I don't care what they put in 17+ or higher ratings, but Portal2 is rated 10+. This reporter does not even discuss size issues (fatty).

Within the context of the game this makes perfect sense. The ones doing the taunting are two AI personalities where one is a moron (literally) and the other is notoriously cruel and evil. It's like reading a kid's book about bullying and being upset that the main character gets bullied because your child was once bullied. You're SUPPOSED to be upset with the bully, that's how this video game are designed. I get the feeling that the father isn't familiar with the story of Portal and Portal 2, in which case he probably should have a.) done his homework before buying it, or b.) actually talk to his daughter about what the characters are saying and why. Of course, it's much easier just to blame the game.

Later on in the game, one of the AIs also discusses why both insults are ridiculous/meaningless. (Though as I recall, GlaDOS dismisses the fat insults by just pointing out that Chell cannot possibly considered fat -- see http://images.google.com/images?q=chell -- which still suggests "fat" is a viable insult, unlike "adopted" which she categorically dismisses.)

What I found nice and refreshing about playing the first Portal is that the player's avatar in the game is a woman who is not hypersexualized. There's no gratuitous images of her half naked body, etc. She was a woman, nothing in particular about her gender role came up, and a compelling story developed between her and GLaDOS. That is, she avoided most of the problematic tropes female characters get saddled with.

The same _mostly_ goes for portal two, but with the addition of fat jokes (they were not infrequent), Chell is suddenly saddled with some definite gender baggage. You may be a cryogenically frozen Aperture Science test subject at some indeterminate time in the future, but if you're a woman, someone will still try to make you feel bad about your body.

And a similar issue goes for GLaDOS. You may be a crazed AI with biting sarcasm, but if you have a female voice, you're going to also be "catty."

This is what I hear from the dad: "Nobody should ever mention adoption around my daughter and me, because we haven't talked about it yet." Guess what, buddy: the world doesn't revolve around you! What would he suggest? That no media that children might consume ever mention adoption?

The characters who utter insults like that in this game are the comically, outrageously evil and cruel antagonists. This is a total non-story.

It is also a non-story, Gwen, that they chose to ignore the "fatty" insults: The only reason that this was on the news at all was because the dad called it in, and the human interest angle on this was the unique issue of adoption for them, not about whether the game is on the whole insensitive. The reporters had no reason to also talk about the other insults.

The real sociological phenomenon being illustrated here is ignorant media trying to sell a misleading story about how video games are bad. I mean, even that part at the end about Sony (the distributor) telling them to ask Valve (the people who actually made the game!), and the reporter saying that they were just trying to pass the blame around--that is TOTALLY moronic! This is particularly objectionable, since they're making Sony look bad, when really, the reporters were just too ignorant to know who to contact in the first place.

Portal 2 is an incredible game for people of all ages. I respect that dad's right to parent the way he sees fit, but he can't expect everybody to abide by his system. The fact that the topic came up in what is intended to be a humorous over-the-top expression of bad-guy nature is merely unfortunate happenstance.

I liked Portal 2, but I do remember being a bit irritated about GLaDOS making those remarks. GLaDOS is supposed to be female in character, since her personality is based on the CEO's administrative assistant, and the whole exchange to me smacks of some prejudice on part of the writers; on how they imagine one woman insulting another woman, not directly but by passive-aggressively alluding to her physical and other shortcomings, and by trying to make her feel inadequate.

This bothered me a lot on original playthrough. For context, the scene showed in the video is a reprise of an earlier one. The character on the screen, Wheatley, took over from the original evil overlord robot, Glados. He is the villain in this section. Glados, the original villain, is in the potato attached to the portal gun. In the earlier section where Glados was in charge, she taunts you for being abandoned by your parents (they never liked you, no one could ever like you, you are completely unlikable). This is repeated from the first game. She then spends an entire level taunting you about your weight.

In the scene in the video, Wheatley is trying to imitate Glados, whose job he forcefully inherited. Glados doesn't like him, and so she defends you, exposing the ridiculousness of the taunts. In reply to the adopted stuff, she asks why that's bad, and Wheatley has no answer -- he sort of sputters, having just imitated Glados. She of course adds an aside to you that it's still bad, but the sting has been removed. It's a great moment that takes the wind out of the taunt, revealing it to be silly and baseless. However, when given the chance to rebut the "fat" taunt, she just says "she's not fat". Fat still stands as a valid basis for insult, and I was pretty disappointed.

