The Relentless Fatphobia of Children's TV

Bluey, Wall-e, Harry Potter, every Disney Channels show... let's talk fat characters/fatphobia in kid's media! Get 30 days of full access for free when you go to: dipseastories.com/ROWANELLIS
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[@Rupert3434]

I would also like to shout out to Willow from The Owl House, whose design never becomes less curvy but who also gets more confident and even athletic as she opens up more without anyone addressing her weight.

[@SharonStoppable]

And! She ends up with the fan favorite character Hunter in the end :)

[@azure-mist]

This is true, but (in my PERSONAL opinion, as a fat fan of the show) she’s also only really “plus sized” when compared to the cartoonishly stick-thin proportions of the other protagonists. Her proportions aren’t that of a fat girl, it’s that of a normal girl. Plus, post-timeskip in the finale, she is slimmed down. As a fat person, she’s not my *favorite* example of fat representation because of this.

[@beesnquackers]

Literally!! A less significant example is Amity inheriting her mum’s weight in the last episode

[@bosstowndynamics5488]

​@@azure-mist Willow isn't slim post time skip, to me she seemed more bulked up, which is nice to see depicted in cartoons. Having said that, I do agree that there's pretty much no depictions of fat people in any light in The Owl House.

[@hyalophora]

​@@bosstowndynamics5488 Yeah - only in one scene post-time skip did she look slimmer to me. Outside those few frames, I'm pretty sure she stayed the same

[@laurenthomas7074]

'Ths joke being that characters like Grenda are expressing romantic desire despite being undesirable to everyone around them' That's just summed up my biggest childhood fear, I've always kept my crush secret even from my friends because I'm terrified they will see me as the pathetic fat girl pining after someone who could never like her back, and media is where I learned that fat girls expressing romantic desires is pathetic and delusional

[@Apes_are_monkeys]

I'm right there with you. Though I gained most of my weight in middle school, all throughout high school I felt this way about romance, that I would be pathetic if I actually thought I could have a partner. When I was young I was also the kid who boys asked out on a dare so I felt really unattractive already. It placed so much of my self worth on what I looked like, and made me feel that no matter how good my personality was that no one could like me if I didn't fit into the average skinny girl archetype. I hadn't realized how much this narrative around fatness and desirability influenced me

[@choux8372]

Same here, even saying I thought someone was cute felt like a taboo. And it's sad because looking back, I'm sure there were people who were interested in me, but my mind was so clouded by all the stereotypes on TV of fat girls appearing delusional for expressing attraction to someone.

[@Karin-fj3eu]

Oh this is very relatable, it took until I was 17 and a very conventionally attractive guy liked me back for that fear of wanting people "out of my league" appearance wise to go away... I'm not really fat tho, and back then I was even less so or smaller clothing size and whatnot but I've always been overweight.

[@xRaiofSunshine]

Same hat same hat 🎩 😭 🤝

[@leela8641]

Reminds me of Kim from Moesha

[@von186]

something i really liked about bojack horseman was when diane was nervous about going onto antidepressants because she might gain weight. and then she went on them. and she gained weight. and no one treated her like crap for it, and even at teh end of the series, she's still fat. and its okay.

[@zellapalmer9581]

agreed!! that storyline was so positive and uplifting, because she realized that her mental health was more important than her weight, which wasn’t the same as her physical health.

[@jombieslayer918]

antidepressants dont contain massive amounts of calories. she just ate more than she needs to thats why she got fatter

[@von186]

@@jombieslayer918 antidepressants effect your brain chemistry and can cause you to gain weight even if you don't change your eating habits. it has nothing to do with calories. further, there are plenty of examples of people who are fat who starve themselves or barely eat and don't lose weight. i get that most ppl have been taught that your weight is completely dependent upon how many calories you consume, but that's not really backed by data.

[@jfs983]

lol no, you are so wrong. a lot of psych meds literally have 'weight gain' listed as side effects.@@jombieslayer918

[@KirstyBaba]

@@jombieslayer918people really do just go on the internet and start spouting off about things they literally don't understand huh

[@PastelOddity]

When I was 14, my hand swelled to double its size in orchestra class. My mom picked me up and took me to the doctor the same day. Without any blood tests, any scans, any tests of any kind, the doctor looked me over and diagnosed me with diabetic cellulitis. He gave my mom a packet on amputation information and told her to call tomorrow to schedule the surgery. I was a chubby kid. I don’t have-nor have I ever had-diabetes. Of course we didn’t fucking amputate my writing hand on a hunch and went to get tests. Turns out I was born with Ankylosing Spondylitis, and this was my first flare. That was the day I stopped trusting doctors like I did.

[@skunkywild2116]

Medical fatphobia is honestly some of the worst kind. People die from things like cancer because the diagnosis for fat people is always something like "you are ob*se, you need to lose weight." (Also, this is really off-topic, but your profile picture is gorgeous =)

[@thema1998]

​@@skunkywild2116 Why did you censor "obese"? That's literally a medical term.

[@Qwerty-lq2op]

⁠​⁠@@thema1998t’s also have been used as a degrading term for a lot of people and as a result it feels like a slur for them, still reasonable to censored the word

[@oldstump1628]

@@skunkywild2116 😂🐷😂

[@oldstump1628]

@@Qwerty-lq2op in what way is reasonable to censor the word that objectively describes them?

[@kckniazeva5484]

god existing as a fat kid is literally so traumatizing

[@emmakane6848]

Especially when older people feel entitled to comment on your weight.

[@DrSleazoid]

Blame your parents who made you fat in the first place.

[@thelittleprince7072]

@@emmakane6848 and being constantly mocked by the opposite gender

[@prageruwu69]

ikr oh my god. it was horrible.

