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Do Plus-Size TV Shows Inspire Or Disgust?
Amy Poehler's Smart Girls Series Added To Hulu
Reality Show About 500-Pound Woman, Ruby, Shines

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Callinectes
07/22/09

In reply to Do Plus-Size TV Shows Inspire Or Disgust?
How many calories do you think I am burning by writing this comment? Oh, sorry, that's just the kind of thing I think about all day long.
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Honeybunch
07/22/09

In reply to Do Plus-Size TV Shows Inspire Or Disgust?
Whatevs, if there was any sort of fat-person representation on regular shows, not just as a comedic foil, or shows focused on pointing out how fatty-fat the subjects are, I would actually watch television.

Hear that advertisers: I ain't watching TV, mother-truckers!!

All these shows do is point out that if you're fat, that is the only thing you should focus on, and that is all you are.
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FattyCatty
07/22/09

In reply to Do Plus-Size TV Shows Inspire Or Disgust?
I've always thought that part of the appeal of reality show buffoonery is that the viewing audience watches them with a certain sense of moral superiority - like, "Geez, this guy is an idiot! I am so smart and normal." So I think some of these shows are definitely thriving on the "at least I look better than that" idea.

I do have to step in and defend Ruby, though. She is not the butt of any joke, and the show portrays her very well - as a sweet, funny, beautiful woman who is struggling with a very real problem. Her focus has always been on her health, and it is made pretty clear that her obesity is a health condition, not due to laziness/gluttony.
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GretchenWieners (is praying she passes the bar)
07/22/09

In reply to Do Plus-Size TV Shows Inspire Or Disgust?
Yes, lets make it socailly (sic) acceptable to be an asshole! That will be good for our society! (rolls eyes)

They can air all the shows they want on asshole people, I still won't date one.

Now, washed up rockers with polyester weave and rappers who wear giant clocks, on the other hand...
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BabyJane promoted this comment Edited by GretchenWieners (is praying she passes the bar) at 07/22/09 1:25 PM

Erinjb: life rerailing extrodinaire
07/22/09

In reply to Do Plus-Size TV Shows Inspire Or Disgust?
I just ate the most delicious homemade mac and cheese. The only though that crossed my mind while eating it was, "I wonder if I can eat another plate of this without getting nauseous...probably not, I'll eat it for dinner. I bet it's real good cold."

I have substantially more than five pounds "to lose," so I'm pretty sure this idea of weight obsession is based on a small cross section of people.
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Mafalda para Presidente promoted this comment

Rooo sez BISH PLZ
07/22/09

In reply to Do Plus-Size TV Shows Inspire Or Disgust?
"Introcaso-Davis also says: "If you have five pounds to lose or you have 150 pounds to lose, it's something you think about all day long," she said."
Therefore leaving no brainspace to accomplish anything else.
*headthumps Introcaso-Davis*
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Benevolent_Dictatrix (patently absurd)
07/22/09

@Rooo sez BISH PLZ: Yeah, I have 50 pounds to lose, and I pretty much only think of it at the doctor's office. Assumption fail!
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Ri_L
07/22/09

In reply to Do Plus-Size TV Shows Inspire Or Disgust?
I actually got angry seeing the ads for Dance Your Ass Off on the subway. At first I was pleased. I was all "look at these women, they're wearing flattering clothes, they look great, and most of all they look happy and confident and smiling! How refreshing to see plus-sized women portrayed so positively! Especially that one in the silver dress. She looks kinda hot."

Then I realized it was an ad for a weight-loss show and felt like horking.
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Eleanor Ramilly
07/22/09

In reply to Do Plus-Size TV Shows Inspire Or Disgust?
What bothers me about More to Love is the wording of its advertising. I think it's very telling of the way society feels about women vs. men. It's "one regular guy's search for love among a group of real women." Or "a bachelor hopes to find love with twenty plus-size contestants."
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Rooo sez BISH PLZ
07/22/09

@Eleanor Ramilly: Good eye, good eye.
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dj_chick
07/22/09

@Eleanor Ramilly: I could have sworn that the show originally had a different name... something that didn't involve "more" or "plus-sized" or anything. I would have preferred it if they had stuck with that.
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Eleanor Ramilly promoted this comment dj_chick was starred dj_chick was unstarred

Eleanor Ramilly
07/22/09

@dj_chick: Yes, I mean, even the title of the show is belittling. I cringed the first time I heard it.
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rightfootleft
07/22/09

@Eleanor Ramilly: Well, duh! A guy with body fat is just a man's man who likes to throw back the brewskies. A woman with body fat sits in the dark and shoves twinkies and cheesecake in her face as a way to cope with the quarterback who broke her heart in high school. Has Maxim taught you nothing???
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brendahamLincoln
07/22/09

@dj_chick: The Fatchelor.
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dj_chick
07/22/09

In reply to Do Plus-Size TV Shows Inspire Or Disgust?
I love Ruby. The show, and the woman. It's incredibly entertaining, and it give insight into a life that many of us haven't, until now, understood. She is not only trying to get herself more healthy (oh yeah, I just said the "h" word), but she's educating the pubic about what it's like to be morbidly obese. I love her for that.

And, even though Drop Dead Diva is only a few episodes in, I can see it turning into a place to look for positive role models of all sizes. The main character already seems to be more accepting of her "new" body than she was in the premiere.

