Can You Still Zig-A-Zig In A Fat Suit?
I think you guys were right to be skeptical of Ugly Betty. The latest news is that Victoria “Posh” Beckham is going to guest star on the show wearing a fat suit. Oh, how we all love a good fat suit. From Norbit to Fat Monica to Julia Roberts in that one thing. We just can’t get enough, am I right?
The super slim fashion icon, who recently moved to the States, will shock viewers by turning up at a top notch wedding in a fat suit – having pigged out on fatty American food. “Everybody at the wedding will be expecting skinny beautiful Posh to show up,” said an insider at the ABC network. “But they’ll be horrified to see she’s piled on the pounds because of major comfort eating and American junk food.”
This makes me really fucking angry, and do you know why? In the not-too-distant past, it came to light that Posh was considered “thinspiration” for anorexic girls. I don’t blame Posh for being thin, and it’s not her fault that the pro-ana movement co-opted her in this manner. But she has a responsibility to think about the image she projects. Showing up in a fat suit just sends the message that if she gained weight, it would be both horrifying and hilarious. I mean, just look at the quote above. She’s not “beautiful” anymore because she’s fat. How does this do anything but reinforce the “thinspiration” phenomenon?
I don’t want to jump to judgment before the show airs, I really don’t. And I don’t know how fat the fat suit is going to be or how it’s even going to be dealt with. Maybe I’ll be eating my words and telling everyone how hilarious and positive the episode turned out to be. But somehow I’m failing to come up with the plotline that would provoke that kind of reaction. Anyone?
A couple more reactions. From Buzz Sugar:
I, for one, feel like she’s the perfect level of kitsch for the show and can’t wait to see her cameo.
And from Bite Size:
Just how big is this fat suit gonna be? To make her normal size would require a fat suit. Never mind supersized.
How about you guys? Especially the Ugly Betty watchers among you. What do you think?
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Celebrities, Fat Suits, International, TV, Victoria Beckham
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I love that show, and I am very disappointed to hear this.
I stand by my original statement.
And as an Ugly Betty watcher. I am disappointed to see her in the show. Just another way for her to try and become popular in the States. She can’t act and isn’t interesting at all.
Hopefully they won’t make her a permanent addition to the show. If they do . Well i doubt i’ll be watching it.
I am not pleased to hear about this yet interested to see what they say “fat” is on Victoria. I bet they will make her a whole size 8 and call that fat!
Wow, good thing thin people will have yet ANOTHER reason to feel smug and superior to everyone else with this episode! They get so few such opportunities what with the mainstream media’s “science” reporting and fat Monica and, oh, every other sitcom on television and so on.
I mean, this episode has EVERYTHING! A fat suit on a really skinny woman, the fact that she gained weight from “comfort eating” (those cra-HAY-zee women with their “comfort eating”), evil American junk food being responsible for all the world’s problems… this should really help just about every non-fat group of people in the world further unite in their disdain for the One True Enemy, fat people. Good work, Ugly Betty!
(And despite all this, the thing that pisses me off perhaps the most is that you can be sure there will be no jokes or “writing” or any of that. Posh will stand there in a fat suit and say something like “Is there any more cheesecake?” and the laugh track will just ROAR at the uncontrollable hilarity. Actually I can see why shows use fat suits… the American public seems so slack-jawed and stupid in this regard, and willing to be spoon-fed the idea that the mere existence of a fat person is hilarious, that a show doesn’t even have to write jokes if they put someone in a fat suit. Maybe I’d take that shortcut too if I had already been up all night writing an episode. Anyway, thank god I don’t watch this fucking show in the first place.)
Dahling, I am appalled. Absolutely appalled. That a woman who promotes anorexia appears on one of the few slightly plus-size positive shows in a fat suit is disgusting, crass, and insulting to 90% of the female population. (Why do I think a man hatched this idea?) And WHY do actresses (and actors) wear fat suits in the first place? Why don’t they hire all of those wonderful out of work plus size people? Oh, wait, a real plus size person would not usually be willing to make a complete ass out of themselves because of their size (can you tell I do not miss Chris Farley?). Mon dieu!
Posh’s appearance sans the suit would be painful enough. Glad I don’t watch the show.
Posh is thin, but do we really think she’s beautiful? There are so many of the “icons” these days for younger girls who just seem to look really plastic and she’s on of them.