[@cjboyo]

I wasn’t even fat, but I’m broad shouldered and have always carried weight in my stomach rather than the “desirable” places for afab people. I was called fat constantly and it literally convinced me I was massive when I was perfectly average

[@miticaBEP07]

The only time I can think of that a skinny character was portrayed as evil and a fat character as good is the Emperor’s New Groove.

[@Peregrina]

Samwise Gamgi vs Gollum :3 Sam is an awesome hero who is brave, kind and loyal Though Gollum/Smeagol calls him stupid and fat :/

[@maryeckel9682]

@@Peregrina of course, he's not fat; he's just not Hollywood skinny.

[@Author.Noelle.Alexandria]

Pacha isn’t fat. He’s muscular and solid.

[@catherinefrenchhorn]

Hunchback of notre dame? Quasimodo vs. Frollo

[@miriamrobarts]

I remember a sitcom called 'Less than Perfect' where the friend group of the main character, Claude, & her two friends consists of two chubbier women and a skinny guy, while the two mean coworkers are a man and woman who are both thin & fit. But yeah, you really have to think to come up with just a couple examples.

[@gabrielbruce1977]

Medical fatphobia is So Very Bad. My previous family doctor was convinced I was too fat for my age bracket (14-18) and kept pushing me to lose weight- so much so I skipped meals and did even more workouts outside of the advanced martial arts I was already doing. It stunted my growth permanently and gave me a muscle tissue disorder I'll need surgeries to fix on a regular basis for the rest of my life. The kicker is, I was actually perfectly healthy and the "fat" he had me losing was the same muscle I was trying to build up with all that working out. I shouldn't have been competing with my mother to see who could shed weight the quickest while I was still growing like that.

[@ImaginaryAlchemist]

I grew up fat. It was a miserable existence, one where my peers took every chance to remind me that they saw as me as lesser. My parents did a god awful job of encouraging healthy eating habits, and my severe childhood asthma and allergies made me prefer more indoorsy activities. I've been shamed by peers and teachers alike, and have gotten blatant dismissal from so-called medical professionals. My attempts to lose weight are mostly unsuccessful because they often come from a place of self-loathing and disgust. It's honestly just not okay. We all deserve to feel like we can just *exist* without someone taking personal offense to our mere presence.

[@jboydayz]

loose wieght

[@I_hate_mortals]

Man the only readon why im clicking on this comment is because there was some kinda gravitational force sucking my cursor in.

[@SimperingSimpleton_]

I lost 6 stone in 7 months due to a sudden loss of eating (I was terrified of being sick and didn’t want to eat AT ALL) and during that time I was told constantly; “Oh wow you look great!” And “you are so thin now you look healthier” which wtf?? I’ve never cared much about my body looks but losing all that weight and then being told how ‘good’ I look is incredibly messed up- even after telling others how I was afraid of eating they would just joke around saying how they wish they could do that too?! Fatphobic mentalities are awful

[@sarahmaurinebenson2081]

I feel this so much: I was always bigger my whole life, and then suddenly starting loosing an inch or more off my waist over night. Doctors, family, friends all congratulated on my weight loss. Asked me my "secret" No one took it seriously. I had an untreated autoimmune disease. I felt like I was dying. No one would believe me when I said I didn't want to loose weight, I wanted to be healthy. It fucks you up a little bit when the whole world, doctors included, would rather see you thin than keep you from dying.

[@literaterose6731]

This is so familiar! Decades ago, when I was years into undiagnosed ME/fibromyalgia, I became so ill, bedridden and in excruciating pain, that it became almost impossible to eat much of the time. I dropped a huge amount of weight, ending up in the low 90s pounds and looked like a famine victim. People constantly pulled the “I wish I had your problem!” or “I’ll trade places with you!” crap, and it made me so angry. Really? You want to be malnourished, unable to walk across a room, in pain so severe you secretly consider [unaliving] yourself on a regular basis just for the possibility of relief? I did not look healthy and I’m lucky it didn’t kill me. Ugh. A few years later my youngest kid developed anorexia in her mid teens and it was so scary. (She’s in her mid 30s now, doing well.) I’m still significantly disabled with a number of chronic conditions, but I did regain weight (took me years of effort) and love my heftier body-I feel so much safer! As someone who is also queer and trans, I’m so utterly exhausted by all the hatred of bodies that are anything other than idealized white cis straight, but here in my 60s I doubt I’ll ever have the pleasure of living in a society free of that. So, fwiw: all you folks with all your bodies in all their remarkable variety, you’re fabulous! 🫶🏽

[@nomisunrider6472]

Same here, lost weight due to a medical condition and so many people in my life were like “wow that’s so great! You look so good!” while I was feeling terrible and struggling to eat enough. I can only imagine how toxic that would be to anyone with an actual eating disorder, constantly being praised for harming their bodies. We really need to get past the idea that things like eating healthy or exercising are punishments for being too fat and not something neutral like simple body maintenance or even joyful like having fun and eating good food.

[@FrozEnbyWolf150]

It also gets to the point where the dieting industry tries to sell people on rapid weight loss, as if that's some kind of ideal. It's actually very unhealthy to lose too much weight too fast. Not only can you end up with conditions like ketoacidosis, you can also throw your body into shock where it thinks you're starving to death, and so it compensates by going into survival mode and storing up more fat. A lot of deprivation diets do this, which is why people who go on them will often gain back all the weight and then some. Whenever I hear someone has undergone rapid weight loss, my first thought is, I hope this was not due to illness or some fad diet.