I am an adoptive parent, and I think that unless you are an adoptive parent, or an adopted child, it is really difficult to understand what a minefield the topic of adoption is, or how tenacious the trauma of it can be. It is hard to be an adopted kid, and it is hard to be a trans-racial adoptee. Adoption is not a happy ending for kids - it is the best ending of all available ones, perhaps, but being placed in a new family does not magically erase the trauma of losing one's first family, and that loss leaves a wound in children that never really heals. Their lifestory - the one that happens from birth to the moment they are handed to their new parents - is very difficult to process and deal with.

I think they are focusing on the more outrageous of the two insults. It is sad that they don't also address the fat-hate, but the adoption taunt is a much harsher one, and for an adopted kid to get surprised with it in a game meant for children is pretty astounding to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOPriRx4PBs

Full context.

This is a non-story.

GLaDDOS sympathizes with Chell because Wheatley is making a horrible insult by calling her adopted. GLaDDOS also points out that Chell is not fat.

Wheatley was an AI that was created by the greatest scientist to be the stupidest computer. That's why these jokes are horrible and lame.

Course, this knowledge would acquire time and research to find out, which is apparently a no-no for local news stations. And Academia.

Also, I am literally laughing at the implications by the previous commentators that fat and body image is strictly a female issue. Tears of humor and sorrow are streaming out.

I'd just like to point out about the "fat-hate" comments that GLaDOS and Wheatley make, if you play the CO-OP, GLaDOS comments to the player A.I that one of the ways to upset humans is to insult their weights. She's obviously still pissed off with you (and if you fall for her "final test" trap she neurotoxins you) and she constantly tries to piss off Chell with snide remarks. Wheatley is designed to make terrible decisions, and when he tries to insult Chell the way GLaDOS does, it pretty much backfires.

I am not in any way trying to defend sizism I'm just pointing out other things that happen in the game in context. ^^;

This has already been said, but I'm pretty sure they left out the fat insult, because the point of the segment wasn't to talk about insults within the game, but the dad's complaint, which was fully about the adoption aspect. I'm not saying it was right of them to ignore it, just that the dad's problem was most likely the concern.

Okay, I'm going to say: I'm adopted.
The adopted cracks were in the first Portal as well.

I laughed both times. Why? The characters saying it are the BAD GUYS. Oh noooooo. Bad guys saying mean things. God forbid we have realism anywhere. The entire point of the joke is to bully the main character. Of course there's going to be some mean things: Including 'fat' and 'adopted' and 'stupid'...etc.

Alright, as a gamer, I'm really pissed off about this idiotic broadcast. They COMPLETELY leave out the part that it's not the kids who are offended, it's the PARENTS. The kids would know better than to be really insulted, because the offending comments come from the adversary characters, who are expected to be jerks in the first place. So yeah, this is a case of Local News Station Sensationalizes Story.

I also don't know why the reporters keep saying that the game is meant to be "educational." I suppose that there is some educational value in the game's puzzle-solving but the game has never been advertised that way and there's nothing on the packaging along those lines either.

Context! Seriously. GLaDOS taunts her about being an orphan because it might be a sore point; if you play the game, you realize that Chell is an orphan BECAUSE of GlaDOS. Also, later in the game when Wheatley makes the same type of comments (clearly trying to imitate GLaDOS), GLaDOS clearly states that these insults are ridiculous and that there is nothing wrong with being an orphan.
Besides, Wheatley was created to be the biggest moron possible.

If Maeghan there is nothing wrong with being an orphan why does it carry such stigma and why is being adopted seen as an insult? Most of you wouldn't know that or experience it because you are not adoptees and might say something like 'just get over it'.

Lets just take a step back and look at the bigger picture...
"It's another ploy by the media to render something small into a controversy."
This "news story" has just been rendered invalid.

Dear media, “Alright, fatty. Adopted fatty. Fatty, fatty no parents” is Wheatley's line that is supposed to be a ridiculously stupid imitation of GLADOS' way of insulting Chell, which is intelligently worded. I think calling your murderer an adopted fatty is an understatement.

Perhaps that family didn't bother to finish the game and learn who Chell's parents are -_-

Point is, everyone in the story is a dumbass.