I am holding out a SHRED of hope that salma hayak (a very body-positive woman), actually WILL use the Posh-in-a-fat-suit device to point out the evilness of the media’s obsession with body / weight…
She is the producer, after all.
eek. i really love the show, but if it does become a mockery of those “out-of-control gorging fat women”, i think the show will definitely be tainted for me. i have found it to be really celebratory of lots of different types of beauty and personality, and that’s one thing i’ve loved about it. if that stopped happening, it just wouldn’t be as good.
honestly, once those episodes with monica in the fatsuit started showing up on friends, i just felt a little less comfortable with the show and the characters. if it was a one time thing, i think i might be willing to overlook it (in the case of Friends or Ugly Betty)…but if it becomes part of the show’s ethos to laugh at people (because of who they are, not the silly things they do) then i will tune out. for sure. keeping my fingers crossed Ugly Betty doesn’t go there…
Ugly Betty is a very body positive, love yourself no matter what your precieved imperfections are, type of show. So I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one until it airs. Also, Ugly Betty doesn’t have a laugh track, so at least you don’t have to worry about that one, spacedcowgirl!
I haven’t seen the show, but I’m no fan of Posh. I’m even less a fan of the dreaded fat suit. It really pisses me off that Hollywood will applaud and honour an actor for making himself/herself appear ugly (fat), and ignore the incredibly talented actors who don’t fit into the negative size molds.
I meant laugh track more in a symbolic way (like a fat suit is the stereotypical way to get cheap laughs, and a laugh track is the stereotypical way to demonstrate that something is HIGH-larious) but it is still good to know the show doesn’t have one! :)
I will award it one point for not having a laugh track, but that probably will not mitigate the 1 billion points I intend to deduct if (as, sadly, I feel is about 99% certain) the fat suit gag is both incredibly insulting and not funny.
Wow, Hoardmeister. I am not sure how Posh “promotes” anorexia, any more than, say, Nikki Blonsky promotes binge eating. You have no proof either of them engage in disordered eating habits, let alone “promote” them, dahling.
I am so disappointed to hear this. I love Ugly Betty and have been pleasantly surprised at how body-positive it is. One of the more interesting things is that they have portrayed one of the main skinny, “beautiful” characters (Amanda) as a compulsive eater. And she’s definitely not getting fat, which is absolutely realistic, given that eating habits and weight are not necessarily related.
To be honest, I don’t know what I’ll do if this show airs as planned. I have boycotted other shows for fat-negativity, but I don’t know that it’s ever happened on one of my favorite shows.
It kind of feels like when Alyson Hannigan did the fat suit gag for whatever crappy movie that was a couple of years ago. It tarnished her as Willow for me, which I know is insane, but…
I really think this is something you’ll have to see before you pass judgment on it. UB has always been a very positive show, especially on the subject of diversity, and I can’t imagine that it would throw all that away for one cheap fat joke. I don’t really see how they could plan to spin this in a positive direction, but I’m holding out hope that the writers will maintain the show’s integrity.
I think dressing people in fat suits so everyone can laugh at them will someday be viewed the same way we look at blackface minstrel shows now.
Oh, and whenever they dress someone up in a fat suit to do an undercover story about how hard it is to be fat, I always wonder, why can’t they just follow around and interview a real fat person? Because that wouldn’t be as amusing, now would it? Ick.
Just another reason to watch the NBC Thursday night lineup.
“I think dressing people in fat suits so everyone can laugh at them will someday be viewed the same way we look at blackface minstrel shows now. ”
*SIGH*
I hate to say it, but I have a REALLY hard time comparing fat and race. I think it’s taking it a bit far. Back in the days of minstrel shows ad the civil rights movement people weren’t marginalized because they were fat. As a black female, I’m not easily offended, but the above statement rubs me the wrong way.
Meghan, Posh Spice or whatever we’re suppossed to be calling her now, did recently recommend a “diet” of strawberries, lettuce and edamame.
http://www.howcelebsloseweight.com/2007/07/06/victoria-beckhams-lettuce-bean-and-strawberry-diet/
Maybe not anorexia, certainly disordered eating. And she is definetly promoting it.
Tara, I’m not sure I understand your argument – and I sincerely want to. Can you tell us more about what you mean?
I am of mixed racial heritage myself, and I do think the issues are similar. Minstrel shows were white actors dressing up as blacks and lampooning them as lazy, ignorant and buffoonish. People thought it was funny then, but now we recognize it as cruel, inaccurate and highly offensive. I hope we will come to the same place about fat suits.
I would never want to offend, and I really appreciate hearing your comments. I’m open to learning more about your point of view.
Before I go into my argument in detail, I want to say that I don’t believe in discrimination of ANY kind, whatsoever. Also, just because I am against comparing fat and race doesn’t mean I’m arguing that fat people have it easier. Having been shunned/made fun of myself due to weight I agree that it’s VERY hurtful.