[@sadwasdead5065]

holy shit that was not okay. it's never okay to comment on someone's weight loss unless they've made it clear that weight loss is their goal

[@EnbyNomad]

I was a chubby kid growing up. I tried to own it, I tried to joke about it, but the cruelty never stopped. It drove me to a very unhealthy eating disorder where I was wasting away. The media I consumed growing up ABSOLUTELY influenced that. Even the dreaded Harry Potter made me feel like a monster for being chubby.

[@sabretoo]

It's so unfair. And yeah, HP was super offensive even back then. I'm sorry the fatphobic culture was so cruel to you and remains so cruel to kids today.

[@flightless4915]

You do know that it’s not that simple, right? There are a number of different factors that can contribute to a person’s size, and doesn’t always have to do with what is eaten and the amount of exercise done. Also, that type if behavior can lead to an unhealthy relationship with food/exercise. Also, someone’s weight should never be a reason to harm someone else. Representation in media isn’t to advocate for people to be fat, but to tell people there’s no shame in their weight. Without proper representation, it actively harms marginalized groups and tells them they aren’t valid, which they very much are.

[@1kaz1]

​@@Caleb-rp6ww they said in the very comment you're replying to that they ended up having an eating disorder

[@ishitaswaroop8779]

:( ❤

[@unpersonmars2350]

​@@Caleb-rp6ww Being fat tends to be up to genetics (and there are conditions like lipodema that are not anybody's fault). What you're saying here, although I think you're well intentioned, comes off as bullying. I know many people who exercise regularly and are still chubby or fat. Likewise, I know many skinny people who don't exercise and have terrible diets. Going on a starvation diet will not make you skinny, but it can make your teeth fall out, and even lead to organ failure. I hope in the future you will learn to be kinder with your words.

[@waverlyaltis7171]

The Augustus Gloop song always pissed me off. Like, you’re going to work in a CANDY factory and insult a kid for being fat??? There really was a message similar to Ratatouille: you can be obsessed with candy and eating tasty food, but only if you remain skinny while doing it.

[@renatoramos8834]

Cry harder.

[@Susman69.]

Womp womp

[@beck9890]

growing up with skinnier friends than you also was just so isolating because anytime you talked about your insecurities or how you wish there were fat characters they just don’t understand why its so important. seeing animated characters having a larger bodytype for the first time as a kid was one of the first times i didnt wanna change my body. i was surrounded by fatphobia in my family so seeing fat characters just exist as likeable people was something that made me feel understood and valued even as a child.

[@katarinachiogna-solovey3560]

Or even going shopping with them....they got to buy new outfits, while you bought maybe a necklace

[@twoczents]

I know that he's technically fit for what species he is, but Po from the Kung Fu Panda series is someone I always think of for positive fat representation. Him using his weight to his advantage not only reflects and mirrors real East Asian martial arts techniques but his story all throughout the films have always been one about accepting and believing in yourself no matter what. I wish we had more stories like his.

[@lux_24601]

I agree 100% Kung Fu Panda was comforting for me as a chubby kid. It's still one of my favorite movies

[@MegaTheBard]

Jack black’s whole career is good representation

[@vegankibum5975]

@@MegaTheBard Shallow Hal still exists so I would have to disagree with you there

[@stephaniedale4285]

Also that Ew was me cringing at how I used to feel and is not directed at anyone else!

[@jesusrox4u]

I’ll admit I’ve related to Po a lot as someone who’s struggled with my weight for years.

[@naomistarlight6178]

What I hate is how we millenials weren't taught to be healthy, we were taught to be afraid. Fearful eating habits are not healthy ones.

[@marocat4749]

Yep, and the no be ashamed, and pull up your bootstraps. No i wont listen or dare to look at economic factors or different bodytypes, or say anything contructive at all. I just shame, and make fun and pretend it makes me a good person. /s

[@oldstump1628]

Now look at you. An average of 60lbs overweight. Maybe you should have been afraid.

[@ImaginaryAlchemist]

Yep. We grew up around so much toxic diet culture. Like I was at this girl's birthday party and she barely ate her own cake because she was so worried about carbs and calories. We were ten years old. Literal children were already stressing about weight. It's depressing.

[@Cainus44]

Whine and complain, but keep shovelling junk food in your mouth then die young to obesity.

[@jasperjazzie]

yeah, it's never "eat healthy because it's good for you and you'll feel better!" it's "eat healthy because otherwise you''ll be fat and gross and no one will like you" idc what ppl say when they try to say they only shame fat ppl because they "care about your health uwu" no they don't,,they just hate seeing fat ppl exist, get real

[@gaygaypoopypoopdywillygaygay]

30:52 “the most insidious of all might be utilizing fat phobic stereotypes to encourage laughter at a fat character for daring to assume that they could be respected, desired, or loved. The idea that the only thing funnier than a fat person is one deluded enough to think that they aren't fat or that their fatness doesn't matter there.” oh my god, this hit so insanely hard. as someone who grew up fat all my life, i still have a crippling fear of trying to be taken seriously because i was raised as a kid to believe my fatness restricted me from being respected at all. thank u for putting into words what i couldn’t.

