Fat Lit
The title of this article, “Finding Fat Lit,” is promising. I was like, yeah! We need more fat characters! And then I read the article. Matt Stewart, who describes himself at his heaviest as “a hideous 239 pounds,” wants books about fat people—but only the ones who are trying to lose weight.
Millions of Americans go through this agony every day; 68% of us are overweight or obese. Yet we have few literary insights about obesity to help comfort us; zero provocative tales about the plight of the salad-muncher for us to identify with during bleak dieting times; hardly any entertaining stories about hitting the gym which might propel us to suck it up and go to pilates class after a long workday. We turn to Oprah, or The Biggest Loser, or Weight Watchers—but not fiction.
So yeah, he’s looking for “perceptive insights about struggling with obesity” in his literature. Not exactly what I’m looking for in my own literature about fat people, quite frankly. Some of the comments are noteworthy. Cynthia Hawkins says:
I can’t think of a work that might be about struggles with obesity … but even more interesting, I can’t think of a character who just happens to be overweight who isn’t also a baffoon, a source of comedy in some way, a sidekick, or a villain, etc.
James says:
It strikes me that ‘fat fiction’ would be quite a niche market with a limited appeal to people who haven’t struggled with weight. Our favourite characters tend to be ones we can relate to, or aspire to be like.
Really—if someone is fat, there’s no way we would ever “aspire to be like” them? Because any good qualities they may have are overshadowed by their fatness, I presume? Ridiculous.
And BuffPuff’s comment (worth reading the whole thing, but I can’t figure out how to link it; just scroll down) is just the bomb:
I would say that the reason there aren’t many books with fat protagonists in either literary or popular fiction is because we live in a highly fat phobic culture. If we didn’t, literary agents wouldn’t feel the need to pose questions about the commercial appeal of same to the readers of their blogs…
In all the books I’ve ever read featuring a fat protagonist, weight/self image has been an issue of some kind and self loathing writ large. Art, after all, imitates life and it’s near impossible, as a fat individual, to make one’s way in such an openly hostile environment and not have those issues come up. This is particularly true of women, who regularly bond over their perceived physical shortcomings, particularly when it comes to issues of food and weight and regardless of what size they are. Why do you think Bridget Jones’s Diary – a book about a neurotic, weight-fixated ninny, who isn’t actually fat – struck such a massive chord with the public?
This, however, is where art and life seem to part company. What there aren’t many of are novels in which a fat female protagonist is permitted to find love, happiness or success without losing weight by some means first, (broken heart leading to convenient loss of appetite/fortuitously timed sickness/Weight Watchers), or where they’re only permitted to find happiness with another fat person because, let’s face it, no one else would have them, (and, yes, this is sarcasm). I tend to avoid these like the plague. As a fat woman whose self-esteem improved in leaps and bounds the moment she decided to make peace with her body and quit the infernal diet-go-round for good, I have a major problem with that kind of tired, patronising pish. It’s not dissimilar to the state of gay fiction back in the pre-Stonewall dark ages – you could publish it, film it or put it on the stage … just as long as the characters you were portraying were shown to be wretched, embittered, lonely and seething with self-hatred, preferably enough to hang themselves in the final act.
That whole discussion weirdly made me think of Mike and Molly. Alan Sepinwall recently said that the show “is constantly at war over whether it wants to be laughing with or at its main characters. The ‘with’ parts I like, and Gardell and McCarthy are charming. The ‘at’ parts are nauseating.”
We want to see fat characters in TV and in books, and in film, but we don’t want them to be shown as objects of pity or (the dreaded Jemima J syndrome) people whose sad lives improve immeasurably once they are thin.
So, what are your favorite books with fat characters in them? And how do you want to see fat people portrayed in books?
Thanks to aych for the link!
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Art, Biggest Loser, Books, Fat Positive, Fatism, Mike & Molly, Oprah, TV
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I love the Heather Wells mysteries by Meg Cabot. Heather is also not actually fat, but her inner monologue and insecurities strike true, which is not the case for me with Bridget Jones.
