Stylista & Lipstick Jungle
Okay, these are two shows I don’t watch. But they both had episodes that dealt with plus-sized women last week, and I was interested in talking about them anyway.
First, Stylista. I saw a promo for this episode at one point or another, showing a plus-size contestant going into a closet full of designer clothes and being upset that nothing fit her. The promo then showed her sadly eating a piece of pizza, topped with pepperoni and tragedy. This seems to be some type of Devil Wears Prada reality show in which Anne Slowey yells a lot.
For more helpful analysis of the episode, I turned to Project Rungay, where the boys discussed that very episode, in which the pizza-eating contestant ended up being eliminated:
To be honest, as much as we might have sympathized with her, we did think she was being a little silly. She acted as if the whole issue was a complete surprise to her. Come on, honey. There isn’t one fashion-minded woman in the world who doesn’t understand that the industry is skewed toward skinny women. We admired Danielle for wanting to forge ahead even though the odds were against her, but then she turned around and seemed completely beside herself that, y’know, the odds were against her.
The whole time she was refusing to enter the closet we were all “Bags! Shoes! Jewelry! Even belts! Come ON, honey! You’re stylish! You can find something in there to work with!”
And surprisingly, for the most part, her peers weren’t nasty about it. They seemed to sympathize with her… But for some reason, it was Danielle that got the boot and to be honest, we have no idea why. It seemed like a totally arbitrary choice. We hate to say it, but it felt like they had two equivalent choices and defaulted to the fat girl.
So I’m curious as to your take on this episode: did Tom and Lorenzo have it right? Should the fat girl trying to make it in fashion take it as a given that the odds are against her?
The second show that talked about weight issues was Lipstick Jungle. I’ve never seen an episode (or a promo, for that matter) but I did run across this recap.
Victory is hard at work on a gorgeous dress when Dahlia shows up with James Skylar’s fiance in tow, and said fiance isn’t exactly what Victory expected because she’s plus sized. Oh, this is very offensive. How dare a plus sized woman want a pretty strapless dress? Shut up, Lipstick Jungle. You see what happened was Victory assumed that because the woman was a dancer she was skinny. Sigh. To her credit, Victory does a quick and sincere 180 and immediately pulls out a more appropriate sketch which the fiance loves. You’re half forgiven, show…
Victory finishes the dress and the bride is less than enthused about herself in the final product because she has severe body issues. Victory and Dahlia give her a pep talk and their magic words make the big girl happy! Okay, I’m back to being offended by this story. Why couldn’t the plus size girl be happy with her body already? SIGH.
This sounds interesting to me. I have to give the show props for making the plus-sized character a dancer, anyway! So does anyone who is not me watch either of these shows? Should I program my TiVo? What did you think?
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Celebrities, Fashion, Fatism, TV
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I’m only going to comment on Stylista. As unfair as it is, it would be incredibly naive to believe that somehow, magically, clothes were being made in all sizes, or most sizes, or at least some clothes from each designer were being made in many sizes. It’s also naive to appear on a reality show about fashion and not recognize that you’re the token fat chick, and the producers are setting you up for this. The odds are not for you, just as they were not for the plus-sized (size 10) winner of America’s Next Top Model. Recognizing that is no more radical than recognizing that running for president when you’re black/female/gay/single/trans/poor/different is likely to make your campaign more difficult. You have to work it to make it as a fat woman, especially on TV, especially in fashion.
On the other hand, the producers knew who they were casting, and there should have been as good a selection of plus-sized clothing available as they could muster. But this isn’t about the competition but the entertainment, and it’s more entertaining (to some twisted mind) to watch contestants lose their shit.
I watched that Stylista episode, but just haven’t had time to blog about it. I think they have it right for the most part, but I also think that there was a lot that was edited out that had it been shown, might have made her seem not so “completely beside herself.” It’s one thing to work in an industry in which you do not fit; this particular challenge had contestants raiding the size-zero Elle closet for a competition in which they themselves would be judged, in part, on the basis of their appearance. If I were on the show, I’d also be mortified because I know there wouldn’t be any piece of clothing that would remotely fit me. Sure, Danielle could have accessorized, but I think she was completely taken aback by the challenge (as were all the other contestants) and was in a kind of shock.
And I agree that the default was the fat girl. The other contestant up for elimination, Kate, is, to be frank, an idiot. The challenge had the contestants at a party in which they had to tell Anne who was who and a factoid about each guest. Kate refused to look at the guest list and throughout the party, looked up at the ceiling mirror to see if her lipstick was smudged. She looked and appeared very unprofessional. I think they kept her not only because she “looks” more like an Elle employee, but also because she’s good for drama ratings. Now every other contestant hates her.
Actually, the other contestant up for elimination besides wasn’t Katie–it was Johanna, who I thought was a stronger contestant than Danielle, though neither Danielle or Johanna deserved to be stuck in the bottom two. But that’s how things have been going on this show for a while now, with perfectly reasonable people winding up on the chopping block for stupid, arbitrary reasons, while Katie’s terrible behavior somehow manages to escape the judges’ attention–though she has gotten a lot of grief for dressing too sexy and unprofessionally, which is why I don’t agree that she’s getting a pass just for her looks.
