Though when I saw the show “Legally Blonde” one of the actresses who later plays a stereotypical/caricature lesbian feminist character was heavy and she was in the opening number as a sorority girl. I’ll admit, that seemed wrong too because for that character appearance was important. (Not to say there aren’t fat girls in sororities too, but it didn’t fit in this particular instance.)

I’m a huge musical theater fan and I wanted to give a shout-out to the people who cast Spring Awakening for representing a variety of body types in the current incarnation of the Broadway cast…see a pic of the leading ladies here: http://img110.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sabarnesnoblecall460baj6.jpg

I wouldn’t really describe any of these girls as fat, but I’ve gotten so used to seeing only stick-thin girls up on stage, that it’s refreshing to see some realistic bodies up there. Especially significant is the fact that these are actual teenage girls playing teenage girl roles — so it’s a good thing for the actresses, and good for the audience members who get to see some different types of beauty.

“Argh! That was what I most wanted to avoid. I really am not dissing slim actresses, which would certainly be unacceptable – and ridiculous. Actresses of all shapes and sizes are fine by me, although I do think we should see more large ladies playing the plum roles. The pretty-pretty is not representative of all slim actresses, however. She is the kind of actress whose looks do her work for her – literally, she ‘looks the part’, so she doesn’t have to play it – she is prim, and over-enunciates, and looks soulful a lot. You couldn’t imagine her having a big dirty guffaw on or off stage. That’s my bete noire.”

Where is it written that larger women can’t be self confident sex goddesses. Just once I’d like to see a movie or a tv show where the hot guy pines for the larger, sexy woman who won’t give him the time of day.

Does being overweight always have to equal being insecure?

I also agree with the point about not tearing the thin girls down. The goal it to make size meaningless, not to transfer the prejudice from one group to another.

To put another twist on it, in Shakespeare’s times, all the roles were played by men / boys. Can you do that now without it being perceived as a political statement. I had a personal experience with that once when telling a story at a fat feminist conference. About a half hour before the show (which was in a Las Vegas nightclub, by the way – something I still capitalize on), I realized that a lot of women in the audience would be lesbians. I realized that there was no reason whatsoever to specify the gender of the person who fell in love with my main character, so left it unstated. The straight women didn’t seem to notice, but at least a couple of the lesbians thanked me for not making the assumption.

I think the more generic problem is that there are a lot of preconceptions about what a given character should look like that can influence a director to choose a less talented performer. Audiences can get used to unconventional casting more easily than producers assume they can, however. I took my mother to see Roundhouse’s production of “110 in the Shade” a couple of years ago, for example, and she never commented on the colorblind casting.