That time is upon us: Our favorite television shows are coming back, and so are this year's hottest TV stars. From Riverdale's Camilla Mendes and Lili Reinhart to the late Vampire Diaries' Nina Dobrev and to the Game of Thrones' Emilia Clarke, there are beautiful, talented women constantly plastered across our television screens.
They are sexy, they are powerful, they are feisty: and they are, in all respects, thin. They are curvy in all the right places, the ideal picture of health - or at least, the ideal picture of health that has been hammered into our perception of leading ladies.
The Walking Dead star Alanna Masterson is no stranger to this harmful expectation of female tv stars. Just last year, she was forced to shut down her Instagram page after being bombarded by body shamers online. They critiqued her body in an episode of the popular show, which showcased her character's return to the main screen after a time spent out of the spotlight - she had just had a baby the previous year.
Tara, Masterson's character, returned in a badass female centric episode, promoting female empowerment in the heavy male dominated, apocalyptic tv show. Many people commented on Masterson's weight change, noting that her chest had gotten "too large" and she had gotten "fat" in her time spent off the main screen.
Despite a rebuke posted by the star on Instagram explaining that her body gave her little girl the best start to life (she detailed that, in between shooting takes in the Georgia summer heat, she had been pumping breast milk in a van) the comments kept coming, forcing the star to leave social media.
This isn't the first time a female star turned to leave their social media platforms due to bullying. Comedian and actress Leslie Jones was repeatedly attacked online in the Summer of 2016, forcing her, too, to suspend her Twitter account.
There is nothing wrong with any of the ladies mentioned above: they are all beautiful in their body diversity, and all women can be powerful and strong, whether they are thin, curvaceous, plus sized, or otherwise. But the pop culture ideas that have developed in today's media condemns any body type that isn't perfectly thin, as seen in the latter two actresses and their experiences.
We rarely see plus sized stars in leading roles, and they are often reduced to being "the funny fat girl;" while their weight may not condemn them, it doesn't make them strong either. They are comedic relief, and they seem to have to prove their worth, in sexual situations and otherwise, because of their weight.
Weight is not a detriment, and it does not define a person's value. But we continue to see tv shows that put average to plus sized women in roles that make them have to answer for their bodies or make them have to prove themselves worthy because of their bodies.
There is a harmful stigma surrounding women, and even men, about weight: thinness equates beauty and perfection, and anything otherwise equates a sense of unhealthiness, a sense of rebellion or lack of feminity or masculinity. For men, they are undesirable, even grotesque, and movies or shows often follow the pattern of the fat guy "changing" into the ideal muscular man, the gym rat to prove his self-worth.
He is happier because he is desirable, he is sexy, he is no longer a "slob." Why can't a larger man still be seen as a strong individual? What has been hammered into our definition of health that decides that all people above 200 pounds are a sickness, something that needs to be changed to fulfill a happy storyline? Why is character development defined as a drastic change in bodies, and why is there so much stock on weight determining a character's strength?
We do have characters that have broken the mold and brought more body positivity to the mix: Melissa Mcarthy, Danielle Brooks, Gabourey Sidibe, Rebel Wilson, Sharon Rooney, and Sarah Ramirez have all played characters that are, according to their own real body types, plus sized. Ramirez plays the sexy, strong willed, intelligent Calliope Torres in Grey's Anatomy and Mcarthy is a successful comedic actress who has spoken on her weight more than once.
These women are powerful, and they pave the way for future, hopeful body positivity and inclusivity. But we need to continue their work to hope for any real change; when you google "plus size actresses" there are simply not enough. That desperately needs to change.
Women's bodies are constantly critiqued everywhere we look. The lack of inclusivity of strong female roles for larger, or even average sized, women only feeds into the dangerous cycle of a growing lack of body positivity amongst teens and women. This idea of "health" and determining whether someone is healthy or not based on their weight is more harmful than helpful - and when we see it brought to the big screen, it can have disastrous consequences for those searching for approval and acceptance by turning to their favorite shows and movies.
An inaccurate lack of diversity in Hollywood only invokes harmful ideals of perfection and beauty and shows us how to treat the bodies that don't fit the thin mold around us: as unhealthy, pitiful, and necessary of change.
Characters don't need to be defined by their weight, and their beauty, their appeal, their attraction doesn't need to be centered around proving themselves otherwise. We don't need any more "I may be fat, but" storylines.
Everyone has a different body, and everyone has different experiences. We need to stop making these experiences about proving ourselves happy even though we are not thin, and instead, focus on the experiences we have just because we are who we are - not because of our weight.
As a plus sized woman, I have grown up in an era that saw the change from a complete lack of inclusivity and acceptance to a growing market that includes, and embraces, varying frames. When we say "plus sized" we don't just mean those that carry extra weight. We mean those with an apple shape, a pear shape, a stocky shape, those that have a stomach, those that have wider hips and thicker thighs, those with a larger chest or a rounder face.
Plus sized, heavy set and fat have all become words that are meant to offend and isolate. Therefore, we still have plenty of work to do. That work begins by accepting those around us and encouraging a culture that sees beauty as not a number on a scale, but as the definition of someone's character.
The best way to spread this acceptance is through media, through the tv shows and movies we feed to mass audiences. By creating a fictional world of body positivity, we can, at least, hope for a real one too.
"Fat Girl Narratives" will be a recurring series in my writing, and I will be addressing a range of topics that plus size people face daily that are often overlooked. If you have any comments or would like to see a topic discussed in Narratives, drop a comment and let me know.
