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Jessica Salmon, the main magnetic character and (not calling it) Lena Dunham‘s netflix new rom-com Too muchJust arrived in London when she gets a little cheerful for her love life. “Don’t be nervous,” a man she hardly knows tells her. Hotties have “curves, and you have … a big, beautiful donkey.”
Thing is, she is not nervous. And we’ve never seen her worry about her curves. That is something that Jess and the actor who plays, Megan Stalterhave in common. “I’m so lucky to love my thick tin,” Stalter told Stalter recently EnchantmentAnd she’s right: with all society telling women since the beginning of a time that the size of our ass (and boobs and thighs) is the most important thing, being comfortable in your skin is actually radical.
I should know. I was born with the vascular disorder Klippel-trenaunnay syndromewhich deforms my back and right leg. As well as being Us‘Executive Editor in general, I am a writer, and my memory, I will look so hot in a coffin: and other thoughts I used to have for my bodyis about existing in an unconventional, fat body. So I’ve invested in seeing more representation in Hollywood, but shouldn’t we all be?
Tigress OsbornExecutive Director of the National Association to promote fat admission, it is said UsThe yes, we “see more body diversity on television” these days and can celebrate it, “but that’s partly because the bar is on the floor.” For a long time, we have seen “infinite sums of more representation and we are constantly informed that that is sufficient. So like, there’s a dew girl on something – is everything better now?”
She points to HBO’s Someone somewherestarring Bridget EverettAs an example of a show that got things right by letting the main character Sam “be a full human being,” rather than, say, the fat or villain or person whose whole story line revolves around weight and/or the desire to lose. (The critical darling was – criminal – not renovated after third term.)
Adding Osborn, “We see more fat people on television but not at the population representation level in any meaningful way” – and often not at the level of fat reflected by the real world. That is, even the fat characters, apparently, are quite small in the world of fat spectrum. But things are getting better: “We see more main characters,” he said, “and more sidekicks with depth. It’s not just the funny fat friend than the awkward fat friend. They are the fat friend with a true story line and not always about their weight.” She liked Hulu’s A single drunken girl for this, and specifically Lily is harringtonFelicia’s character: “It has its own real story line. It’s a little story story, but a real story line.” (A single drunken girl: Another critical success, canceled after two seasons.)
April Lockhartwho has a leg difference, is a fashion influencer who has unknowingly become a disability advocate. “I didn’t go about being Miss Rachel”He said at Us. “I am, like, trying to go to Week of fashion. ”But in 2022, it started a series called Normalizing Disabled Fashion Girlies on Social, with the aim of“ helping people see that disabilities are largely every day. One in four people are disabled. It’s so common. “
You would never know it, and judge by television and American film. And to Lockhart, seeing people who are different or disabled or fat or anything else “else” is important: “The more you see, the more familiar it comes.” She adds, “I don’t want to always get it all together and I always feel my best … but these days, it’s such a big part of my platform and that has also helped. What’s the point in hiding it now?”
Perhaps most critical, Lockhart said, “We have not yet seen people with disabilities in cool light.” We have seen the inspirational but not the ambitious; The fashion girls like Lockhart and me, just go around our lives when having leg differences and being fat. She shares a friend’s story with a face difference, which says that people like him are the bad guys typical in TV and film. Take, for example, characters like the biggest penguin or character on the nose ever, Scar: The Big Bad of The king of lionKnown for his… Scar. “We’re normal people with cool jobs doing cool things, and I think this is a secondary factor for us in many ways.”
Fat or deformed characters do not have to be perfect (because no one). Insisting that they are to be equally degrading. Osbourn is mentioned Baby deerand criticism of the main opponent Martha (Jessica Gunning) Being fat (eg “Why did she have to be thick to be a crazy stalker woman?”). “Thick actors of all sexes should be able to play all sorts of roles without being accused of making the world worse for fat people because they played some fat role where the person was not an angel. We do not have enough breadth of representation to capture that.” She makes a great point: “Whatever you think of that character, that was a great performance by that actress.”
She is also quick to explain that we should not congratulate ourselves also Much about the small improvement we see. In terms of Hollywood representation, yes, we see growth; But “Few people in the real world have to contend with failing to use public transport because the seats are too small, or publicly disturbed, or medical discrimination and systemic employment.” None of those are story lines I’ve seen anywhere, at least not as a way to another or exotic character.
In chapter three of Too muchJess has a moment of atypical uncertainty with her new boyfriend, Felix (Will Sharpe), who tells her, “You are sexy. You know you are sexy.” And it’s okay. Hi force know. She seems to think she needs to seem uncertain because she is expected. Too much In partial fairy tale, so yes, this ideal world where the size and body shape of Jess is generally irrelevant, especially to its new Beau, is a bit of a dream. The important role is that Jess is a non -thin person, whose story does not revolves around the fact that she is not thin stick.
Which is all to say: more. O. this. We’ve come a long way, baby. And we still have a long way to go.