With that being said, let’s get on with it:
Historically black people have been beaten, enslaved, killed, denied service in restaurants, and followed around in department stores. Fat people (please correct me if I’m wrong), unless they were black, didn’t have to deal with all of that. I bet in certain parts of the country if I were in Walmart with a fat white person I would be the one followed around by a security guard to this day. Once upon a time it was against the law for a black person to marry a white person. It was never against the law for a fat person to marry an average sized person. To go even deeper it was never against the law for fat people to marry, period. They could marry each other (not so for gay folks in many parts of the US today). Fat people haven’t been denied entrance to places, had bricks thrown in their windows, or have had to have their children escorted from the bus into an all thin school in the 1950’s South because the thin kids’ parents didn’t want them there. I could go on, but I’m sure you get my point.
I’ll say it again:I don’t deny that fat people are targets. I’m well aware of the fact that doctors treat fatter patients like second class citizens and won’t even treat them until they lose weight. I know that fat people (mainly women) get snickered at in public or even get looks from waitstaff when they DARE order french fries or dessert. I’m aware that fat people (again, mostly women) often have a hard time in the dating scene because people (men mostly) can’t see beyond what they look like. I just read an article the other day about a 500 pound man being denied the right to raise his nephew because he’s fat, in spite of the fact that he and his wife are loving parents who have previously adopted a child.
I’m not going to deny or ignore what we as bigger people go through.
I know it’s awfully cold out there for those of us who wear double digit sizes. My argument is that the experiences of fat and race are different, not better or worse.
Ugh! I hate fat suits. I absolutely agree it is a form of prejudice.
Ah, I see what you are saying now. I do agree that the discrimination faced by fat people is no where near as severe as the extreme human rights violations that black people have endured. I wasn’t really trying to compare the two, only the minstrel show aspect, but I can see how my comments would make you feel that way. It is a good reminder for me that fat people are lucky to be empowered in so many ways. Thanks for sharing.
BigBeauty,
No prblem at all. Thank you for reading and understanding.
Maybe she’ll look better in the suit than she currently does? Can’t deny that Ms. Beckham could stand to look like she eats a sammitch every once in awhile.
Yeah, I’m an optimist. The thought that they’re going to do this makes my heart quail within me, but I guess I’ll wait and see what they do with it. It depends on if they take it to an extreme or not.
If they do that, I WILL stop watching the show.
It’s so sad that the fascist American media can
not live and let live. I guarantee there is a witch
hunt in this country designed to keep Americans
more concerned about their bodies and less about the issues.
I already have mixed messages about America
Ferrara and Sara Rue losing weight(while losing
viewers) in order to make the corporate big-heads
happy.
What is America(pun intended) coming to?
Tara. I’m a size 24 black woman and you CAN definitely compare the fat suit and blackface.
The similiarities are scary…………………………….
And what’s even worse is that the average
American IQ is only 115!
Chunky Peanut Butter, thanks for your link to a crappy website containing uncited, unsubstantiated information about what Posh is “promoting,” supposedly not even to the general public but to her girlfriends. Do you seriously surf howcelebsloseweight.com? Why? To get enraged about celebrity stick figures, or to cite what is posted there as factual information?
And what’s even worse is that the average
American IQ is only 115!
You are joking, right?
Mari,
I have said my piece on that matter. Let’s just agree to disagree.
Tara, unless you ARE black AND fat, then you really don’t understand.
Fillyjonk, that’s a FACTUAL statistic and given that Forest Gump had an IQ of 75, Americans really don’t want to know what’s going on. I think James Baldwin was right when he said that America was headed towards an apocalypse.
Mari,
For the record, I AM black and once upon a time I was fat. I do understand and know what I’m talking about.
So tired of fat suits.
I hope no one would try to *equate* fat discrimination with racial discrimination. (I don’t think the poster was trying to do that.) I do think there are similarities between black face and the fat suit as comic devices, and I find them both fraught social politics and power.
I once interviewed an actor (for the Fort Worth, Texas theater scene) who was performing in a play called “The Food Chain.” He wore a fat suit, and the character was apparently written for an actor wearing a fat suit. The actor told me that it’s easier to laugh with impugnity at an actor wearing a fat suit than it is to laugh at an actual fat person.
Haven’t thought about that in a while.
So…Is it just me, or does it seem that this episode never aired? The original gimmick for the episode was to display a “surprise” that Victoria Beckham was now fat when she showed for Vanessa Williams’ wedding. However, ABC seems to have aired an episode (instead?) wherein Victoria shows up to the wedding as is SO glamourous that she steals the show from the bride.
Is it just me, or did they rewrite the fat suit out of the show?
Jays, I had no idea that Victoria Beckham made her appearance on the show sans fat suit. I’m sure you’re right, and that the fat suit idea was dropped. I wonder what happened!