Fat People on TV: the 2016 edition

I haven't done this series in a while and frankly, it's because there have not been many fat people on TV lately.

With #oscarssowhite last year, and minorities of all stripes fighting for representation, you are starting to see more different types of characters being shown in TV and movies. Sometimes, that isn't the case for fat people. Most of the time when characters are fat, often like race, it's a huge if not singular part of their story arch or the main focus of the show/series altogether.

With diversity becoming a mainstay instead of a novelty, thankfully we are seeing more types of different people exploring different dynamics of the same root identity. Fat people too.

If you recall my last post on Fat People on TV, I highlighted quite a lot of different shows. Some I thought were stellar and gone too soon, and others I felt could bump it up a bit. This time is no different and while I'm sure I haven't seen all the shows of diversity in body representation, I want to showcase some that really stood out to me this year and perhaps a couple years before.

Cheap Price VS Fair Price

This pattern sold for $685.

 

Fat People on Television.

I don't watch much television. I gave mine up about five years ago when I took part in a TV turnoff week. It was great and I've in essence been commercial free from here on out. Add to that most shows are on DVD within 3 months of their season finale, and I'm a happy camper.

There are a handful of shows that I am able to catch online from time to time, and these have peaked my interest for a few main reasons. The first being the main characters are fat. The second being the women who are the main characters are fat, the third being the shows have prominent characters of color. I find all of the above interesting, because they are rarities.

The three recent shows that I want to chat about have aired or are still on the air. I mean I could go back into the history of body image and television but I don't know that much and frankly, I'm most interested in contemporary views of fat people on TV. American TV in particular. Yeah...

I'm going to chat about three that I really like: Huge, Mike & Molly, and a US import from across the pond, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.

Huge was fantastic.

It's based on a book (sorry I didn't read it) about a group of teens at a fat camp. The show, which aired on ABC Family of all places was rich, dynamic and just so well acted, so like with any good show on American TV, no one watches it and it gets canceled. Truth be told, I think the show got canceled because people were uncomfortable seeing fat teenagers with their shirts off.

I loved how they were so unapologetic about that. Showing the bodies of these teens over and over until we were comfortable with them, and in a way they were comfortable with themselves. I mean it's a summer camp. That means bathing suits and swimming and sunscreen and the like. But they are also teenagers, and that means cliques and rivalries and animosities and on and on. It wasn't just a teen show wrapped up in a fat camp, it was a show about people where for a few brief months, they all were in a place where they all looked the same, but still carried all those stigmas of the outside world with them.

You had the rebel loner, Will, who really did hate herself but was too proud to say so, the amazingly broken camp director, Dr. Rand (played by Gina Torres) who the show followed the most. I mean she made it, she's skinny, on the outside, but man there are some issues that woman had that you know she will never get over. The character I thought was interesting was the 'pretty' fat girl, Amber. She could 'pass'. She wasn't fat enough to be ostracized by regular kids, but she was overweight, and hated herself for it, yet all the other fat kids deemed her the prettiest girl there and everyone wanted to be her friend.

Rarely am I emotionally attached to a show. Rarely can I actually relate to so many characters. It was just so good, but I think ahead of it's time.

A current show I'm really liking is Mike & Molly.

I didn't care too much for the pilot on it's own because every other word out of the character's mouths were fat jokes, but once they got past that and the show hit it's stride, you see beyond what they look like, which is what you would do with anything you like. It's about a cop and a school teacher falling in love after meeting at an overeaters anonymous meeting. I mean its not a drama, it's a situation comedy, like Roseanne was, but the gimmick of this show is their weight, which I find weird.

It's like weight is becoming the new minority in American TV. You know how you would see a random black/asian/hispanic person in a TV show and just wonder how they got there? It's like "We need a new hook...fat people!"

By the by, I find it utterly refreshing that Mike & Molly has two black characters from different parts of the world in the cast. *Finally* a show is saying, 'Yes there are different kinds of black people all over the world.'

It seems that American television just can't get enough of the fat people lately. From reality shows of people loosing weight, one of the biggest (pun intended) ones just launched by A&E, Heavy

(**side note, I actually know the cover model for that show, we met at a friend's wedding**) to situation comedies where the weight seems to be the focus of the sitcom, fat people are hot right now.

Not since Roseanne has there been a fat male and FEMALE lead in a TV series. Heavy men, sure, from the Honeymooners to King of Queens to just about any other sitcom you can name, the hot wife with the lumpy hubby are standard tv fodder. But to see a lovely woman who isnt a supermodel paired up with a hot dude? Never happen. Or never will last.

But there is a huge problem I'm seeing with this surge of shows that you didn't see with other overweight characters in TV shows. All of the characters in these shows, all of them have eating disorders. Really? All fat people are food addicts in America? They all need meetings and therapy and support groups? None of them can control themselves? I think that's a big issue, and pretty offensive. Don't get me wrong, I really like the two shows I've mentioned, but just like America loves to do, highlight the extreme, all we get to see are fat people who need therapy for their eating. That's kind of sad.