I wonder what others here thought of Jennifer Weiner’s “Best Friends Forever”? I despised it with every fabric of my being, and from Weiner of all people! She was always one of my go-to authors for fat characters who weren’t miserable, depressed, emotional-eaters.
Not that there aren’t any of those types of people out there (I’ve been there myself, to be sure), but christ almighty that was a crappy book.
–Main fat character acheived “redemption” by getting thin via exercise and a pronounced eating disorder in which she used sleeping pills to sleep through her hunger
–Fat woman with a thin, pretty best friend who mooches off her left and right and treats her like shit, all of which the fat friend puts up with without complaint
–Fat woman as lonesome pariah
–Fat woman who went to the doctor thinking she had a tumor because she lost so much weight she felt her hip bones for the first time (are you KIDDING? I weigh 290 pounds and I can absolutely feel my hip bones).
It goes on and on. I was so disappointed I don’t even want to read her next book.
I’ve put down Weiner’s books before. I guess I appreciate she has fat protagonists, but there is a certain condescension to those protagonists. I’m a fat woman. but I don’t identify as a fat woman every second of every day…there are actually whole hours that go by in which I’m not thinking about being fat. I’m just, you know, being. Some of her characters’ internal monologues were just creepy. It seemed like she was trying too hard and the character’s voice didn’t ring true.
I liked “Good in Bed” until the ending, which I thought went off the rails in a weird way. Then I never picked up anything else of hers again.
Interesting that you should mention “Good in Bed,” as I’m currently listening to the audiobook (only halfway through, please don’t spoil me!) and so far I’m less than thrilled with the attitude of the main character. It’s bad enough that she’s pining so hard for a guy who is such a huge jerk, but to go so far as to sign up for a clinical trial for a new weight loss drug in order to get him back? Not impressed even a little bit.
I won’t spoil the end, but see it through to the end!
A couple of days ago in my Japanese class, we were being asked questions. We are learning the model of how to prevent sicknesses. My teacher asked me the question I was really hoping she wouldn’t “What do you do to keep from getting fat”. It was embarrassing, because I am fat (the biggest person in my class).
Sorry if this is off topic, I just wanted to tell someone.
The only example I can think of is the fact that Orson Scott Card incorporated his own weight struggles into the struggles of the father character in his book “The Lost Boys.” The point where the father is pondering his weight gain is not rife with self-loathing, it’s rather matter of fact. This isn’t a central theme of the story, it’s just a part of life, like it is for most people. It also doesn’t play a major part in the book. The book is rather autobiographical of Card’s own struggles of being misunderstood because he’s a Mormon, and also his feelings on having a child who was born with cerebral palsy. It’s a beautiful, heart-wrenching book and it’s also a shame that it’s the only book I can think of with a heavy protagonist where the thoughts on weight aren’t rife with self-loathing.
My favorites are the witches books from Terry Prachett’s Discworld series. Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Agnes Nitt are all fat female protagonists and unapologetic of that fact. In Agnes’ case, she was initially defined by her size, but in discovering her magic and her hidden talents pushed beyond that. She has an “inner thin girl” named Perdita who consists of all the aspects of her personality that she repressed in childhood because, being fat, she was told she couldn’t *also* be confident or snarky or rude, because then she’d be *wholly* unlikeable. Through the course of a few books, though, Agnes becomes more confident and self-assured and begins to integrate the “Perdita” aspects of herself back into the whole of who she is. And at no point is “losing weight” an option she considers exploring.
Hi, a Pratchett fan. I just want to say that while Nanny Ogg is undeniably, amazingly, awesomely fat and in charge of it, Granny Weatherwax is definitely thin.
Otherwise, this is a winner on Awesome at Every Size. Neither of these women have body issues because they’re too busy saving the world and dealing with other people’s issues like saving the world from vampires.
Agnes Nitt, the junior witch, can be kind of a letdown on the fat acceptance front.