[@takke9830]

Steven Universe was honestly incredible regarding this. I grew up with a lot of fat shaming bs on TV that translated onto how i was treated as a fat kid in any facet of my life. So seeing Rose Quartz being admired and being portrayed as this masterful beauty almost made me cry. As a fat girl, you‘re not allowed to be pretty. Or even identify as a woman. Despite you being cis. If you‘re fat, you‘re a unlovable ogre that nobody will ever love and a laughing stock for everyone else. And this bs has certainly ruined me in many aspects. But nobody ever talks about the trauma you have to deal with when you‘re treated this way from birth essentially. Even videos like this that are technically on my side regarding the topic trigger me so much I wanna cry and throw up. Ppl don‘t know how bad fatphobia is. And people also don‘t get the damage they are doing to fat kids. And it makes you wonder if health is just a tool to justify abuse since mental health doesn‘t seem to matter for these targets. It‘s honestly just infuriating. It took me so long to cope with it all. And to also feel confident in myself again. I used to be a wreck. And nobody ever gave a damn. Now I‘m a adult taking up space and not giving a damn if skinny aholes think i‘m greedy cause i wanna be treated fairly. I don‘t care about their feelings anymore. And if you‘re fat, you shouldn‘t either. Life is too prechious to waste it on self hate and eating disorders. Be proud of being yourself. And everyone who‘s a hater can die in a ditch. We shouldn‘t give those freaks a single thought. Do your thing, and appreciate yourself. Cause your body carried you this far. And that‘s a good thing.

[@rinsuu9848]

"As a fat girl, you're not allowed to be pretty. Or even identify as a woman." Holy shit to see someone else saying it... Yes if I wasn't a fat kid I think I'd probably have a much different idea about my gender identity. I called myself an 'it' growing up :')

[@cajunking5987]

Rose is buff and pregnant. Not fat. And you should feel ashamed to be fat. It’s a bad thing.

[@houselivesay4013]

yeah, the kids need to workout and not just sit around

[@takke9830]

@@rinsuu9848 yup. I think it‘s them trying to dehumanize you essentially. I mean it‘s really a mix of controlling women and also racism as that is the origin. It‘s so bonkers too that science has evidence all over for how this is heavily genetics based yet ppl are so brainwashed to hate fat bodies that they will just deny deny deny to feel superior somehow. It‘s really nasty. I wish ppl would stigmatize fatphobia as much as they stigmatize homophobia cause it hurts the same.

[@cajunking5987]

@@TheBananamonger yes, men don’t have the luxury of being delusional

[@amberwingtundrawing776]

The Bluey plot is kind of disappointing but it feels so real and uncomfortable to me. How many of us have seen our parents' comment on their bodies in shame wen we were little?

[@amberwingtundrawing776]

Also kinda crazy cuz all the Bluey dogs are rectangle shaped

[@storageheater]

My mum and dad used to "joke" about each other's weight (they had been very slim, and neither were ever over 200lbs) to my sister and I when we were little, and I remember I found it incredibly confusing to have to try and assess my parents in this way to understand their joke. Now I'm older, it's clear my mother's obsessively fatphobic, other people's weight genuinely annoys her and she'll always mention my extremely unwell aunt and grandma's weight before she says how they're doing (and she'll mention if she saw a fat person while she was travelling to us, which is WILD.) It fascinates me that people can be like this, but it's absolutely her problem, though I do wonder how much of her bonkersness influenced the fact that I find bigger guys attractive lol

[@pinkdiamond1847]

Yeah when I was younger my parents were always on diets and then my older sisters were always on diets and then when the time came I decided to go on the diet only. I was never overweight (I don't think my sister's or parents were either though) I was just copying the adults in my life and wouldn't you know it I developed anorexia. But in fairness my eating disorder didn't really start with my parents and sisters. They just didn't help the situation It started because I got praise from my peers for having such a low calorie count in my holiday food diary that was given as homework for some reason because my calorie intake was less than 500 calories a day because I was too lazy to make myself food and during the day and it just kind of spiralled from there but I remember I justified it to myself that everyone else in my family was doing it and they aren't overweight either. So it must be the right thing to do and me being me I took it way too far and it got to the point where everyone in my family stopped dieting because I guess they realised the error of their ways through watching me become a skeleton.

[@jermfanaccount]

it sucks even more too because obviously their weight doesn't mean anything about their character. fat or not Bandit's always gonna be a good dad and Chilli's always gonna be a good mum. they and their kids deserve to feel happy and comfortable in their own skin

[@madhatt3r93]

True, but I don't think that kids the target age for Bluey have the mental capacity to think "Oh yeah, my parents do that too. Sad, really". They'll probably think "Oh no, Bluey's parents (who I really like) obsess over their weight, so I should put attention to that too"

[@indigothecat]

"I'm Glad My Mom Died" by Jennette McCurdy brings up a scary issue. (She was the best friend character in iCarly.) When she started going through puberty, which resulted in her developing a more curvy figure, her mother helped teach her how to restrict her eating and count calories, helping to keep her as skinny as possible for longer to counter-act puberty, which would allow her to continue playing younger roles for longer. She says that it got bad enough that it was diagnosable as anorexia or bulimia. Part of the extreme praise of thinness is directly connected to the idea of being young. Thin is associated with youth, and therefor, desirability. Fat children sometimes get ignored by adults, not intentionally in a neglectful way, but just seen as less desirable to spend time with, engage with in hobbies, or being selected for special roles in group settings. It's no surprise that fat and overweight children are also perceived to be older or "more mature" than they actually are, and thus are treated differently.

[@alicethemad1613]

I can definitely attest to this. Even at periods where I was desperately counting calories and exercising every day, the way my body carried fat didn’t change, and no matter what the scale said my shape always looked “fat”. I was also sexualized from about 5th grade onwards and survived a lot of CSA throughout my tween and teen years. Part of it was needing to feel like my body wasn’t repulsive, and part of it was adults immediately seeing me as more inherently sexual because I had wide hips and fat on my chest no matter what I did or wore. I wouldn’t be surprised if fat girls or afab kids are statistically more likely to be SA’d as children.

