Voices
“I don’t know why I’m not
thinner than I am. I don’t really
drink soda; I don’t have a sweet
tooth, and we eat healthfully at
home. We’re all weird for broccoli and pureed-vegetable soup,
which we almost always have a
big pot of in the fridge — it’s so
good!” — Fox News
“I just don’t lose weight easily.” — People.com
“Sometimes I wish I were
just magically a size 6 and I
never had to give it a single
thought.”— Us Magazine
Because Melissa McCarthy actually is a fat woman, she isn’t
allowed to make brash statements
about body acceptance. She has
to apologize for her body. Every
single one of those quotes might as
well have just said, “Sorry I’m fat
and you have to look at me, everyone.” But it’s all she’s allowed to
say, in the confines of our culture.
If Melissa McCarthy had said,
“If anybody even tries to whisper the word ‘diet,’ I’m like, ‘You
can go f- yourself,” the response
will most assuredly not be, “How
brave! How strong! What a good
role model!” The response will be,
“What a bad example, encouraging people to be unhealthy! We
have an obesity epidemic! Open
JENNY
TROUT
HUFFINGTON
01.19.14
your eyes, fat is not healthy, sexy,
or acceptable! How very dare she!”
Even the mild statements she
has made about being comfortable with herself and her body are
greeted with backlash from armchair internet physicians bleating
about health and lifestyle choices.
Imagine if Melissa McCarthy
had made so many public com-
When Jennifer
Lawrence says it’s ‘dumb’
to go hungry to make other
people happy, she’s saying
it with the carefree attitude
of a woman who probably
will never have to make
that choice to conform.”
ments about food and McDonald’s.
It wouldn’t be cute or funny, it
would be schtick. Look at the fat
woman, being human and hungry
for something bad for her! How
grotesquely humorous it is when
fat people eat! When Jennifer Lawrence makes these comments, it’s
acceptable, because her body is
still pleasing to our cultural expectation of voluptuous, slim-waisted,
long-necked female beauty.