I’m a little late to the discussion, but you’ve both missed giving Her Grace, Lady Sybil Deidre Olgivanna Ramkin Vimes some Pratchett character love. While the books do acknowledge that she was probably a little self-conscious about being, basically, built like a Wagnerian Valkyrie (or as her husband mentally puts it, “a big girl”) back when she was a young girl at an all-girls school, she’s a character that generally prods buttock and takes names nearly as often as her spouse. Her size is pretty much treated matter-of-factly as a rather small part of who she is. She just happens to be an aristocrat from a family that bred for healthy solidity and big bones. It’s heavily implied she’s got a pretty impressive bosom and that she’s quite tall. Her description leaves enough room for you to picture her as anything from Rubenesque to Julie T. Wallace to Dame Joan Sutherland.
She’s half of what I personally consider the best-written romantic couple in the books (they not only love one another, they seem to have a high level of respect for one another), she’s obviously intelligent, brave, a duchess, a diplomat, a fearsome negotiator and you simply don’t get more awesome than being a *hobbyist dragon breeder*. She gets romantically involved later in life than average, and it mostly seems it’s because she’s content to be happy by herself rather than settle for marrying someone from her own social class who just wants a share of her considerable fortune. She’s also the only person who seems to be able to get away with calling the city’s despotic tyrant by his first name to his face and might possibly be the only person in the city he finds formidable.
Pratchett acknowledges her size, but doesn’t really make a big deal out of it. When one character makes a crack about her weight to her husband, he doesn’t even bother responding.
I mean, Sybil is pretty much made out of win. She just happens to be made out of more win than other people.
Thanks for the shout-out, mo! That whole thread pissed me off soooo much.
Has anyone read the book “Happiness(tm)” by Will Ferguson?
The main character, Edwin, is in love with a fat woman who is portrayed as a beautiful and sexual being, as well as a clever, quick witted woman. The book itself is also wonderful.
May I recommend the Number 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith? Mma Ramotswe describes herself as “traditionally built” and is a confident, successful and happy woman.
Cosigned. If I remember, the main character is actively proud of being a fat woman. And the books are hilarous!
I listen to these on audiobook on my commute, and they’re fabulous. I just started “Tea Time for the Traditionally Built.” Love them.
Allen Zadoff’s *Food, Girls and Other Things I Can’t Have* is about a healthy fat character. It’s a YA novel. It’s an “accurate” novel, in that the fat character has struggles and worries some about his weight, but it’s not like Bridget Jones, and he doesn’t need to lose weight to get a girlfriend.
sherrilyn kenyon does a book in her darkhunter series where the heroine is a size 18 and gorgeous. it’s a romance, so don’t expect a lot if you do read it, but it’s nice to see a novel of this genre where the female lead is not tiny.
I recently came across this paragraph in “The Luckiest Girl” by Beverly Cleary, initially published in 1958, and I’ve been wanting to share it, so I’ll post it here since it’s sort of related.
Shelly turned and saw two boys. One was tall and heavy and one of the healthiest-looking boys Shelley had ever seen. He looked as if he ate steak three times a day. The other was the boy with the sunburned nose.
I’m not good at analysis, but I really find it interesting that “heavy,” “healthy,” and “steak” are equated. I think it shows a change in attitude from mid-20th century America to now.
Oh, and in children’s literature, I have conflicting feelings about James Marshall’s “Yummers” and “Yummers, too.” Eugene the turtle and (darn it, I can’t remember her name!) the pig are good friends, and the pig likes to eat.
In the first book she tries to lose weight, so she goes for a walk, but get hungry, so eats sandwiches, then walks more, eats more, etc. Eugene appears to be neutral about it all. In the second book, the pig can’t control her eating, to the point that when she’s minding Eugene’s popsicle stand, she eats all his product, so she has to get another job, but she sabotages herself. Uncle Fatty the Pig makes an appearance, too. But then the pig-heroine stops a pair of wedding cake-thieves by falling on them, and she’s praised. But she takes her reward in eclairs, not money to pay off the debts she owes. The pictures are cute, but the stories leave me feeling ambivalent. I don’t think I’ll plan to read either book to my children (should I have any offspring).