Anyway, I don’t think Danielle ultimately got the ax for her size, but the way she was edited for maximum pizza emphasis was so dismaying that it almost doesn’t matter that she was booted for other reasons. It’s disappointing especially when it appears that her fellow contestants and Elle staffers usually made a point not to judge her for her size, so that when the show’s editors still couldn’t resist focusing on her eating and her insecurities, she looked even worse in the end.
That said, I was also surprised that after years of working in retail and knowing that she was working for Elle, she hadn’t prepared herself for the possibility that she’d be faced with a high-end store, sample rack, or office closet full of clothes that wouldn’t fit her, because keeping your chin up in a situation like that is Defensive Fat Girl 101. Then again, who knows how long she’d had to keep up with the pressure of the show before she had to deal with that…
Uh…being the big girl on a fashion-oriented show?
At least she wasn’t getting stabbed in the ass with straight-pins like Toccara was on Top Model.
Danielle had been relatively strong in her self-image until that point; but I think most of us fat women realize that it can get really tiring to keep combatting lies and stereotypes and thin-centric images of beauty day in and day out. And, being in the fasion industry, that’s what Danielle had to do in a big way. I didn’t see it so much as if this one specific challenge set her off — so much as it was just a reaction of someone who has had to fight against the grain every moment for years, and is just tired. Yes, she chose the industry, but she’s a human, and everyone gets fed up sometimes. As a fat woman who tries not to let the negative messages of culture bring me down, I know what that tiredness is like; and it was kind of cool to have someone to relate to on TV.
All that being said, in a way I’m glad Danielle was voted off, because she was the only reason I was watching that otherwise bland, ridiculous show. Buh-bye Stylista!
I watch Lipstick Jungle regularly and this is the first time they’ve dealt with anyone larger than a size 2. I have to say that I was disappointed not so much because of the superficial way they “addressed” the issue but because the gown Victory created for her in the end made her look like a parade float. Hello? Bring in a plus size fashion designer to put together something amazing and perhaps the character wouldn’t have needed the extra pep talk from Vic and Dahlia. (Sorry, ugly plus sized stuff makes me crazy because it does NOT have to be that way!!!)
I don’t know why I’m commenting, because a: I have never heard of Stylista and don’t watch fashion reality shows, and b: Lipstick Jungle has since been canceled by NBC.
Wait, I do know why I’m commenting. I want to make a point about TV being so reluctant to show big women being confident about their size. Unless Mo’Nique produces the show, we’ll hardly ever see fat chicks being seen as happy and carefree. Instead, we have to be doing drastic diets for the world to see, or completely batshit insane (“The God Warrior”) on Wife Swap.
Come on Hollywood, give us some credit. Just because 99% of you out there is starving and food-obsessed, doesn’t mean us fatties are. Show us doing things other than trying to feed our faces.
“Should the fat girl trying to make it in fashion take it as a given that the odds are against her?”
Yes. She doesn’t need to accept that that’s the way that it should be, and and doesn’t need to accept that that’s the way it will be, but she MUST understand reality, and that reality is that fashion is all about crazy skinny folks.
I think that she was probably flustered because of all of the crazy reality-show-ness of it all, but I think that a challenge where her weight put her at a disadvantage in a concrete way wasn’t unexpected.
There might have been other reasons why Danielle was cut in this episode, including the fact that the tried to throw Johanna under the bus when it was shown that they misidentified that one person on their page. Danielle’s defense/ “I typed what I was told.” Well, Danielle, you were supposed to memorize the same faces and names as everyone else, so if you admit that you didn’t do that and try to blame others when mistakes were made is slimy. It was your job to get it right, too.
I wonder if this emphasis on her weight is done to distract from her other screw ups. She was really strong at the beginning, but her later editorial decisions seemed weaker and weaker. Perhaps that’s why she was cut? It’s why I think she was cut.
I saw the Lipstick Jungle episode and was not impressed. First, the woman was not a dancer currently, she was one years ago (the implication being she was thin). Second, as some have mentioned, the dress Victory made her was horrific. When the woman came in, she looked like an attractive woman. Once Victory put her in her creation…I was so distracted by the shiny 101 Fat Girl Dress, Lane Bryant circa whenever they first opened.
i think the lipstick jungle bit is CRAP. I mean what are they trying to say that women who don’t wear a size 2 are bound to be unhappy?!
full figured women look amazing in clothing that works with their proportions just like everybody else! you just have to know how to dress your proportions whether you are skinny, athletic, fuller, etc.
tv needs a makeover!
http://bsidegirl.blogspot.com/
If Lipstick Jungle had portrayed a successfull, happily in love, dancer woman, who happened to be fat too, I could gladly accept this Victoria person putting her foot in her mouth, because, guess what, this happens in reality. So to have a bunch o size 2 girls be hyper-supportive and 100% pc would not only be no tv story, it would also be unlikely.
However they apparently went the severe body image issues and in need of a generic Brooke Shields pep talk route. BLECH!
“Show us doing things other than trying to feed our faces.”
Bree, you’re assuming television writers have things like vision, or imagination.
Come back to sad reality with the rest of us, now…
After all, this is the industry that gave us Kevin James and Leah Remini, and Jim Belushi and Courtney Thorne-Smith.
(I happen to think those two boys are cute, but I hate their characters, and I hate the setup. And I don’t think I’m the only one.)