You’ll love the title.

Without further delay, I give you the official trailer for Blubberella.

(Safe for work but probably not safe for potential body image triggers)

Io9 called it “ridiculously offensive fatsploitation” and judging from its tagline (“She will kick major ass – with her major ass”) it’s hard to disagree.

In case you’re wondering who the cute-as-sin actor is in the title role, it’s Lindsay Hollister who you may remember from Joan of Arcaia and the dance scene in Get Smart

It’s important to note that she is still listing the film on her resume as “Untitled Spoof Movie”.  She had this to say in an interview over on Big Fat Blog:

What challenges have you faced in your career due to your size?

I am definitely bigger than a size 10 and have lost out on several big parts because I’ve been too fat to play the “fat woman”. Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful. My career began because of my size (playing an overweight student on Boston Public), and I’ve been able to play some amazing roles because I am a character actress. But I’ve also hit a lot of walls because compared to the average size of an actress in Hollywood (size 0/2), I’m gigantic! It’s a double edge sword and I think that networks/producers just don’t want to take the chance on me. Like casting me as a love interest for example. Again, they play it safe with an actress who is a size 10 or 12. It’s frustrating because I don’t understand why they wouldn’t want to shake it up a little bit. Make a statement. I think people would watch. And love it!

Blubberella is definitely a statement, Lindsay. As is that hot corset number. I’m going to focus on that instead of the food jokes, m’kay?

But this brings about another question: Boll is claiming to have the first supersize superhero (which, no). I somehow doubt that Blubberella will represent the hope of the fatosphere quite the same as the X-Men’s Storm or John Stewart from the Green Lantern are role models as black superheroes.  In fact, I think if I had to pick from the options offered, I’d exchange Blubberella for Fat Momma, doughnuts and all.

I’d be grossed out if I had to watch two characters with rolls and rolls of fat kissing each other … because I’d be grossed out if I had to watch them doing anything. To be brutally honest, even in real life, I find it aesthetically displeasing to watch a very, very fat person simply walk across a room — just like I’d find it distressing if I saw a very drunk person stumbling across a bar or a heroine addict slumping in a chair.

Oh, before you get upset about this, you should know that Kelly insists that she doesn’t hate fat people, and in fact, has some friends who are pudgy, so really, it’s because she cares so much about our health. Oh, ok then! She also offers the advice that if we exercised more and ate whole foods, we’d lose weight in a jiffy.  Fat people never do any of those things! Maura Kelly saves the day! As usual, my hardcore crush Lesley nails it:

…you’re not required to find all fat people attractive, certainly, but Kelly’s comments above are dehumanizing and offensive and really have no place associated with a widely-read publication such as Marie Claire. This is not simply because their candor subverts the standard feel-good ladymag message of “Love yourself! (But not too much!)” but because sentiments like those expressed in Kelly’s post are bad for everyone: they make fat people feel terrible about themselves, and they make thin people terrified of becoming one of those disgusting fatties they so revile.

After reading Ms. Kelly’s blurb on her alumni website, I was most struck by this paragraph:

She struggled with anorexia growing up and credits the psychologists who worked with her for helping her to overcome the disorder. She was so thankful to her psychologists that she decided to major in psychology at Dartmouth so she could one day help others in the same way. Upon graduation, Kelly reread Catcher in the Rye and decided that being a psychologist no longer appealed to her and what she really wanted to do was write a book that would “make people feel less alone in the world.”

After reading the comments on the Marie Claire blog (seriously, go read them and cheer), I feel bad for Kelly. Her sizist screed against fat has obviously more to do with her own eating disorder (which she wrote about and examined in depth in this NYTimes article) and body dysmorphia than any actual concern for the health and welfare of her common man.  Check out her anecdote where  man told her that she looked “athletic” and she mentally twisted it into being called fat. Also, I’m absolutely betting that the next time she bumps into Marie Claire’s pet plus-sized columnist Ashley Falcon in the elevator, it’s going to be awwwwkward!

Good luck with that making “people feel less alone in the world” thing, Maura! You certainly have bonded the fatosphere in outrage and disbelief.

