As I mentioned on the Facebook page, it looks like Ashley Fink’s character, Lauren Zizes –the Token Fatty on Glee– has been written off into the sunset.
I stopped watching Glee a few episodes into the second season when I can only assume they fired all their talented writers and replaced them with escaped lab animals so they could better afford an extra six thousand hours of Autotuning per episode, but I remember bristling when Fink’s character would only be bought off by candy and then applauded a few episodes later when Puck, the resident Hot Guy and eventual boyfriend told her “I’m sure you’ve been treated badly by guys before” and she snapped back, asking him why he assumed that.
I cringed when Puck thought serenading Lauren with Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls” was even close to a good idea, and cheered when she said “That was the first time anyone ever sang me a love song. And it made me feel like crap.”
She didn’t need, nor did she especially appreciate, people telling her it’s okay for her to be fat. She knew it was okay to be fat. She liked who she was: Fatness included.
No more of that.
It’s just further proof of my theory that the Media treats capital F Fat Women in the entertainment industry like The Highlander: There can be only one. Right now it’s Melissa McCarthy who dethroned Gabourey Sidibe who dethroned Beth Ditto who dethroned Crystal Renn back when people thought she was plus size…it just goes on.
Sure they’ll let a few inbetweenies float around and put them, usually naked (I swear I’ve seen Ms Renn’s ladynook more than I’ve seen my own, and I own several full-length mirrors) in their annual “shape” or “self-acceptance” or “hate your body a little less but really don’t because we still need you to buy this stuff from our advertisers” issue. But as for media face-time for real fatties?
You better get your sword and kilt back from the cleaners with a quickness.
*sigh*
Oh well. I’ll always have that clip of Lauren Zises literally wiping the floor of the school hallway with Cheerleader Santana…..
Comment by perletwo — April 24, 2012 @ 5:21 pm
Great post. Makes me wish I actually watched Glee so I could have seen those episodes.
Comment by BrooklynShoeBabe — April 24, 2012 @ 5:25 pm
isn’t amber reilley still on there? i don’t watch, but i thought she was still there too
Comment by Socialite Dreams — April 24, 2012 @ 7:55 pm
@Socialite Dreams: Yes, as far as I know, but she’s an inbetweenie. There’s something interesting to be said by someone much smarter than I about how the apparent willingness in African-American culture to embrace beauty at every size (at least much more than popular white culture) translates on screen to more body diversity among women of color.
Comment by Miss Plumcake — April 24, 2012 @ 8:21 pm
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…you’re only allowed to be Fat-with-a-capital-F in the (Western) media if you are
a)gay
b) non-caucasian or
c) a chef.
This only counts for women, of course.
Anyone care to prove me wrong?
Comment by Madame Suggia — April 25, 2012 @ 7:59 am
did they even give the character the courtesy of being written off, or was she just disappeared?
It’s annoying because they were playing out a couple of great themes
1. Not every fat girl has ‘issues’ except for those inflicted on them
2. Honest to Godess, some perfectly normal hot guys adore curves
Apparently those ideas are too revolutionary/perverse for the Glee writers to wrap their little minds around.
Comment by Thea — April 25, 2012 @ 11:37 am
@miss plumcake there may be more bigger black women on tv, but they just get marginalized too as sassy sidekick, sage shoulder to whine on, or asexual so it’s not really a win there either. we all lose to a media that pretty much only laudes one very specific look and typecasts/stereotypes everything else. notice amber barely has a storyline half of the time, at least that’s what my gleek bff talks about or they only threw her a hot boyfriend when he was about to leave the show but decided to come back.
Comment by Socialite Dreams — April 25, 2012 @ 3:23 pm
Miss Plumcake
“…the apparent willingness in African-American culture to embrace beauty at every size…”
There’s a very good post at Shapely Prose, which I’m trying to find, which explains, v-e-r-y slowly, that black culture isn’t more accepting of fat. It’s that its standards incline more towards “thick” than “thin”. “Thick” is a pretty narrow definition; it’s not more accepting of, say, big ankles or flabby tummies than “thin” is.
Yes, there are lots of black people who push the boundaries or who have different standards, but the same is true for every group.
Comment by Liz — April 27, 2012 @ 11:29 am