I don't think that "fat" insults don't even cause us to blink. It's that they are very often completely meaningless. "Fat" is a subjective term. It's a much easier term to brush off (not saying that it can always be brushed off, just saying it CAN be brushed off) if the receiver of the insult doesn't see themselves as fat, or doesn't find being fat to be bothersome. It's also very rarely said with as much vitriol as "adoption" insults. It's meant to hurt, it's meant to insult. But honestly, for many people I know who think of it as an inherent insult, it's thrown around enough that they don't even realize that it hurts some people as much as it does. Usually, when I hear adoption used as an insult, it is meant to DEVASTATE. I suppose it's different from the context, but I hear those insults mostly to imply "you are adopted, thus, you are unworthy of being alive, you should be dead, you are worthless and subhuman." Especially since I hear it coming a LOT from the biological children of the adoptive parents. "Fatty" has some pretty nasty implications, but they are VERY rarely "you don't even deserve to have been born." Plus, adoption has a MUCH more deeply ingrained and institutionalized prejudice than fat. "Fat" has only had negative connotations for a few generations, and not too long ago, and still in many places, "fat" is a positive descriptor. Up until QUITE recently, the "adoption=worthless" was pretty much based in the structures of many societies, where even being a step-child would be seen as a bad thing. This is not to excuse fatty, but it is worth it to say I definitely understand how someone in the family's situation would place more anger at the adoption insult than on the fat one, even if nowadays when directed at a woman, "fatty" might be assumed to be more harsh.

Question: does anyone else wonder if the (often meme ready) GLaDOS quotes might actually serve to defuse some of the power of these insults? I mean, given that the entire reason these things are funny is because a spiteful and ridiculous computer is desperately saying anything and everything it can think of to hurt your feelings, and the vast majority of those things are patently ridiculous ("That's you! That's how dumb you sound!" for example). I mean, hell, this is a computer that things varying the pitch of its voice will convince you that you're actually listening to a backup copy of your brain, or your parents answering machine, that tries predictably simply reverse psychology on you, loses track of basic pieces of information, and when stressed reverts to really silly schoolyard taunts.

It would almost seem that hearing such insults from someone so patently ridiculous, and repeating them as part of a meme where the point is that they are patently ridiculous, might actually decrease the probability that someone would consider them to be valid insults. Anyone have any data on that?

I agree with some other commenters (Kenny was the first I think) to mention that the family's decision not to talk proactively about adoption and what it means to their child is the problem. I am an educator who just finished the game, and I loved it. I agree with a lot of what's been said; when adults are playing this game together, the bullying behavior can be a great teachable moment and an opportunity to laugh at how meaningless playground bullying can be. Most importantly though, it's important to talk to children (all children, not just adopted ones) about difference and other important issues as soon as possible EVEN when it feels crummy. That way kids are innoculated against cultural experiences like this one when they come up.

i love the depth of analysis you guys put into these issues, but i have to disagree with you on this one. i always thought that GLADoS' taunting in Portal 2 was not a simple throwaway fat joke, but a play on the way women interact with one another.

in most video games the principle characters are men so we often see male boss characters trying to undermine male player characters usually through the use of violence (and very often by attacking and/or killing female non-player characters--but that's a whole 'nother discussion). the portal games flip this paradigm by having a female boss character attacking a female protagonist and she does this in a number of non-violent ways that can be traced back to a female experience. GLADoS taunts Chell (the player character) about being fat repeatedly & in one scene she tells Chell that if she behaves, maybe GLADoS will bring her up to the break room and they'll hang out. these methods echo the ways in which many girls fight with one another i.e., teasing one another about weight & witholding friendship.

i think taunting player-character about being adopted goes into the idea that GLADoS may or may not be Chell's mother. GLADoS' treatment of Chell throughout the game, the way she voices her disappointment in Chell and ultimately the fact that she lets Chell go suggest a boss character that is struggling with traditional maternal roles, at least, that's what i took away from playing this game.

sorry if this is kinda garbled, but i just wanted to give my 2 cents!

Sony "passing the buck to VALVe" was not really passing the buck at all. For instance, if you contacted Sony, why not contact Microsoft? Or Apple? There's an Xbox version of the game, you know, and an Apple version (and a PC, but that'd be Microsoft again). They all have essentially the same content. Furthermore, if you got all riled up about that comment Wheatley made, it's quite clear (through context) he didn't mean it, much less actually believe it. Why didn't you get all riled up about the serious comments GLADoS made?

Anyway, that's life for you. People insult you. If your qualm is that it's supposed to be funny, it's funny because it's so utterly ridiculous that it should be insulting that Chell is adopted. And, if you've put two Portals next to each other in a corner, you'll notice that Chell is not fat. That is why it's funny. Because it's not true.

Are you kidding me? If you're insulted by a joking video game insult, then you're screwed in real life where they'll say things a lot worse than 'fatty fatty no parents'. Wheatley and GLADoS's insults are aimed toward Chell, not the player. It's sad if you don't realize this and start whining at the insults.