Wota in Translation

Who decided that thin = pretty?

It’s all a matter of taste. There are certain people out there who absolutely refuse to drive anything but German cars. You know the type, right? They’re the ones who tell you they couldn’t care less about American or Japanese cars. Personally, I don’t mind if my car is Japanese or American or German, as long as it’s convenient and I like it. But it really is just a matter of taste, and some people will have things they feel much more strongly about when it comes to cars.

In a similar fashion, there are some guys who only like girls who are skin and bones. When the average girl sits down and they’re slouching a little, I’m guessing they’ll have that one roll around their stomach, right? But when you’re talking about the type of guy who only accepts the girls who are skin and bones, even that single roll would be a deal breaker for them. They can’t even accept squishy arms, from what I hear.

Guys like that could never sense even a hint of the good in women like Saito Yoko or Mitsui Yuri. I could be showing them a picture, going “Look! Just look at that! Do you see that?! Is that hot or what?!” But no matter how passionate I might be, it wouldn’t get through to them. They’d just respond all unimpressed: “man, what’s the point if I can’t even see her ribs?” Any amount of breast development? Forget it, they couldn’t care less. I don’t get that way of thinking at all. Do they have a sense of fear towards any girls who have a bit of fat to them? Are they afraid they might get eaten by them or something?

Rather than “skin and bones,” I’m personally more inclined towards “soft and full.” I’ll just come straight out with it: most men out there like chubby girls. Chubby girls just look kind and warm-hearted. But of course that’s just on the outside — I’m sure there are plenty of chubby girls out there who have cold, unfriendly personalities. Still, I do think it’s a big plus for them, looks-wise.

And just like how the guys who like skinny girls are drawn to their ribs and clavicles, guys who like chubby girls are drawn to many other things about them. Those guys will like all the things the guys who like skinny girls hate: the poochy belly, the irresistible, springy upper arms… and the roots of their arms (I wonder if anyone knows what I mean by that?) and how they’re sort of plump. That’s just pure joy for us men. (Or maybe it’s just me.) Also, the dimples that form on the back of their hand when they make it into a fist… Their fluffy cheeks… The list goes on.

Guys feel a very real sense of the “opposite sex” towards chubby girls in particular. There’s that softness to them that we love exactly because it’s so obviously different from what you see in men. It’s a very natural instinct. It’s like how seeing a very fair-skinned girl always makes me go “oh man, that’s so nice…” The reason it does make me think that is because the lightness of her skin sends out a very clear signal of her being the opposite sex, drawing me to her.

And yet, when given the decision, girls everywhere tend to aspire towards “skin and bones.” They aren’t satisfied with a “normal” body — they set their goal specifically for “thin.” But will becoming skinny automatically make you into a great woman? Is “thin” the definition of beauty? I wouldn’t think so. I feel everyone would do well to sit down and take a minute to think if being skinny would even suit their specific looks. Chubbiness could just as well be your charm point — and if so, I’d say that following the example of other girls and losing something that’s good about you to current dieting trends would be a waste.

When girls who think they need to lose weight are told by people around them that they look just fine as they are, they never lend an ear to those opinions. But I can tell you that very often us guys tend to think that even if you do go on a diet, you should tread carefully and not overdo it.

For instance, take the girls who make you think “just how thin do you have to become until you’re satisfied?” — the girls who get so obsessed about their dieting that they destroy everything that’s fun about living a normal life. The girls who you go out on a dinner date with and they say “I’m on a diet so I can only have the salad,” and then proceed to remove any tiny, deep-fried bits and leave them on their plate. Seeing that kind of thing really pisses us guys off. “Could you just shut up and eat your damn food on the rare occasion we can get together and enjoy dinner together?” If they do that and they say “there’s always room for dessert!” and they have the gall to then eat a cake or something, it drives many of us guys almost violently crazy.

From a guy’s viewpoint… Okay, fine. If we’re a couple who spend every day with each other, it can’t be helped. But if we only meet once or twice a week for a date, we would strongly prefer you to just eat like normal. When we finally get to see you, our wish is that you wouldn’t be constantly talking about “diet this, diet that,” but instead leave it for when we’re apart. When guys hear their girlfriends talking about how they can’t eat something because they’re dieting, we secretly always feel like asking: “when exactly is your diet going to end?” Besides, if you truly are losing weight for your boyfriend’s sake like you claim, is there any point if it only makes us feel disillusioned with you?

However, it’s not like I have anything against dieting per se. I think it’s a great thing if someone is doing their best in order to become pretty. But I do think it’s a good idea to also give a little more thought as to whether or not losing weight is truly necessary for you; if you can’t truly shine without losing weight. What I mean by that is, if it’s a girl who just doesn’t seem to “pop” in a way they’d like to for some reason, and they blame it on being chubby, it’s fair to say that they probably won’t be that much prettier even if they do lose the weight.

