Let’s talk TV & Movies

Stop for a minute and think about fat people on TV shows.  Can you name a few?  I can……

• Mike & Molly- circles around a couple that meet b/c they are trying to lose weight. You know this is probably the only way for fat to meet that is acceptable. At an OA meeting.

 

• This is Us- a story line around a fat woman and growing up fat, meeting a fat man, and trying to lose weight. Note: the fat man she meets is wearing a fat suit. This storyline is so complex and if you were a fat kid it is tough to watch at times. It got worse after Toby her husband lost weight (took off his fat suit) and she had to worry about her spouse not wanting her anymore. Because don’t you know that as soon as a spouse’s body changes, they won’t be in love with you any longer.

 

• Insatiable- A Netflix Original that focuses on an ugly duckling teen who becomes popular and hot when she loses weight. Spoiler alert: even though she was tortured by her peers when she was fat, her life became even more complicated when she becomes thin. WOW! Being thin doesn’t make your life sunshine and unicorns?!? That is not what the diet industry told me!

 

• Friends- didn’t expect this one, did you? But there is Fat Monica. The ten episodes or so where Monica is poked fun at while wearing a fat suit. I remember cringing watching these episodes when they first aired. Mostly b/c I would watch Friends in groups of people, and I was positive everyone was comparing me to Fat Monica. I cringe even more now when I watch reruns b/c it is so fat phobic. Fat is a punchline here and it is really lazy comedy writing.

 

• Shallow Hal- Hal is hypnotized by Tony Robins (right!?!?) in an elevator and suddenly starts to see Rosemary (Goop girl herself, Gwen) as the most beautiful woman out there when she is really just a fat woman. I know plenty of people who are in happy, loving, kind, mixed size (that’s not a real term) relationships and they were not hypnotized to get there.

 

• Biggest Loser- I won’t even indulge in this one. This. Is. Not. Healthy.  Plus you get that horrible bitch Gillian Michaels who hates fat people (Google her if you want more…). I thought that after poor Bob Harper (the fittest man on the planet) had a heart attack they might just sunset the show since their whole premise is fat people will die if they don’t lose weight…BUT, Bob almost did!

 

• 600 lb. Life- This Dr. Naw is a charlatan. He is not there to help these folks. He is there to make money off of them and the way to do that is to expose the most humiliating pieces of their lives. I would guess that 95% of the patients on the show have past trauma and abuse; are in problematic family dynamics; in a lower socio-economic category. They are sent to Houston, put on a diet that takes very little of their culture/environment into mind and then demonized for not being able to lose a certain amount of weight.  It’s gross.  And it is not gross b/c of the people in it, it is gross b/c TLC is making millions on these poor desperate people.

There are more and I will definitely do another post on the topic of fat people in the media.  I did this post b/c it is important to understand how fat prejudice can be partly attributed to how the media portray people who are obese. It is rare that you see someone fat in a role that being fat isn’t part of their character.

Caveat: there are some roles out there that have fat actors in them and their weight/size is not mentioned ever—-Penelope from Criminal Minds; Suki from Gilmore Girls; Queen Latifah from Equalizer. I promise to highlight these examples as well.

Do you have some?  Share them.

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