[@Findecommie]

This is such a thing. One time I got a detention for "looking threateningly at a lunch aide." I was 8, but I hit puberty early and so was tall in addition to being fat which was enough to make showing visible displeasure at an adult (who was being mean to my friend) into a threat

[@indigothecat]

@Alice the Mad I hadn't even considered that when I first wrote that, but realized it after. Thank you for voicing this. There are literally predators out there who will say "they are physically mature," as a way to excuse SA against minors. This is a scary problem. 😨

[@indigothecat]

@Seth Eisenstein I found out later from some friends I made in highschool that they were scared of me for similar reasons when I was younger. I can definitely relate.

[@AndersWatches]

@@Findecommie one time in school when I was 12, a boy was bullying me in class and I snapped back, and we both got sent out. The behaviour manager came, and the bully tried to blame me, so I pointed out that the bully is always in trouble and in detention, and I wasn’t ever, so why should he be believed automatically over me, and the behaviour manager, a grown ass man, said to 12 year old me “well you do look like the kind of person who would be nasty”. I already had severe body image and self esteem issues, so I was primed to internalise that instantly. Fat unfeminine ‘girl’ (I’m not a girl, but I lived as one until I transitioned) bad, slim class clown boy good, I guess. The boy who bullied me that day and got ME into trouble? A few years later he got put in prison for r*ping multiple little girls. But the behaviour manager seemed more inclined to believe that I was nasty based on my appearance alone. That little tidbit really was the cherry on top.

[@ninvic0]

Thank you for making this video. This might be a bit silly, but seeing the new fionna and cake show and how they drew fionna clearly chubby has literally changed my life. adventure time was such a special show to me when i was younger and seeing the main heroine look like me literally moves me to tears

[@HYDROCARBON_XD]

Yeah probably that character was the baby lich

[@abyssalnightmare551]

I'll never forget being 12 years old, volunteering at a friendship feast, having some elderly woman ask me "how long are you?" Stupid me didn't understand what she could be asking and awkwardly replied with my height, She then clarified that no, she meant how far along in my pregnancy. In my complete shock I stumbled out that I'm 12, When she acted embarrassed I thought at the time (again, idiot) that she was embarrassed to ask if a little kid was pregnant when I'm obviously just chubby, but now looking back I realized that she probably just thought I was a delinquent or abused. So yeah, existing as a fat kid is traumatizing.

[@oldstump1628]

Jesus . You must have been enormous

[@doorhinge2039]

Based grandma lol

[@abyssalnightmare551]

​@@doorhinge2039are you happy with yourself? What do you get out of acting like this? Do you look in the mirror after a long day and feel proud of the person you've become? I bet your mother is really proud of how you talk about women's bodies.

[@IDontKnowWhatToNameMyselfTwo]

​@@abyssalnightmare551W grandma

[@Jack.....]

@@IDontKnowWhatToNameMyselfTwo wtf is wrong with you?

[@fizzymilk2246]

steven universe gets a lot of hate but it honestly has some amazing body positivity and representation in it (sorry if this was mentioned in the video i'm not done yet)

[@hheinous]

seriously! i’m not an avid watcher of SU, but as a kid, when i saw amethyst for the first time it made me so happy. it was like a switch turned in my brain and i didn’t feel quite so ashamed of myself.

[@devinsauls9137]

Finally someone brought up Steven Universe. Can you also bring up Victor and Valentino too? Valentino is chubby and no one made fun of him for being "fat"

[@rottingstarz]

​@@ville__ how so?

[@dtipson]

​@@rottingstarz I think this was just answering the question of whether SU is mentioned in this video or not

[@prageruwu69]

ikr omg. seeing fat characters that arent mocked for their weight (hell, rose is even considered beautiful) made me feel kinda good about myself.

[@epmeyer2273]

I think that one really good example of emotional growth actually show through someone getting larger is Bojack Horseman. When Diane goes on anti-depressants she gets larger I really related to that as someone who also gained weight while on anti depressants. It made me feel less alone.

[@konosmar8719]

Same here. And because of that, people would try to convince me to work on losing weight. That "even if being fat isn't necessarily unhealthy, it still is for me". But I like my body as it is, unfortunately.

[@gabriellaberman]

I was about to comment about Diane! I loved how her weight gain wasn’t important to the story. And how there was so plot line about her getting thinner again

[@angelicabasque1749]

I was about to comment about her character as well. I like that the weight gain was treated simply as a side-effect of the antidepressants, not necessarily a negative one. The "new" Diane is depicted as the best version of herself.

[@nanalove3819]

Yeah, and she feels better than she did when she was thin, which is great cause media often treat fatness as a symptom of something bad going on in their lives.

[@ghostmemeboi]

yeah but it comes after 6 seasons of jokes about bojack being fat and binge eating

[@pressedferns]

Another great example of representation is bobby hill from king of the hill. One of my favorite episodes is the one where bobby needs new pants, and when he goes to a store for plus size kids, his mom is embarrased on his behalf and tries to use terms like “chunky” or “big boned” trying to keep him from being embarrassed, and he proceeds to tell her that he knows she means the term “fat”. He explains that it’s okay, and he’s proud of his body as-is. king of the hill got a lot right.

[@Animezingly]

I’m so exhausted by people who “yeah BUT-“ and say things like “but it’s a choice” or “you can change it” or “you don’t deserve to feel marginalized because you could just exercise” like I’m so tired. So tired. If I could choose to not be fat I would in a heartbeat. Because to me it’s not worth the struggles I go through and the things I miss out on. But it’s a constant struggle and I’m constantly losing that struggle. I was given a handicap early in life by my own parents. Some people have a luckier head start

[@gur262]

If you don't tell, i can't contradict you. Clever.

[@oldstump1628]

It is your choice. You can change it. If you’re an adult you have no one to blame but yourself.

