Update on my crusades

The fact alone that I have kept quiet for quite a while does not mean I did not follow my two crusades: “Killerspiele” and “Size 0”.

In Germany, the discussion about “Killerspiele” has died down quite a bit lately. We’re not close to any important election and there have been no big amok runs lately (and that’s very good). So there’s no initial reason for politicians or the media to pull the “Killerspiele” back into the limelight.

Still, we are missing a balanced discussion about computer games in Germany. Most people who are not playing themselves know next to nothing about them. Luckily, though, the number of people playing computer games has risen with the growing area of the casual games (which I, personally, like as much as I like ‘real’ computer games for seasoned gamers). There has never really been a documentary or infotainment program that would cover the whole of computer games (except for a special on MTV which only very few people above the age of forty or so would have seen).

So I still want the politicians to realize that a) computer games are not inherent evil and b) the age restriction labels could be twice as big and still wouldn’t work as long as the people at the shops don’t take them seriously.

There has been a lot of talk about “Size 0” last year, when a couple of models died because of their super-thin bodies. Every glossy magazine suddenly claimed to make sure the model on the front page was not unnaturally thin. Every fashion designer suddenly claimed their models were naturally that thin. Of course, that wasn’t the truth.

So far, though, only very few magazines and fashion weeks have really put a stop to the “Size 0”- and “Size 00”-trend. Spain is the only country I know of which currently bans models below a certain BMI from fashion shows and front pages. “Brigitte”, a well known German women’s magazine, has taken to put ‘average’ women on the cover and also avoids the super-thin models.

But if you take a look at the fashion shows, you will still see models that look far too thin (even on screen when you’re supposed to look fatter than you are) to be normal.

Once upon a time a model was supposed to show women of average build what a dress would look like on them. These days a model shows women of average build what they should look like … possibly a few hours before they die.