And I'll admit it... sometimes I do watch shows like The Biggest Loser and think, wow, at least I'm not there. Or wow, I need to stop and change my lifestyle before I get there. But at the same time? I also think that the people on the show are incredibly motivating and inspirational. They show that it CAN be done. Some people maybe have to work harder for it than others, but it's never impossible.
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GretchenWieners (is praying she passes the bar)
07/22/09

@dj_chick: I love Ruby too, mostly because the the show doesn't try to make her seem like a miserable, single cat-hoarder who would be in love and happy IF ONLY SHE WERE SKINNY.

Drop Dead Diva has this exact problem - Jane is well educated, brilliant, overweight single cat-hoarder. With cat plates, no less. Do we need any further proof that she is lonely and single?

Obesity, leads to CAT PLATES!

**Cat plates? Really, Lifetime?
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Cafezinha promoted this comment Edited by GretchenWieners (is praying she passes the bar) at 07/22/09 1:51 PM

inabook
07/22/09

@dj_chick: The second episode has a great speech about people shying away from the word "fat" because of how society treats fat people-- so even though its a little icky and over the tip now, I think that shows a LOT of potential.
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victoriasauce
07/22/09

In reply to Do Plus-Size TV Shows Inspire Or Disgust?
I hate these shows because

A) the titles are offensive (Do they call The Bachelor "less to love"?)
B) they send the message that weight loss equals 100% happiness (Also, a man.)
C) they separate overweight people from the thin like they're contagious/too ugly to mingle ("Average" women can only get "average" men by the way!)
D) act like overweight people think about weight and NOTHING else (Oh, and eating cheesecake. But DUH on that one.)

Okay. I just realized that I could do the entire alphabet.

Why, oh why, can't an overweight person be on television because they're a PERSON with talent?
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Edited by victoriasauce at 07/22/09 12:50 PM victoriasauce was starred victoriasauce was unstarred

argle-bargle? or fou-ferraw?
07/22/09

In reply to Do Plus-Size TV Shows Inspire Or Disgust?
Oh, man. I've never been comfortable with these shows. I don't own a tv, so when I watch it is at friends' houses, and their reactions to these shows are what upsets me; it inevitably turns into, 'Let's all sit around and gawk at the fatties!' which is incredibly disturbing to me. I have several women in my family who are obese (as a result of metabolic disorders and PCOS) and hearing comments like, 'That's disgusting! How could you let yourself get that BIG?!', especially coming from my friends, who are young, progressive, educated, and otherwise very compassionate people just really hurts. It's been said here before, but it bears repeating; prejudice against the overweight really is the last socially acceptable prejudice.
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Flackette Goes Retro
07/22/09

In reply to Do Plus-Size TV Shows Inspire Or Disgust?
How about we just have people of all sizes on TV, without having to make their size the theme of the show?
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morninggloria
07/22/09

In reply to Do Plus-Size TV Shows Inspire Or Disgust?
I find all of television programs featuring women on them to be aspirational, which is why after watching Daisy Of Love, I started dating a dozen losers who all lived in the same house at once and tried to start a rock career. After that failed, I picked up a nasty American Idol habit and began telling people that they sucked in a snotty British accent. I switched to CSI and started some freelance crime solving with magical futuristic tools that linked to databases of everyone who has ever been born, and then Oprah and I became black. And rich!
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CurtCole
07/22/09

@morninggloria: I'm quilting you a best comment of the day headdress. What colors do you like?
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JerseyGrrrl
07/22/09

@morninggloria: I imagine your boyfriend is very invested in making sure you avoid Ellen.
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EkaterinaBallerina
07/22/09

In reply to Do Plus-Size TV Shows Inspire Or Disgust?
I started watching Biggest Loser when I was struggling with my own weight. Now that I've to a point found piece with my weight, there's a part of me that still watches it because I enjoy seeing people who are where I've been become successful. It's almost cathartic. I know the feeling of when you realize you are happy where you are, whatever weight that may be, and it's pretty great.

But I separate that from the idea that we all need to be some uniform size in society. Most contestants on the Biggest Loser need to lose the weight for medical reasons and rarely do they ever go so low you think they've flipped on the spectrum. I guess there's a difference in seeing people who want to/need to lose weight and then those that feel like they need to fit into society's standards of what's "attractive". The latter of which is never entertaining.
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Edited by EkaterinaBallerina at 07/22/09 12:46 PM EkaterinaBallerina was starred

rednrowdy
07/22/09

@EkaterinaBallerina: I guess there's a difference in seeing people who want to/need to lose weight and then those that feel like they need to fit into society's standards of what's "attractive".

there is definitely a difference, but the line is very, very blurry. even women who aren't obese or severely overweight make promises to themselves that they will accomplish certain things once they lose 15, 20, 25 pounds, etc.
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missteenwordpower
07/22/09

In reply to Do Plus-Size TV Shows Inspire Or Disgust?
"Yes, lets make it socailly[sic] acceptable to be obese. That will be good for our society! (rolls eyes)

They can air all the shows they want on obese people, I still won't date one."

They can post all the comments they want from ignorant assholes--*I* still won't date one.
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TheFormerJuneBronson
07/22/09

@missteenwordpower: I somehow feel it's wrong that I object more strongly to his inability to type than his fat prejudice. Though the fat prejudice would also be a dealbreaker.
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Flackette Goes Retro
07/22/09

@missteenwordpower: This would be enough to flunk someone in my book, the poor spelling/grammar.
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missteenwordpower
07/22/09

@TheFormerJuneBronson: The bigotry exhausts me; the slipshod writing offends and enrages me. That's...probably unacceptable.
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Rooo sez BISH PLZ
07/22/09

@missteenwordpower: My favorites are the ones who attempt to go all "SCIENCE" and then still manage to spell it "excercise".
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