The fat TV ghetto
There's some new TV show on ABC Family called "Huge" or "Big Fat Girl" or "Wide Load" or something like that. It looks to be about a weight loss camp in which the overweight star doesn't want to lose weight. My size 16 self , and my thinking female brain are not happy about this. Apparently if you're overweight in Hollywood, you can't just play some random character that doesn't talk about their weight - like in real life. You have to represent for the zaftig and ostracized (think Mercedes on Glee), or spend entire episodes dealing with your problematic size (Kirstie Alley, anyone on those reality shows). Let's not forget the pudgy girl who gets the guy and shows us that fatties are cool and need love too. Uh, really? Let's Oddly enough, I'm overweight and manage to have skinny friends and family without engaging in moral dilemmas and eating disorders. I date men of all shapes and sizes, and only rarely discuss my girth or feel self-conscious. Yes, I'm an anomaly in this looks- and size- obsessed culture, but does promoting size acceptance have to mean a TV show where everyone is large? Focusing a dramatic series (or reality show, for that matter) on the size of it's participants does the opposite of what I think it should do: showing the world that size usually doesn't matter, or it shouldn't. This new "Huge" show, or whatever it's called, is creating a fat "ghetto" where characters exist outside of the real world because the rest of us can't stand to look at them without being uncomfortable. It's like "Good Times" with body fat calipers instead of the projects. Just make it stop. Now, I take my leave of you to eat a donut.