Cooks require heft, to prove they eat their own creations….It’s not just the skinny women chefs. I don’t trust skinny male chefs either, especially if they’re dressed like teenage vampires in “Twilight” with their skinny black jeans and tight T-shirts and ample hair product. When I think of a chef I can trust, I think of cooks with gravitas, some weight on their bones, women who clearly are no strangers to the knife and fork.

Before you start thinking about this being a win for fat acceptance, think again: I don’t care if it’s disregarding Beth Ditto on the runway because she’s over size 12 or disregarding Padma Lakshmi because she’s under size 12, it’s still sizism no matter how you slice it.  Sure, fats are getting the positive assumption that they are more competent when it comes to food, but it’s just as damaging as assuming an athlete is stupid or a gay person is good with fashion. And the assumption that you’re such a good chef that you can’t stop eating your own creations is insulting at best, not to mention the bad reasoning that fat OR thin chefs are only eating their own food. Certainly, we can point to some anecdotal evidence to support the stereotype of a great chef at a higher BMI but we can just as easily point out situations to the opposite. For every Mario Batali, there’s a Grant Achatz who is amazing in the kitchen (trust me, the man’s food is perfection)!

What do you guys think? Do you distrust thin chefs? The comments are dying for some juicy morsels!

While Dr. Benjamin isn’t coming right out as a fat advocate, she definitely takes a shot at the media for its doom and gloom finger pointing at the fat rampage so-called obesity epidemic. The winds of change are blowing, BFDivas and BFDudes!

(Via Big Fat Blog)

…One in four female characters was depicted in “sexy, tight, or alluring attire,” compared with one in 25 male characters. The female characters were also more likely than men to be beautiful, and one in five were “portrayed with some exposed skin between the mid-chest and upper thigh regions.” Because you wouldn’t want to take on the world without baring your midriff—girl power! (Another study found, troublingly, that women in G-rated films wear the same amount of skimpy clothing as women in R-rated films.) One in four women was shown with a waist so small that, the authors concluded, it left “little room for a womb or any other internal organs.” Maybe we could carry them in our purses?

No wonder young girls are reporting body image issues earlier and earlier.  Not only are fat females treated by the filmmakers as lesser or non-sexual grandmothers, but the girls we’re supposed to emulate are hyper-sexualized with giant Hentai eyes and Angelina Jolie pouts. And to think we all blamed Bratz dolls!

You know, I honestly cannot think of a sympathetic fat female human character in an animated kid’s movie.  There were fat people in Wall-E, of course, but it was pretty offensive stereotyping.  I think Mrs. Potts eventually turns into a fat human, but for the majority of Beauty and the Beast, she’s tableware.  Arguably, one of Sleeping Beauty’s fairy friends is a plus-sized fairy, but that movie is old than my grandmother. Likewise, Hyacinth the Hippo. Dora the Explorer isn’t a svelte lass, but she’s also like six. And there are never fat princesses.

Then there’s Ursula the Sea Witch. Love her.

You know, she’s the first fat villian who really has some power. The other fat girls in Disney movies are either fairy godmothers (who twitter a lot) or singing teapots. Up until Ursula, the female villians were all tall, angular women with pinched faces (Cruella DeVille; the Wicked StepMother in Snow White; the aunt with the Siamese cats in Lady and the Tramp; Maleficient, who is also awesome for rocking that head gear) and she ends up embodying ultimate power (and, you know, getting stabbed by a boat, but whatevs).

But the fact remains that Ursula is still evil, and definitely not sympathetic. In fact, the only plus-sized female main character in recent memory is Princess Fiona, who is introduced to us first as being thin and Cameron Diaz-y and then her plus-size state is explained by her having been cursed. Seriously. Cursed! And the only reason she ends up being ok with her state is the fact that her man loves her best when she’s all green and belchy.

Let’s discuss in the comments!

How did you feel about The Devil Wears Prada? Did it bug you that the main character walked away from a good job at the end, to go back to her boyfriend — like that was the only way she could be happy?
I felt like they tried to buy it back by saying what she really wanted was to write political pieces at her temp job. That was a hokey part of the story. At least she wasn’t a klutz. So many comedies and TV shows make pretty, skinny women klutzes — they have no discernible flaws, so let’s make them a klutz!