It's a culture shock going from television that says fat people are a spectacle and need help because there is something wrong with them, to a show set in Africa where a fat person is just that, and there is nothing wrong with it.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency isn't really about the size of the main character Precious Ramotswe (played by Jill Scott). Based on a series of books, its about her being a cunning, smart, and independent woman solving crimes. But you port that over to an American audience where you hear characters constantly say, 'fat', 'fatty', 'big', 'traditional build' in tandem with being attractive, and it probably short circuits people's brains!

You can't be a fat beautiful woman character. You can't be the competition against a skinny woman. You can't be pursued by amazingly attractive men. You can't be comfortable in what you look like and not be thin.

Not in American TV. Because here in our television shows weight as a problem to overcome, but in this show, its just a part of the culture. No, not everyone is going to be skinny. Some people just like to eat and it does not mean they have a problem with food. So its amazingly wonderful to see the character Jill Scott plays (who herself has had some weight issues in her own American career) be such a dynamic strong and attractive character in this show.

I guess this is where I send a shout out to Jennifer Hudson. Sweetie, you are not going to stay that size. You just won't.

I hope I am making since with this because I have been wanting to do this post for a long time. I can't really think of much else to add so I'll just leave this out in the aether. How do you feel about the way overweight/fat people are being highlighted in American TV? Any other TV shows (US or from another country) that have non skinny characters that you like?

I would love for this to generate some discussion because I would adore dialog on this.

Reclaiming the word 'Stout'

It's so strange that if you are lucky enough in life, after a certain age you can actually be at peace with some of yourself.

I'm not a very politically correct person, but I do have sensitivities and I also don't walk on egg shells when it comes to body size. I remember my mother saying my legs were like 'hammocks' when I was about 9. I remember being called 'buffalo' in middle school for years by a boy in class. Growing up I was only allowed a 'sliver' of cake or pie or whatever else it was that was making me fat, and I distinctly remember when I was about 11, my mother asking me if I was 'okay' when I didn't want an ice cream cone.

Wow, it looks like I had a pretty horrid childhood in those above few sentences, doesn't it? I didn't in the least. My late mother was amazingly encouraging of my creative side, I left home and grew into my own person, loosing nearly 50 pounds when I became vegan. I came home and got hit on by that boy who called me 'buffalo' when I was a child, and now that I am an adult, I feel no need to sit and take any comment toward my size. As a result I have a very sharp tongue.

This all brought me to thinking how we actually think of ourselves, visually. I think sewing helps. I haven't bought RTW in about 3 years. I don't have to worry about the crazy inconsistency of modern clothing sizes, or the tent like garments or to the opposite, the unnecessarily 'sexy' paper thin see through tops. It's not as if you can bluntly guess in sewing, "Oh, I'm this and that," and get amazing results. A lot comes down to math. And what is math? Honesty.

Being honest in how you see yourself is more valid than how sensitive in what you want to be called. If you have a gut, say so. Its not as if no one else can't see it. Thick thighs, fine. Fat arms (raises hand), okay. Double chin....yeah.

Plump, Curvaceous, Zoftig, Voluptuous, Plus Size, Rotund, Stout, Fat

My politically correct size index. I left out a few, and some might say rotund is worse than stout, but some people love the compliment their boobs being 'rotund' so there counts the word's extra bonus points.

First off I don't think anyone wants to be fat. Period. Thats not what I'm taking about. Just like I don't think people want to be short, or unwillingly bald, or old, or have bad skin. Duh! But ample (which is my favorite word next to stout) has been expected since the beginning of time.

I just decided that for me, and for the styles I like, I was going to find the most relevant identifiers I could and see how they were in their element. And when I think of larger women from the 30s, I think of Lila and Rita Sue.

Carnivale was an awesome show, but those two women, who were sexy unapologetic and stout, helped me identify with some of the characters. The show starts in 1934, so I looked through my NRA marked Lane Bryant catalogs and I see them, and the target customer the clothes were aiming to. Not women ashamed of their size, but wanted something that *was* their size, made to flatter their size. Not the constant notion of, 'You need to change to fit our clothes because smaller is overwhelmingly better,' that we get today.

I mean really, in the modern context of weight appearance, what we call fat is really what was fairly normal back in those times.

Take modern Lane Bryant for instance. Those current models are average weight, or straight sized. That is plus size today. So the fashion industry jumps from a size 2-4 to a 10-14 for plus. Wow. So if straight sizes are fat, what are fat sizes?

Look at this progression of Lane Bryant Catalogs.

See how ridiculous it all is?

I'm also not talking standards of beauty. Those change with each gust of the breeze.

We've gone from The Venus of Willendorf

to Ruben's Venus to Twiggy and beyond. Wow.

Acceptance of your body, which I know is not an easy thing to reach is empowering. But really, the older you get, don't you get more and more tired of standards that are applied on the wind? I know I do because I've never looked like the modern standards, but I do look like the oldest Venus (except I have feet and a face). If I had lived back then, I would have had the body of a goddess.

Naw, I'm cool with living now. I like deodorant. :)