16 thoughts on “So, a Skin about fatphobia and body shaming. Calling it “The Giant” is:”

  1. A giant is something else.

    In the context of Monsterhearts, I’d imagine a “Giant” skin about being big and strong and unusually “physical”, with no dysphoria but possibly some envy of more beautiful or more subtle people.

  2. A giant is something else.

    In the context of Monsterhearts, I’d imagine a “Giant” skin focusing about being big and strong and unusually “physical”, with no dysphoria but possibly some envy of more beautiful or more subtle people.

  6. I see your points Lorenzo Gatti​ and Shervyn von Hoerl​. I was concerned about the name being insensitive or offensive, but looking at it now, it doesn’t fit. Giants in European and Western mythology are big, but they’re also strong, physical, and sometimes eat humans. None of those elements are what the Skin would be about, so I need a different monster inspiration.

  8. “The Blob”?

    “Ugly Duckling”? 

    “Skin Deep” as in “Beauty is only…” 

    I wonder if it might be about body dysmorphia, but with wider possibilities, incorporating anorexia, bulimia, obesity, gym junkies…? 

  12. This may be too gross, but I’m picturing something along the lines of a penanggalan, except instead of just detaching the head and some internal organs from the body, this skin would be able to detach skeleton and muscles and stuff. 

    Basically the character I have in mind would have a choice between being slim but monstrous (looking like a flayed human) or embracing their humanity by climbing back into their skin and fat.

  13. I’m assuming we’re talking about the Giant in Second Skins…

    I played a Giant in Monsterhearts for months and I am also a heavy person. The Giant is about being a bully and an athlete. There’s the one move about eating people whole, but I never felt it was aimed at fat folks, it was more the folktale giant thing of being so huge you can eat a person whole. Fee fi fo fum and all that.

    In fact, my Giant Patti is one of my favorite characters ever. 🙂

  14. Charybdis, after the Greek whirlpool/monster that nearly sucked down Odysseus.

    Manticore, after the Persian “man-eater”.

    Redcap faeries can eat anything, at least in the White Wolf game anyways.

    Or maybe just one of these; Behemoth, Devourer, Maw, Juggernaut, Blob, Ogre, 

  15. Huh. I didn’t realize there was a Giant in the Second Skins collection. I was not talking about that Skin, but the fact a giant already exists means I have to change my Skin’s name. I don’t want to confuse people.

    I’m not looking to make a Skin about eating or overeating, as The Ghoul already covers obsession. I want to make a Skin about body image and being noticeably different from everyone else. Maybe I need to roll this into my Chimera idea, which is about being multi-racial.

  16. I think it depends on your main mechanics for the skin. How does the _____ respond to feeling noticeably different from other people, what does it drive them to do? That’s what determines what kind of monster they are. From a political correctness stance, which I think your question might have been driving at originally, that I think will go a long way. The character isn’t monstrous because of how they’re different or because of how they’re seen, but because of the choices they make and the temptations it forces them to overcome.

    A skin focused on hurting or depriving themselves in some way in order to fit in would probably have a different name than a Skin focused on bringing others down in order to feel better about themselves, which might have a different name to a Skin about prostrating yourself in front of the cool kids, trying to earn their love or at least tolerance through devotion. All three could be given the theme and driven by being visibly different though.

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