainly hope you weren't this dismissive in front of your friends.

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	Reposted for clarity... rosehiptea 2011-10-13 07:20 am UTC (link)
	I really didn't realize it was so extensive and harsh. I'm sorry to hear that. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	eilisliana 2011-10-13 09:56 am UTC (link)
	When I used the WiiFit on a regular basis, I took to passing on the weigh-in because I was sick of Boardy (Clippy's cousin) giving me crap for gaining 2 pounds. That damn character was annoying, plus the "why did you gain weight?" part with no options like "daily fluctuation", "extra water weight" just "I ate too much" and similar shaming options. :/ (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	ekaterinv 2011-10-13 10:19 am UTC (link)
	Or "I gained muscle mass". Urgh. (Reply to this)(Parent)

iamnotyourmuse
2011-10-13 12:28 pm UTC (link)

Or "I've been sick." Thank you, I didn't feel up to exercising while I had a fever and spent two days in bed.

I still use mine and ignore the animated board and don't do the weigh-ins. It's a convenient tracking system and the games are fun. My biggest issue with it now is that it often asks about my husband, who no longer uses it because he got bored with it.

"How's he looking?" No matter what you answer (heavier, slimmer, more toned, the same) the board will be a total ass about it.

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chash
2011-10-13 01:58 pm UTC (link)

This may or may not be helpful, but I recently upgraded to WiiFit Plus and it has not been as assy about people who have not used it recently as WiiFit was; it actually said it heard they'd been looking stronger and did not press me for any details. I'm not sure if this is because I haven't played it enough to hit that yet or it's an actual change, but if you don't have Plus, I'd recommend it anyway. It's improved a lot, IMO.

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	iamnotyourmuse 2011-10-13 02:23 pm UTC (link)
	I've got the plus. When I say "more toned" it says "Oh... I guess it's possible. He must have been working on that." When I say "the same" it says "Oh... But isn't change so much better?" The phrasing is just so off-putting. On the other hand, how much do I love being able to bicycle all over the island? So much. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	chash 2011-10-13 08:31 pm UTC (link)
	Ugh, that sucks. I went through and deleted a bunch of old profiles and it didn't give me guilt-trippy stuff about anything, so I had hoped it was removed. Sigh. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	iamnotyourmuse 2011-10-13 08:34 pm UTC (link)
	I'm tempted to take his off it just so it'll stop pestering me about him. I'm not his keeper or anything. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	chash 2011-10-13 10:04 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah, I had my old roommates and their boyfriends on there, most of whom I haven't seen in like three years, so whenever it asked me how they were doing I was just like YOUR GUESS IS AS GOOD AS MINE, WIIFIT. I'm much happier with just me and my cats registered. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	catmoran 2011-10-17 03:12 am UTC (link)
	I have to ask -- how do your cats like the wii fit? I guess they must use it if it hasn't been nagging you about them! (Reply to this)(Parent)

doyle
2011-10-13 03:28 pm UTC (link)

The passive-aggressive animated board thing has made me almost punt the Wii through the window on more than one occasion. But even more annoying than him is the animation when you weigh yourself (for anyone who hasn't played it, your avatar starts off thin and smiling, and then as your weight appears it inflates while looking dismayed and shocked, as comedy "oh no!" music plays). This is based on your BMI so it happens every single time, even if you're consistently losing weight.

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telophase
2011-10-14 03:36 pm UTC (link)

Once, when I was redoing my settings for the first time in a year my cat walked through and sat on the board just as it was time to weigh myself, and it took her weight -- 12 pounds. It slimmed my Mii down to a stick and congratulated me on my weight loss, although it fretted a bit that I might have done it too fast for safety (200+ pound loss in 1 year makes it worry, but weighing 12 pounds doesn't?!).

I kept that as my weight for a while, because it was so absurd, and set my goal as maintaining my BMI. It STILL did that annoying little "Ooh!" noise when it thought I weighed 12 pounds!

Then I eventually redid my settings because I got tired of it telling me I burned 1 calorie after bicycling round the island for 30 minutes (yeah, the calorie burning is BS but I like feeling like it reflected my effort a bit more than 1 calorie!), and it was sad that I did not maintain my previous goal of maintaining my BMI at the 12-pound weight.

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ahiru
2011-10-14 01:13 am UTC (link)

Yeah, my mom and I both use the WiiFit Plus fairly regularly, but the only one in my house who ever gets weighed on a consistent basis is my dog. I'm sorry, Wii, I don't feel the need to explain to you why I did or didn't lose enough weight to please you. The really ridiculous thing is my mom is quite skinny and the few times she's used the weigh-in, the Wii makes her pick a new weight goal. Even though her BMI is in the normal range -- the lower end, but still, normal range. There's really no need for her to gain weight and she certainly doesn't need to lose any, but every time it wants her to make a goal. So even if you're a perfectly healthy weight, too bad! The WiiFit thinks your weight is still not good enough!

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bukowski
2011-10-14 01:30 pm UTC (link)

Back when I was using the WiiFit, I remember being seriously disturbed by that, and another thing: I stopped using it for about a week or two. The reason is that I had some kind of stomach flu and I pretty much stayed in bed the whole time and had no appetite so I barely ate anything. When I felt better and started using it again, I did the weigh-in and it was like, "Congratulations! You've lost X pounds!" (I forget the number) There was no option to explain that actually, the reason I lost that much weight was from not eating for 2 weeks, not because of a healthy lifestyle change. Also, I'd specifically set my weight goal as staying the same weight, so why the fuck was it congratulating me for something that went against my goal?!

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	sistercoyote 2011-10-15 05:06 am UTC (link)
	I had brain surgery. I was off the Wii fit for a month. When I got back, it told me I had lost 18 pounds and WOW! Uh. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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