The Pratchett books were the only ones I could come up with too (although I did think “Good in Bed” did the fat protagonist thing fairly well, and Jennifer Weiner has spoken out frequently and positively and feminist-ly about being an overweight woman herself).
I just picked up a random book at the library called “Prospect Park West” by Amy Sohn and was greeted by these two gems in the first 14 pages:
“Some of the mothers who complained about being chased were fat or unkempt, and Rebecca would listen to their laments, in shock that men would find them desirable.”
and
“Karen was 32 but looked several years older due to the 20 pounds she had not been able to shed post-partum.”
Neither of these statements were being used intentionally to demonstrate that the characters were shallow assholes, as far as I can tell.
Hey, Amy Sohn, guess what: Some men (and women) find fat women attractive! And fat doesn’t mean old… and old doesn’t mean unattractive either! Guess what else: I’m putting your book down now.
Heh. I remember reading that fatties tend to look young for their ages, since having a little fullness to the face can stave of wrinkles…
I enjoy “Bet Me” by Jennifer Crusie for the fact that the main heroine “wasn’t a size 8 at birth” and it is only an issue for her mother and loser ex-boyfriend (oh, how I relate :) ), not her romantic interest or her true friends. I guess it is more accurate to say that the heroine learns to accept herself since she does begin the book by disliking her weight. It’s a romantic comedy (if that can be considered a literary genre), so probably not everyone’s cup of tea, but I enjoy the humor and the fact that by the end of the book Crusie’s heroine is bold and fantastic.
Tamora Pierce’s Circle of Magic Cycle centers around four children with magical characters. One of them, a girl named Tris, is described explicitly as “fat.” While she is presented as physically unfit (for example, unable to run a substantial distance), she is still a powerful sorceress, and a very sympathetic character.
I came across this bibliography today. Granted, the page title is “A Weight Loss Bookshelf,” but there are a number of titles that appear to be fat-friendly. YMMV. http://www.silkentent.com/Trees/?page_id=93
I love Kerry Greenwood’s Corinna Chapman books. Corinna is a fat baker who solves crimes and is happy, clever, and kind. She also has frequent sex with her hot boyfriend, which is nice for her. The whole series is excellent fun.
I loved reading about Siobhan, a supporting character in the book Ralph’s Party by Lisa Jewell. There is a scene halfway through the book where she suspects that her handsome, layabout boyfriend is cheating on her (or just pulling away) and she sits naked on the edge of her tub, pulling at her belly fat and crying about her body. It was exactly how I felt about myself at that time.
*Spoiler* Her character goes on to love the way she looks and believing in herself and finds love with someone who is cute and not a cheater or loser. All without losing a pound. I remember being almost disapointed that she didn’t have some miracle weight loss (since that’s what I was praying for) but I came to realize that it was my very first glimpse at fat acceptance.
Now I am that girl who never lost a pound (in fact I’ve gained a few) and am working on loving myself. I found wonderful love with the most amazing man in the world. I never thought that Chic Lit would be such good therapy.
I can’t think of a lot. There’s Peter S. Beagle’s The Folk of the Air, with Sia, who is an unashamedly fat old woman who is also the most powerful character in the book. And I rather like Mary Gentle’s Casaubon character (of Rats & Gargoyles, The Architecture of Desire, and Left to His Own Devices). He’s a larger than life fat slob, but he is brilliant, and the lover and true love of (thin, dangerous, much-desired) Valentine or White Crow. And I remember liking Andrew Fox’s Fat White Vampire Blues and the sequel, which were light and pretty funny.
Other than that, I’ve mostly been seriously disappointed with books having fat protagonists.
Check out Janey Milstead’s website (just type in the name & you’ll get to it) for some original fat-friendly fiction.
For those of you who remember, Janey was ed. in chief at BBW Magazine for a LONG time & has been writing & editing for mags of all kinds since the ’60s. The woman is an absolute expert on any and all things Beatles, and a long-time creator of fat-friendly stuff, so check it out for yourselves & see what you think.