Like Liz Lemon.
Debra Messing was always doing that on Will & Grace. (Ed note–Also, basically any character played by Michelle Pfeiffer, J.Lo and more recently, Kristen Bell)

It’s such an old trope.
The other one is actresses who clearly starve themselves playing characters who get picked on by the guy for eating too much.

In Valentine’s Day, the Jessica Biel character does that. When she gets nervous she shoves food into her mouth. Of course, it’s okay for Biel to do that because she’s in the best shape of any woman alive, so shoving food in her mouth isn’t offensive.
It would be so funny if an actual fat woman shoved food in her mouth. People would be horrified! They’d want to kill her! Is that an Onion headline? Actual Fat Woman Shoves Food in her Mouth in Romantic Comedy!

She’s right! When did you last see a fat woman eating in a movie when it wasn’t a fat joke? Even in Shallow Hal (which I watched recently… so close and yet, so fucking far) when they show the fat character eating, it’s Gwyneth Paltrow not Gwyneth-In-A-Fat-Suit-Paltrow. How are we ever supposed to get over the idea of body shame when the very idea of us nourishing our bodies is clearly revolting to the rest of the world?

This is too depressing, so instead, I’ll just leave the rest to you guys in the comments.

PS. Marry me, Mindy Kaling?

I’m guessing that a lot of us had Sassy moments that impacted your impressionable years. For me, when I read something that Mike Flaherty said about Roseann Barr being a “fat ugly cow”, something broke inside my brain. I wrote a seething letter to the editor, taking him and the magazine to task for preaching acceptance and then spewing that level of body hate. It was the first time I had ever dared to defend my body–my fatness–and it felt like the most dangerous thing in the world. Mike called me personally to apologize and then they published a version of the letter (although with a softened comment about still trying to lose weight) in their March 1990 issue.  I used the payment to fly to NYC and hang out in the Sassy offices with Christina, Mike and then spanking-new writer Kim France (now EIC of Lucky), pretty much making me the luckiest teenager in America for a short few hours.

One of the things I remember most about those two afternoons was how Christina told me to keep writing and keep questioning shit. Christina took her own advice. Check it out:

In Jane Brody’s column about BMI on Tuesday, she, or some hack doctor she quotes, says that it’s thoroughly possible for a 125 pound, 5 foot 5 inch woman to be fat. Shut the front door. Jane, this is frigging impossible. I am resisting the impulse to say you are going senile.

An ad for a plastic surgeon in The Montclair Times today asks, “Do you suffer from cellulite?” Suffering? Really? I’m almost speechless. There is a lot of suffering in this world, to be sure, very little of it from cellulite.

Tabitha Soren (former MTV News correspondent back when MTV was still relevant) said “Sassy has changed my life by making me hopeful that society’s stereotypes of the ideal physical female are unrealistic and terribly outdated. Sassy celebrates women who are real people that exist in the real world, not plastic surgery victims.”  It doesn’t happen often but it’s absolutely amazing when you see that your idols are still exactly who you thought they were, more than twenty years later.

Rock n roll, Christina Kelly. You’re still the coolest girl I’ve ever met.

Finding a decent pair of plus size tights is a bit of a challenge. Sometimes tight purveyors make gigantically long tights with a larger waistband, as though their customers are plus size giraffes. I’m 5’9″ and even I shake my head at these ridiculous things. Also, in theory, tights should be more hearty than your average silken hosiery, and yet somemanufacturers send out tights which are dear and apparently made of knit gossamer and spider webs. Therefore, even though I LOVE all of those choices, I tend to shy away from places like Hips And Curves, Tights Online and We Love Colors. Mopie is delicate enough to pull that off, but I cannot. More specifically, my ass, thighs and the rubbing action of said thighs cannot.