[@beansworth5694]

Feeling marginalized can coexist with accepting the fact that given effort and time it could be different. Whether or not pursuing an ideal body image, strength, or overall health is worth the effort to you, personally, is a decision that ideally shouldn't be made under duress of exclusion and humiliation, but you should remember that it is still your choice in how you approach your body nonetheless. It's not a choice to be fat or not to be fat, but it is a choice whether or not you stick to the things you'd have to do in order to shift your body size- we might not be able to just will our bodies into being something different, we need to materially alter them across time, but doing so does require a will to follow through on that choice. Don't accept defeat, own what you are, own what you want to be, and accept or alter your body and your expectations for it based on what you think is right, not whatever internalized shame would dictate. People are assholes, and they don't like to challenge their impressions of people based on normative expectations, but your body is yours, it is what you make it even if you don't get to choose what you started with or how your body initially reacts to its environment and intake before you begin to consciously and consistently condition it.

[@Animezingly]

@@beansworth5694 You could do everything right, take all the advice from doctors, have the healthiest diet possible, make all the right choices, exercise your heart out and STILL be overweight. I quite literally know people who are like that. There are genuinely things that you CANNOT change about your body. People who are born type1 diabetic, people who have medical problems that doctors literally can't even solve who do everything RIGHT and still are never going to be what society deems acceptable so you're not "Overweight". You ever seen that woman who physically cannot absorb enough calories? Does anyone blame her because she's so thin that it's breaking her body and killing her? no, because it's a medical condition. There's no cure. Not yet at least. I have medical conditions that do not yet have a diagnosis. I've had health problems that had nothing at all to do with diet or exercise that almost killed me and all the doctors could do was shrug in confusion. Do not condescend me. It's not just a matter of "Willpower" ffs.

[@beansworth5694]

​@@Animezingly I wasn't trying to condescend to you. I obviously don't know your particular situation, and I wasn't trying to say that weight is "just" willpower. I'm saying that deciding how you approach your weight is a matter of will, and that approach will change the outcome in some capacity. I'm not even coming at this from the assumption that you ought to change, just that learning to be helpless when it comes to your own body is always a self-fulfilling prophesy. Even if you don't yet know how to make a tangible impact on yourself, or if nobody else is able to give workable advice medical or otherwise to that end, "immutability" is still a flawed and harmful narrative just as much as fatphobia is.

[@Ghastlyteaparty]

As a child Sophie from Anastasia was my idol. Pretty, confident, feminine, flirty. She just existed in fabulousness. It was the first time I'd seen a fat woman portrayed in that way and it gave me hope.

[@hcf4kd1992]

She was super hot

[@xRaiofSunshine]

Ohhhh I liked her a lot too! 😊

[@rachnab04]

I think this is part of why I love Luisa from encanto so much, like she is muscular but she’s also broad beneath all that - I am built like my dad and am really broad and it always felt like a moral failing to me growing up that I wasn’t super skinny

[@lilik7323]

From similar reason I love Isabela as "The Princess" in family. She has normal, healthy figure and she isn't the most skinny character in movie.

[@jasperjazzie]

i also like how they didn't make her embarrassed about it or anything, i was so worried going in that her story arc was gonna be "oh i wish i was more feminine like isabela :(" but am glad it wasn't, she's proud of herself and her strength, and manages to still be feminine regardless

[@HYDROCARBON_XD]

Because it's almost all muscle only covered by a layer of fat which is healthy,unless you're a powerlifter or a sumo wrestler average morbidly obese person doesn't have much muscle

[@eoincampbell1584]

I feel like the attitudes of fatphobia are in some ways rooted in ableism. Not because fatness itself is a disability (though many disabilities and treatments for disabilities do relate to weight), but because a person needs that ableist approach to arrive at fatphobia. To be fatphobic you need to be comfortable judging a person's character purely based off of their physicality and the presumptions you make about their capabilities. I have a broader theory about how ableism can in some ways be seen as the root of all prejudice but that's a whole essay.

[@rasmusvohlakari2304]

Having your knees blow out from being so obese should be a wake up call.

[@abelabel3664]

@@rasmusvohlakari2304 ...what?

[@beansworth5694]

Ableism is a natural consequence of a scarcity mentality, and sometimes things actually are scarce, like sustenance or competence. Respect and acceptance don't have to be scarce resources, though, even if our societal environment and evolutionary history primes social creatures like us to think that it ought to be in order to secure our own position in the social sphere.

[@eoincampbell1584]

@@beansworth5694 I don't there's compelling evidence that we're evolutionarily primed to prioritize ourselves over others. Multiple prehistoric human remains show that disabled people have been cared for by their loved ones for all of human existence. In general I'm wary of evolutionary psychology and claims made using it. I recently ran into this video that goes over the reasons why the field isn't very scientific: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oXPEpqWKpJyJd6s

[@HYDROCARBON_XD]

Do not dare to compare people that were born without limbs from birth to people that can't control their discipline and eat 7000 calories a day

[@yourturntooyasumi]

Even when I was a kid, I would look at hourglass characters then at myself then at people in the world. None of them had perfect boobs, flat stomach, and good hips. I was chubby, I had a skinny flat friend, my mom was curvy but plus sized, etc. it always seemed like they didn’t look at real people for reference when designing characters

[@user-uc6xi8sv5u]

cuz its a cartoon lmao. idk why dumbasses always looked at cartoons for reference. Obviously not lookin like real people

[@I_hate_mortals]

Well yeah... its a cartoon...

