While perusing news headlines today I came across an article that is being debated all over the internet. You can find this article from women's magazine Marie Clair,e here. The link calls it "Overweight Couples on Television" whereas the actual title of the article is "Should Fatties Get a Room (Even on TV?)" The author states how she finds overweight people disgusting and how they should not be displayed as having intimate relationships on television because they make her uncomfortable. Now being an overweight woman myself who has clearly struggled with maintaining her weight her entire life, my opinion will be largely biased, but if we look beyond that simple fact, I really do have a few points to make.
Yes, being overweight is unhealthy but it is extremely difficult on physical, emotional, and mental levels to come to grips with it, discover the underlying reasons behind it, and make any small sense of headway on the road to weight loss. I do not believe that showing heavy people on popular television in any way promotes an unhealthy lifestyle. We of course see all other sorts of unhealthy things being portrayed on television; eating disorders, drinking, drug use, violence, unsafe sex, etc.; and no one would ever say that they want people to go out and start shooting heroine just because someone on tv was doing it. That being said, obesity is a hard and cold reality. The majority of Americans are overweight. The thin and beautiful ideal we see on television all the time is not real. There are ridiculous standards set on young people in America to be perfect, and it is simply impossible. No on is perfect. No one is beautiful, and thin, and sweet, and funny, and polite all at once. There should be overweight people on television. I like that some shows are okay with showing characters that are real, that have real problems, and real relationships. You think people who are overweight never have sex? Please. Just because it may not be pretty and you don't want to see it happening doesn't mean that it does not exist. I would be relieved to see some real life women like myself getting some ass on TV, just sayin.
What really bothers me about the whole debate is that there are so few overweight celebrities and people shown on television that when they are on television, the show must be centered around their weight. Like the tv show Huge for example. The actors were overweight, but we can't just have a show where the characters are overweight and just go on about their daily lives and don't discuss it 24/7. Yes of course, when you're overweight things like food and exercise and weight to come up in conversation, but you also work, have relationships, families, hobbies, life drama, and everything else. Why does the entire series have to revolve around the fact that you're overweight? Can we not just cast a normal show, like let's take Friends for instance, and make half of the actors overweight? That's how it would be in real life. We all have overweight and thin friends, all mixed in together, that's how life works. But television never shows us that. I suppose we are to believe that people just don't want to think about it when they are turning their minds off and watching television, they just want things to be pretty and perfect. I can appreciate the fact that watching a skinny and beautiful person on a sitcom would probably be more pleasant for most people than seeing the same scenes portrayed by fat people, especially considering what skimpy things they usually have the actors wearing, but I would honestly find it refreshing to see overweight people on television just living their lives and dealing with all of the issues that they would deal with on a normal television show if everyone were thin and attractive.
For another thing. What is the fucking obsession with Christina Hendricks' curves. She's hot, she's beautiful, I love her, I would do her in a heartbeat and let her have my babies, but why do we have to discuss her body to death. There are plenty of beautiful, curvy women out there who are just living their lives and are also good at their jobs, and have families. We are completely incapable of leaving them alone. Why is that all I hear about her is how banging her hips are. Yes, they are pretty awesome, and I love to look at them as much as the next girl. I am also, in fact, empowered by the way she is portrayed on television, using her curves, being proud of her body. I'm proud of her, and every other woman who is not a size 2 that gets up on stage or on television and rocks men's socks off, but discussing it all day long is just unnecessary. Eventually we are going to talk about it so much that even if she may have loved herself and been proud of her body, she'll hear so much talk about it that she will start to doubt herself, and look at herself only as her outward appearance, only as a sex icon or object. This is just plain unacceptable. She also acts. Have you noticed? She's a damn good actress, but all I ever hear or see on the news or tv is how she dresses and flaunts her curves. Who gives a fuck. I don't even know anything else about her, all anyone will ask her about or interview her about is her ass... That's really not helping me.
So to make a long story short, fat people make up the majority in this country, so why do they not even get a quarter of the air time as ridiculously stupid people, ignorant people, or model thin elite idolized people, and regular people, let's not forget the all around regular people. When you see two fat people kiss (ex: our wedding), say "aw isn't it sweet, they love each other", not "omg she looks so fat in that dress I'm going to vomit". Embrace plus sized celebrities, but if you're going to say "Damnnnn gurl look at that ass", please follow it with, "did you see that awesome movie she was in? (with that fine ass)".
Thank you and goodnight.
Julibean <3
p.s. you can also view a pretty awesome retort/response to the Marie Claire article here.