I like “The Curse of the Holy Pail” which is part of the Odelia Grey mystery series by Sue Ann Jaffarian. Odelia is an intelligent, strong, beautiful plus-sized character and the book was a fun read.
Check her out at:
http://www.sueannjaffarian.com/
There is the saying….
Have you ever been fat unhappy only to become thin and then realize that you were thin unhappy too?
I wish more people would realize that yes, I’m fat, but that doesn’t mean my life is a big steaming pile of dog crap. Guess what, you can be thin an unhappy too.
These books and tv shows that display overweight women and their entire goal in life is to be become thin – because THEN their life will be PERFECT – really, really make my blood boil!!!
I love to read book – but I got sick of “chick lit” real fast. It wasn’t even “fat chick lit” – the plots of girl is alone, girl finds guy she can’t have, girl spends entire book trying to win over guy and girl and guy ride off into the sunset book were making me sick to my stomach!!
Then, the ones that had overweight leads – well, naturally they had to lose the weight before they could get the man. Making losing weight and man hunting the top priorities in these women’s lives sounds so cliche and YUCK!
I don’t know if I’m being a snob but I think there is SO much more out there….in books and even in the shows I watch on TV!!
I love to read about imperfect characters.
And, I loved Bridget Jones Diary…I didn’t have a problem with her thinking she was fat because I came to realize that I have thin friends that have just as much of an obsession about their weight as me. I also know a few thin friends that really feel they are fat – and I don’t get offended by that.
I can totally understand that feeling!
So, for me Bridget Jones was imperfect in so many ways than her weight and that made her interesting. I also like that the beef cake she thought she wanted wasn’t the guy she ended up with….but I’m rambling….lol.
Love this site!
So glad I found you!!
OMG, @erin, I absolutely despise Bridget Jones as a character! I like Helen Fielding’s writing and found parts of the book extremely funny but I spent the entire duration of the book wanting to brain Bridget with her own bathroom scales.
To me there’s nothing remotely appealing about an obviously average-sized woman fretting her bowels to fiddle strings over the delusion she looks like me. (Hello? Free insult with every diary entry!) Since society as a whole is completely mired in mass neurosis about weight, food and fat, that makes her profoundly uninteresting in my view. Bonding over mutual self-loathing is pretty much the norm among women of every size so, as a narrative device, Bridget’s constant self-denigration is actually rather lazy.
I liked “The Fat White Vampire Blues” by Andrew Fox. The protagonist is a fat vampire, and the book is a bit of a sendup of vampires in general.
There is also some wonderful online fiction, like the ongoing Wonder City Stories, http://wonder-city.dreamwidth.org. There are superheroes of every type, including The Fat Lady who is one of the more powerful supes.
Thanks for the shoutout to Wonder City Stories, MollyMurr! Coincidentally, I posted the Fat Lady’s origin tale last week. :)
I have two characters that I absolutely love.
“Tattersail” from Steven Erickson’s Malazan fantasy series. SE has this habit of not fully describing characters’ appearances, because the character her/himself is more important than their physical attributes. Tattersail is described as being fat, but she’s also described as being one of the most powerful mages in the world. When men are attracted to her, they don’t question why, they aren’t disgusted with themselves, they aren’t fetishizing her – they just think she’s hot. It’s awesome.
The second character is Diana from my #1 favorite YA fiction book, Definitely Not Sexy. Diana is a “chubby” girl with very fat parents (one of my favorite scenes is when, at dinner, she says her mom “said ‘have some more!’ more than once, and I did, more than once”). Diana, the main character, is super smart and has been grouped with the other smart kids in her high school on an accelerated study track. She classifies all the kids in her school on their level of “sexiness” – the popular kids are all Sexys, and she considers herself “Definitely Not Sexy” – but NOT because she is fat, but because she is SMART. 20+ years later, I still love this book.
I’m bookmarking this comment thread to be able to come back to and pick books from :)
I just finished “Night Swimming” byRobin Schwarz. It is the typical “fat woman loses weight then gets happy” type of novel. It seemed to have such a good plot idea initially.
