Growing up as a girl has taught me a lot of things about how unfair the world treats us women, but one of the most important things I have learned is that if I want to be beautiful I have to be skinny. Well I’m not. Even as a kid I was never skinny, as a teenager I was always everyones fat friend (every friend group usually has one) and even in college, I am still taught that my ‘fatness’ makes me a less than everyone else.
This idea that women are supposed to be unrealistically thin has emerged mostly through media. Tv shows, movies, ad campaigns and music videos have set the standard for beauty, and its a standard that alienated women above a certain dress size.
I was really interested in the idea of hegemony that was introduced this week, because it definitely explains why the fat characters that we do see in media are portrayed in negative ways. Hegemony is the process or ways that people who support the prominent ideology maintain their upper hand. This process only works when they (people who support the main ideology) are able to make radical or opposing views believe that they have been successful in gaining the changes they wanted. Meaning that when women express the need for more diversity of women in media, media will attempt to placate them by giving them a few fatter characters. But the problem is that the women they give us are few and far between and are often only there to be the butt of a joke. Fat actresses are never given a complex character, but instead you can pretty much predict the jokes that are going to be made by or about them.The representations of heavy women are extremely damaging, but we are supposed to be placated by the fact that at least they have some representation.
I wanted to focus on the character of Fat Amy from the Pitch Perfect movies to show this hegemony in action. Pitch Perfect got ample praise for casting Rebel Wilson in the movie as Fat Amy, because to most it looked like fat women were FINALLY being cast in a successful movie all about girl power. So obviously nothing could be problematic about it because it is supposed to be hailed at an amazing feminist masterpiece. WRONG!! First and foremost naming a character “Fat” anything is so extremely harmful and for that singular reason girls should stop thinking that this movie is about empowering anyone.
Even though Fat Amy can be a pretty funny character, where do we draw the line between funny and harmful? The three points that I am going to address are areas that I think take it to far. There has to be a way to be a fat actress that can be funny but without it revolving around their fatness.
Why is Fat Amy’s name so harmful? Amy is introduced through her weight. Fat is the first thing anyone hears about her at all, its the first thing people say when they talk about her. This means that there is already a connection between Amy and fatness, beyond what people can see with their own eyes. They try to explain this away by having Amy introduce herself as Fat Amy, which apparently gives her agency over what she is called. However, this is only used for comedic effect and just reaffirms the idea that a fat character is there just to make jokes about their own fatness.
Amy’s character is used to uphold many of the stereotypes that we have of fat people. When the rest of the girls are running and doing cardio, Amy is seen laying on her side doing “horizontal running”. While this is supposed to be funny, it perpetuates the idea that fat people don’t exercise, they are lazy and are unable to be active. She is also connected with food a lot through out the movie. She references food like when she says “I’ll finish you like a cheesecake”, or when she is actually assaulted with a burrito. Fat people in general are always seen as food centric and when she is the only character that is seen so involved with food, the stereotype is upheld.
Why are the stereotypes that Fat Amy helps to maintain so harmful to real life girls? They are bad because they are usually the easiest way to pick on a fat person. It is where the majority of fat shaming takes place. When all fat people are reduced down to those who refuse to be active and eat all the time, it creates the idea that all fat people are like that. That none of us are able to exercise and eat healthy. This leads to not only skinny people fat shaming but also fat people thinking themselves unable to do those things. It makes people self-conscious about eating or exercising in public, which only furthers negative stereotypes. And in fact fat shaming or making fun of fat people doesn't magically make them a perfect size two, it actually can make people fatter.
Fat shaming makes people fatter
Weight stereotypes are completely arbitrary and are not usually true
Even if people are heavy they can still do some crazy exercises that some skinny and "athletic" people can't even do.
Another problematic issue connected to Amy and Pitch Perfect is the idea that fat people can not be loved just for themselves. It is common to see the sitcom set up of a fat or traditionally unattractive man with a wife who is extremely skinny and beautiful, but flip that around to a heavy woman with an attractive, fit man and we are simply asking for to much. But women do want to see that, heavy women specifically want to see that we are not destined to live our lives alone and that we can also be choosy with who we go out with. Here is where Pitch Perfect perfectly (ha ha) uses hegemony to give us a taste of that while still holding up the societal norms.
So many fat guys with hot wives and not a single fat wife with a smokin husband
In the movie Amy and an opposing A Cappella captain Bumper have a weird romance thing going on. We are supposed to be happy that a fairly attractive and some what fit guy would ever go for the heavier Rebel Wilson, but their whole relationship started off with him calling her “the grossest human being” he had ever seen. Hmmm what a healthy and empowering relationship they have there (lots of sarcasm behind that). But any fat girl who has been on the dating scene has probably heard one of these “you would be even prettier if you just lost some weight” or “you are pretty cute for a fat girl” or the ever lovely “I usually don’t go for the heavy girls, but there is just something about you”. But Pitch Perfect takes this to an even crazier level, actually calling someone the “grossest human being”. But hey at least we have a fat girl in a relationship right?
Although I have picked apart at Pitch Perfect, they are not the only perpetrators of this. Most of Melissa McCarthy’s movies are great for Hollywood to say “hey fat girls you have Melissa McCarthy playing main characters that should be enough”. And most movies or shows don’t even have a “fat” character.
But it’s not entirely that bad. We live in a really weird time where fat shaming is at an all time high (mostly due to the internet giving us easy access to shame who ever we want) but there is also a huge rise of body positivity as well.
Beauty ad campaigns have been attempting to send messages of body positivity. Dove has been a leader in this by trying to be more inclusive in the women that they have as models for their products. This includes may women of color, older women and overweight women. Companies like dove have been attempting to counter ads like those that come from Victoria’s Secrets which promotes a standard that only like ten people can achieve.
And TV and Movies have had a few successes with trying to incorporate women that are heavy in ways that don’t make them the joke. Queen Latifah was always a good bet on seeing a women who is not a size two having a complex leading role. We also have the amazing Donna Meagle on Parks and Rec whose weight has never been a joke, its never been commented on and while she is a secondary character she is a complex and developed character. And most importantly she reminds you to TREAT. YO. SELF.
So how do we make more characters like Donna Meagle stars instead of harmful characters like Fat Amy?
Word Count: 1400
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