Mopie and I met up with BFDivas Sony, Elise and Marie Denee for an Igigi free-for-all and Elise was very taken with my hot pink tights. “Promise me you’ll do a tights post. PROMISE!” she insisted. And here I thought it was just me. Here’s the advice I gave her: shop where  maiden aunts and librarians shop. No kidding! The venues may not have the sexy colors but their tights wear like iron and go through dozens of washings with nary a pilled inner thigh.

Here are my top picks for sturdy, well-fitting tights:

• Catherine’s. Most fatshionistas flutter their eyelids at the thought of walking into this store, with its applique’d polyester dresses and matronly sportswear, but their hosiery is amazingly resistant to runs. The colors are pretty boring however, black tights are the workhorses of a fall wardrobe and I get all of mine from Catherine’s. (Sizes up to 7x)
• Woman Within/Roamans/One Stop Plus/Jessica London: If you buy from them, you’ll forever get a million paper catalogs in the mail, but oh the colors! Orange! Teal! Cranberry! Purple! You automatically get an heir and a spare with their 2 pack deal, so it’s the best bang for your tight dollar, even if they don’t wear quite as long as the boring options from Catherine’s. They have cool sparkly Lurex too. (Sizes up to 8x)
• Avenue: Inconsistent sizing (sometimes I get the weirdly long or super small pair) and word on Fatshionista is that they changed the quality of their standard tights but I still can’t resist things like the double diamond pointelle. The hot pink pair of tights that prompted this post came from Avenue. (Sizing up to EE, which fits 320-375 lbs)
• Torrid: Pretty one note for selection (and that note tends to be goth). Even though I’ve given up on their plain black tights, Torrid is still my automatic go to for statement hosiery like fishnets. Huge caveat: they have the crappiest waistbands imaginable, and the runs/rips always start there, but I usually just go MacGyver and either cut off the waistband entirely and hold them up by wearing a pair of Spanx over them or cut the legs off and use a garter belt. Torrid gets extra credit for using models of size in their photos. (Sizing up to 3x/4x, which means practically nothing)

What did I miss? Where are the amazing tights to be found? Hit us up in the comments for your juicy secrets!

Full disclosure: Neither BFD nor I received any compensation to endorse these products!

We’ve already discussed the ham sandwich thing but did you know that Cass repeatedly tried to get into the Mamas and the Papas but John Phillips told her that she was too fat? Eventually, he caved, inventing a story that Elliot could sing higher after being hit in the head by a magical pipe, which everyone (including Cass) went along with because the real reason was uncomfortable. We’ve all heard that bands become dysfunctional families, so I assume that the other members were skirting around Phillips’ creepy personality issues. (Remember, this is also the guy who thought it was perfectly acceptable to rape and then have “consensual” sex with his daughter for a decade)

John wanted to have a Peter, Paul and Mary-style rock-and-roll group and had no compunction of saying “Sorry, Cass, but you’re too fat” right to her face. But not in a mean way. He’d just say “Cass, I’m sorry–you’re too fat.” (From Dream a Little Dream of Me via Snopes)

Ok, as long as he wasn’t MEAN about it, even though apparently Phillips has been quoted making sizist remarks in numerous sources and apparently  As it turns out, the joke was on Phillips, as their popularity rose with the inclusion of her amazing voice.

What Streisand did for Jewish girls in Brooklyn, Cass Elliot was doing for fat girls everywhere. The diet food people must have hated her the way nose surgeons are said to hate Streisand. While the Mamas and Papas were defining a lifestyle for their fans to emulate, Cass was redefining the concept of beauty among the young.  (Esquire, 1969)

There’s no doubt that vocally she was the strongest member of the group, and while Cass may or may not have internalized all of the comments about her weight, she just might have been a seminal influence for the Fat Acceptance movement.

There is no “theme” to the portal. Weetabix and Jenfu have both shifted into writing more personal (rather than weight-oriented) blogs, and they’ve also said that they’ll be posting size acceptance related stuff here from time to time, so hopefully Big Fat Deal will be busier than ever in 2009. (And I welcome your input, if there’s anything you’d like to see happen here this year.)

We’re still putting things together over at Dearest Mabel and getting our feet wet and tweaking the template, but in the meantime, I just wanted to point you over there. Happy reading, and happy new year!