Faqt people are stupid4/9/2023 ![]() They allow the characters to deliver purportedly in-group jokes about fatness, where the presumably thin audience is allowed an insider look at the psychology of fat people. The mythology of the post-fat character allows writers to continuously bring fatness into the conversation – but only as a punchline, without any visibility or justice for actual fat people. It Keeps Fatness in the Cultural Imagination – Without Fat Bodies Here are some ways this trope illuminates how we’re being conditioned to see fat bodies, and how these things are actually actively harming not only fat people, but all of our relationships to our bodies. ![]() And I’m sure that there are many more that I’m missing.īut this trope speaks volumes about our culture’s value of fatness. Mary Albright, played by Jane Curtin, and, more recently, New Girl’s Schmidt, played by Max Greenfield. I have seen the same trope replicated in Monica’s contemporary of Third Rock from the Sun’s Dr. The most obvious example of this is of classic ‘90s sitcom Friends’ Monica, played by Courtney Cox-Arquette, which has been examined rather extensively by fat activists. The post-fat character was once fat, usually in their youth, but made radical changes (which are never, ever explored in detail) in their early adulthood, resulting in a thinner body and a different person.Īnd this body is, apparently, now worthy of gracing our television sets (or computer screens) – unlike their previous, and many current, fat bodies. However, there appears to be a vast gulf in contrast to the space and attention given to the post-fat character trope, where fatness is repeatedly referenced but rarely present, and fat characters who and embrace their fatness as a positive attribute. Some might argue that a politicized fat or fat positive character might initially seem far-fetched or even, perhaps, entitled or greedy. Where Mindy Lahiri, Titus Andromedon, and even Parks and Recreation’s Donna Meagle are fat characters shown as successful, funny, insecure, talented, loved, and flawed, their body size is rarely, if ever, mentioned – and certainly not as a positive or even neutral aspect of them. So while there’s clearly some forward momentum toward showing fat people to be fully realized, three-dimensional characters, I still yearn for a character whose fatness is part of them. ![]() This means that I still gravitate towards shows that feature people of color, fat people, queers, and femmes in my curation – and why shows like The Mindy Project and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, for example, remain important to me.ĭespite their (many, many) shortcomings, outside of Mindy Lahiri and Titus Andromedon, there are so few other places I could see a fat femme of color portrayed at all, but much less as a legitimate love interest. Our culture has attempted to convince us that this is what humor and entertainment look like, and it can be hard to extract joy and humor in television’s other aspects.Ĭritical television engagement remains an important aspect of my personal-political practice, and my inclinations are, of course, colored by my own positionality as a fat, queer, femme of color. The lightness of sitcoms allows me to unwind and participate in this pastime without sacrificing my peace of mind.īut sitcom-watching can become frustrating when having to navigate the complicated experience of acknowledging the sadly inevitable racism, anti-Blackness, misogyny, transmisogyny, ableism, fat hatred, and other forms of dehumanization and subjugation. Television watching is a favorite pastime for folks around the world, and as much I can briefly enjoy the high-intensity dramas many of my peers engage with, I find they often become overwhelming and ultimately operate to stress me out when I mean to relax. A person sits on a couch holding a glass in one hand, and the other hand to their forehead. ![]()
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