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I actually think of Jemima J as a positive character. Yes, she goes through drastic weight loss but she isn’t ultimately happy because of it. I see it as a “be careful what you wish for…” Once she has all these things that she thinks will make her life perfect – surprise! – she finds that they don’t help. She has to like herself and find herself worthy first. In the end is she the same size she was at the beginning? No, but she’s also not the Barbie perfect thin girl she thought she wanted to be. She learns to relax, love and accept her body for what it is. If we’re talking sizes, I envision her size journey from a 20+ down to a 6 and ending around a 12/14.
I am all for women taking pride in their curves and promoting body image as more than just a single digit dress size. However, after reading this blog and the post discussions I ask this question: Is incorporating “fat” women as the protagonist figures within general media (literature included) down-playing the “obesity crisis” within America and transforming the social norm into that of being “fat?” If we concentrate on making the acceptable body image that of a bigger more curvy woman then is this saying that it is okay for everyone to aspire to be this way? Will America become similar to WALL-E in future generations? I am not saying that these questions are true or valid, I am simply giving a different perspective to the inclusion of bigger women within media.
I like Rex Stout’s “Nero Wolfe” mysteries. You can’t really identify with Wolfe (a fat man) since his inner life is veiled from the reader but I love the way he refuses to suffer from the myriad little inconveniences of life. He says “I will not leave my house for business purposes” and he doesn’t. He says “I treasure the time I spend in my greenhouse with my orchids. Never interrupt me between 11am and 1 pm” and he succeeds in making time slot untouchable. He says, “I love food so I will eat excellent meals every day. Never interrupt me during meals since I must use all my concentration to properly savor it.”
Wolfe is an exaggerated collection of quirks, so he is not realistic, but he does make a person contemplate how much of her life she has let slip away in little drips here and there because the petty little demands of life will do that to you if you don’t explicitly take a stand against them.
A minor character in Robert Asprin’s fantasy series MythAdventures is a very fat woman named–I think– Masha. I first read MythAdventures in the form of Phil Foglio’s absolutely incredible comic book adaptation; Masha may seem different to people who have only ref the novels.
So I guess Masha is a joke character– look, a very fat woman wearing a bikini and makeup, how hilarious– but she is amazing. From the moment she first strides onto the comic book page– her hugeness, the many curvy rolls of flesh gloriously free (since the skimpy bikini does not cover much), the piles of flashy junk jewely draped everywhere– she radiates exuberance. Confidence. Happiness. She is larger than life.
She is smart, too. She intelligently and decisively handles problems.
So I like her not as a realistic character but as a fantasy fat character. That is a fantasy of mine. When I am low I think I am a pathetic fat slob who radiates repulsive ugliness and fat. When I am up I might think of myself as less fat, but that’s a dreary conforming sort of up. More usually, when I am up I think of myself as being powerful. My personality expands, it fills and overflows the body. I am an ogress who sweeps little people away or crushes them beneath my huge feet.
That is not to say that thin people can’t be powerful. I mean no offense to them.
Matt Stewart here – I wrote the original piece – and I’ve really enjoyed this conversation. Exactly the kind of discussion we should be having more often – it’s kind of astounding that we don’t.
I also like Jemima J (by Jane Green) both as a character and a book.
I also loved The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler when it came out (it’s still my go-to feel better about myself book, even if it is YA Fiction). The main character, Virginia, is constantly being harped on by her parents, classmates and siblings for being “too fat” as someone who is told by her mother and grandmother on a regular basis that “if i just lost 20 pounds I might have a chance at looking slightly pretty” I did and still do – relate to her on so many levels. When i first read the book at age 16, I felt as though the author had gotten in my head and walked around.
I am loving this blog!
One person I didn’t see mentioned was Jennifer Lancaster. She is an excellent writer, snarky and hilarious! She has her difficult times with her weight, but she’s honest about it. She was thin in her younger years because of a mother who was obsessed with weight. She has her wonderful husband that is a huge part of her books as well and he is adorable! EVERYONE should read her books!!