When I was in elementary school, there were these two girls from a household whose every family member was fat. The older sister was a sixth grader who looked like she might’ve weighed 100kg. When they took our physical measurements, the boys would peek in and mock her: “look guys, this year she weighs 80kg!” The younger sister, while being slightly more petite, still had the same build as her older sister. She, too, was a rather thick girl.

As it just so happened, when I was in junior high school, the younger sister ended up in the same track-and-field club as me. Being as heavy as she was, exercising in the same manner as everyone else in the club must’ve been immensely hard on her. Her older sister had by then reached a point where she’d be heaving from just having to struggle up the stairs.

In the beginning, the younger sister was the same way. When we started at the track-and-field club, she couldn’t run even a single lap around the field.

But she hung on for her dear life. One year later, although she’d previously been around 20kg overweight, she’d lost so much of it that she was pretty much down to what everyone else weighed. She used to say that everyone in her family was so obese, they’d told her at the hospital that it’d be impossible for her to lose weight. Regardless of that, she lost the weight and she was back to normal. Going up the stairs? Forget walking: she’d be running them up with ease, two steps at a time. I really thought the world of that girl for having pulled it off.

Obesity is a type of body constitution that can spread easily, and when someone is in a situation like that, it’s no wonder they become fat. People like that may also find it harder to see results from dieting compared to regular people, even if they do put in the same amount of hard work. Nevertheless, this girl didn’t just give up and say “I have an obese constitution. I can’t do anything about it.” She made it happen. Sure, if you have a constitution that makes it so that you gain weight easier than others, you may not be able to produce results exactly in the same way this girl did. But I’ve only given you one example of a success story. I’m only saying it’s possible.

When you hear successful diet stories like hers, who could help but applaud them for it? This is why I think it’s important for people to not just go with the flow and diet like everybody else, but instead think about it for a minute. Don’t just randomly decide you “have to” diet or that you “need to” diet in order to become pretty. To become a truly great, cool woman, you need to consider if you need to lose weight, or if it’s something else you should be putting effort into. It could be that your figure is already fine as it is. If you’re a little bit plump, so what? There are plenty of guys who prefer that. There are so many ways you can become cooler while still being plump.

I want you to think of someone like Taiyou to Ciscomoon’s Kominato Miwa. Man, she has some really nice upper arms! But when I made a comment about this to her, she said: “No, these are like this because I’m always carrying my child in my arms. But since I haven’t been able to do so lately, all the muscles have just melted away!” That was her excuse. The same goes for Shinoda Miho — being a former gymnast, she also has great shoulders.

However, neither of the two are shy about showing their upper arms and giving it their all. When I see them doing so, I can’t help but think about how cool they are. They have nothing in common with the average girl of today who falls into the trap of always thinking “I have to have a cute, pretty little face, or else I’m no good to anyone!” “I have to be slim or it’ll be bad!” And while those two might be a bit different from the average “famous Japanese person,” they nevertheless have lots of supporters. Perhaps that’s because they struck their fans with the freshness of their normalcy. Maybe it’s what sets them apart from everyone else, making them cool.

And yet, at the end of the day, even those two are just girls. Apparently, when they were first starting out, they wanted bigger outfits — they wanted to hide those upper arms. Even the staff saw them as a problem. They brought me pictures and said: “we get what your concept is, but come on… this is pretty bad, isn’t it…?” But I didn’t think there was anything bad about it at all.

Just as a skinny girl isn’t necessarily the same as a “good” girl, a chubby girl isn’t necessarily the same as a “bad” girl. Kominato is a mother of two. She got married, gave birth, and she sings minyo folk songs while carrying her children in her arms. Meanwhile, Shinoda is someone to whom her arms were her weapons when she stood on the world stage of the Olympics — it wouldn’t matter much what your arms looked like if you were the one who got the medal, right?

This is all just to say: there was absolutely no reason to hide them, nor did they have any reason to be afraid of showing them.

The important thing is this. One time when we were choosing which pictures to use for Taiyou to Ciscomoon, one of the staff said: “this picture is otherwise good, but you can kind of see the member’s underwear, so we can’t use it, right?” But my opinion is: even if we can see them — and assuming it isn’t at an uncomfortable level — then what’s the problem? Don’t allow your mind to be preoccupied with such inconsequential things; think only about how the picture compares to the other ones. It’s not like we took that picture while trying to make her look sexy, with her trying to show her underwear. It was just a thing none of the staff present even noticed at the time — that’s how natural and not a big of a deal it was. There was no problem at all.

I believe it’s much worse to let minor things like that mislead you and make you lose track of what’s really important. It’s the same thing with dieting. It’s fine if you’re doing your best to lose weight, but don’t make it your no. 1 priority. Instead, focus on the kind of person you ultimately want to become and aim for that. Don’t throw away the virtues you already possess.

Don’t forget: for every chubby girl who’s dieting out there, there’s a guy who likes chubby girls, going “ahh, what a waste!“