[@HYDROCARBON_XD]

Because you most likely grew up in Separated states of Murica where 1 out of every 3 people are obese

[@hfreyschildren1265]

"Medical fatphobia can harm patients through misdiagnosis" I literally have permanent organ damage from medical fatphobia Yes I got second opinionS, it doesn't matter when they're ALL fatphobic 🤷🏼

[@Werevampiwolf]

Yep. A couple years ago, I had a severe gastrointestinal illness and lost 20lbs in 10 days because I couldn't eat or drink and was still violently ill (I know how much I lost because I had had an appointment at the same doctor right before I got sick) and the nurse congratulated me on my weight loss. Literally the only people who found losing two pounds a day for over a week to be concerning (instead of a good thing) was my sister and my actual doctor. Even my parents were like "well, since you've lost 20lbs, you should try to keep it off." And I was like "... I almost died of dehydration." I also had a migraine for over a decade straight and my doctor would just tell me to lose weight, despite the fact that I didn't become fat until I was already about 5 years into my migraine. I did eventually see a specialist, who stared at me like I had two heads when I told him what my primary doctor said (different doctor from the one mentioned in the other story)

[@marocat4749]

James somerton has a very personal video on it. Sad but goodvideo

[@DrSleazoid]

Do you know what actually harms patients? Being fat.

[@SalemTheTyrant]

Literally. A nurse was looking over my information, which included a diagnosis of anorexia and disordered eating. And decided to comment on my weight and include a pamphlet on weight loss through dieting in my paperwork I took home.

[@cosmicdust2668]

@@DrSleazoid yeah because the gastrointestinal illness and organ damage discussed in these comments wasn't harmful to the people who had them at all. great take bud.

[@ntwwolf6908]

It does seem like protagonists are trim or muscular while antagonists, comical goofs, and bullies are stereotypically overweight. It’s precisely why we try to bring out more body positivity in hopes we see more diversity among both types of characters. And for goodness sake, don’t pick on anyone for any body type.

[@sal5811]

Literally not true. Some of the best villains are hot AF

[@bizzybeee]

​@Sal like she said in the episode, there are many slim and attractive villians, but there are also plus size ones. The issue comes in where while there are also just as attractive and slim protagonists, there are little to none plus size protags.

[@1kaz1]

​@@sal5811 want to add that a lot of hot villains are supposed to be ugly, but just aren't (pretty unrelated but I think about that sometimes)

[@etenby699]

Kinda why I did not want to watch Puss in boots 2. Like, Shrek had protagonists who had a larger body type, but now, we get a villain having a larger body type with a skinny protagonist. Kind of a middle finger to Shrek, ngl.

[@superiortrash3209]

​@@sal5811 I don't understand, are you saying that the fat villains are hot or by "hot" do you mean skinny?

[@jermfanaccount]

this one's a bit of a silly one but one of my favourite fat main characters is Peppino from Pizza Tower. he's based on a stereotypical Italian archetype but he has a lot of positive traits. he's determined, brave, strong, resilient, he doesn't let his anxieties get him down and instead utilises them to his best ability. he's adaptive, fast on his feet (he does a LOT of running through the entire game; it's a core part of his character that he's fast), and he ends up becoming good friends with everyone by the end of the game. he goes through hell and back to save his home - his pizzeria. he's a really inspiring and relatable character to me and him being chubby adds to that a lot. i wish there were way more character like him, he's a good role model :) oh yeah and he can BREAKDANCE!!!

[@I_hate_mortals]

Well yeah... its a game. Not real life.

[@aequoreavicq]

What is good representation of any demographic. The answer is simple. A person. That’s it. Just treating and portraying characters like people. People are fat, people are thin, and have thousands of variations between. So often, those who are bigoted forget that the demographics they want to erase and kill off are people. Representation in every media matters, it directly shapes the way people see other people.

[@ro_the_lion]

Really got to give extra props to Steven Universe, whose entire family unit is heavy, and yet it's never ever an issue or played for laughs. There's an episode where Steven tries to get fitter, but it's not to do with his weight, it's for being a better fighter. His mother Rose (though there's a lot more going on there) is both tall *and* heavy, and that's one of the first things that drew Greg to her (which isn't played for laughs either). And s1 Glimmer from She-Ra has the unbelievably rare body type to see on children's tv, the 'pear'. She is small breasted and narrow shouldered, wide hipped and wide-thighed, with a thick waist (usually characters who are allowed to be thick usually have a narrow waist to 'make up for it'). She's never presented as slow or less nimble because of her weight. It's hardly surprising that both of these shows came from queer creators.

[@user-zz7cy1gc6v]

glimmer changed design in the beginning of 4 season, so we had her og look for around 3 seasons, but idon't remember did she really got that much thinner afterwards? she basically changed outfits and hairstyle, she still remained pretty bottom heavy throughout the show, did herwaist or arms became thinner? i don't know if it was intentional because this was not gradual progression nor a timeskip so how tf did she switched body types in on episode just through fashion change... maybe shes wearing a corset or something, at least in adora's future dream sequence she looks relatively on a bigger side

[@cjboyo]

@@user-zz7cy1gc6v she didn’t really get thinner, just taller because the characters are teens. The change was mostly designed to represent her “growing into” her new role

[@kiapet286]

Something great about Rose is that is that her size is something she chose, and the form she takes in becoming a happier and more virtuous person than in her past. It's one of the few examples I've seen of someone's positive character growth represented by growing fatter, not skinnier, and it works on a symbolic level because it represents her throwing off her society's rigid, conformist expectations and embracing her true self.

[@cidevant002]

@@kiapet286 Speaking of positive change shown by becoming fatter, the end of Ratatoiulle does this by having the main "bad guy" food critic Ego becoming chubbier by the end of the movie when he learns to actually enjoy food and let go of his elitist thinking of what "good food" is supposed to be.

[@RicardoMontania]

That's not good, because being fat isn't a good thing at all. Our goal should be to become our better, healthier selfs. Normalizing being fat to children isn't good.

[@trinaq]

I hate that Fat phobia is normalised in many kids' TV shows, which sends the message that people who are of a bigger build deserve our ridicule. Daddy Pig gets the brunt of this, to the point of a tree house password being "Daddy's big tummy", and Peppa laughing at him when he can't fit inside.

[@gisela_oliveira]

everyone in the cartoon is round, and i don't remember him being bigger than the other parents, but peppa is a really annoyng kid

[@artmoryoo]

fr !! it starts early but its seen as silly and acceptable:^(

[@ninjaseekeryo5801]

i don't understand this era

[@pinkdiamond1847]

Peppa Pig is a brat who needs to be disciplined for disrespecting her parents on a regular basis. I would never allow my kids to watch that show and become disrespectful.

[@deirenne]

​@@gisela_oliveira he is almost twice the size of mom's character and more importantly, he is mocked relentlessly, again and again, for being too big and too fat. It's really hard to watch and just cruel and I really couldn't believe that something like that could be in a children's cartoon - and for it to not be an example of wrong behavior but something okay and fun, that's f*cked up. That's one of the many reason why my sister was forbidden from watching Peppa Pig, it's just horrible and teaches kids the worst possible message.

[@Robbity]

I recently watched every Disney channel cartoon pilot and this trope was really noticeable. Until recently, it was very common for there to be the third main character be a fat comic relief character, they always have them be butt of every joke.

[@cheddarcheesesful]

I defended my PhD when I was at my heaviest weight, firmly in the "obese" range. Still ended up with a Dr. in front of my name! Your weight does not reflect your intellect or determination, and anyone who thinks otherwise doesn't deserve to advise you anyway. 💕

[@wokeesg]

It *does* speak to your determination I don't think it's a coincidence that you lost the weight as you stepped into the actual real world There's competition and to get ahead, you have to be determined (Much like I'm sure you learned all the way to Dr.) If you ever had any other additions, I'm sure you let them down around the same time It speaks highly of you actually, because I've heard some say they would NEVER entrust money, or anything really.. to a fat person😶 I commend you and anyone who takes charge of their destiny 🏆

[@meonyoutubenow]

Dr of what and from an American uni or a real uni?

[@nuclearwinter1984]

What the fuck does that have to do with being fat?

[@jboydayz]

it determines your life span😂

[@prixe12]

​​​@@jboydayzNo it determines yours and I'm shortening it 🔫

[@arianawendymangagirl]

As someone who's brother loves watching children cartoons, they can get away with SO much more shit than shows for adults. Not just fatphobia, but misogyny, racism, abelism, queerphobia and some stuff that I don't even know the name for but is weird. It's strange how you seeing the same stuff you watched at 5 years later and wonder how it was actually allowed to be aired around kids

[@rightsarentpolitical]

This is exactly how I felt about Gravity Falls, which I was told was a good show and therefore felt comfortable having my kiddo (8) watch - I was floored by the amount of absolute abhorrent comments and behavior ... and had several discussions with my child as they came up. The last few episodes did better, but holy hell I was so confused why people thought this shit was ok.

[@velocirandom7025]

@@rightsarentpolitical could you elaborate on what types of things were problems, I genuinely want to know as I watched it a couple years ago and didn't remember seeing anything that I found screwed up, but I wasn't watching with any sort of critical eye so I probably just missed it.

[@velocirandom7025]

oh never mind I saw the bit in the video that talked about it

[@duckymacfly]

What cartoon? Give a specific one, please, because I can't think of a single one I've seen in recent years that has anything you just listed. This is something you'd hear being said about 1940s cartoons and the medium has come a long way since then.

[@duckymacfly]

​@@rightsarentpolitical please name one instance

[@cdevine9459]

I’ve always noticed too how attraction towards people with larger bodies is always treated as abnormal or as some type of fetish (despite being totally normal and a common preference for a lot of people).

[@viewsandrates]

Ding ding ding ding! Congratulations, your comment is so based it hurts. Thank you for writing it, now I don't have to. Cheers.

[@storageheater]

Whenever you see it on some show, they always talk like it's dehumanising to the fat person for a person who likes fat people to like them, which is like the nastiest minefield to navigate. Like you have to persuade a person whose preference is for slender bodies to fall in love with your true self and see past all their terrible abnormalities and maybe they can fix you! That made it so strange and confusing to me. I mean it's true there's guys who only want you for your fat body... and there's guys who only want you for your thin body. What's that proving, other than there's quite a lot of horny trash dudes? And yes there's a lot of related kinks around fatness... and there's also lots of kinks around thinness, because it turns out many people are a bit kinky. None of this had to be so hard. Some people like thin, which is valid, and some people like fat, which is also valid. But I suspect actually many people don't really mind either way.

[@candycane3739]

I feel like that also may create the idea that the only way for a fat person to be attractive or get more positive attention is through others' sexual desire of their bodies, which is unhealthy and dangerous, ESPECIALLY for minors

[@Molunu]

@@candycane3739 Yeah, that too.

[@oldstump1628]

It is abnormal.

[@H.P.93]

I do feel like the stigma around being bigger as a kid/teen actually led to me gaining more weight. It played a role in worsening my depression and the anxiety around it led me to eat more and eating unhealthy foods because the shame I felt made me think "what's the point, I'm not going to be pretty anyway"

[@oldstump1628]

Lol, lmao even 😂

[@I_hate_mortals]

So you admit you are fat because you made yourself fat.

[@misskittystryker]

Fatphobia definitely impacted my mother's ability to access proper medical care. Her surgeries were pushed off over and over, she was left to become more bedridden because they didn't think it was worthwhile to give her physical therapy. And now she's dead. So this hits very hard. I wonder if I'll be allowed to have access to healthcare or of I'm just "too fat to deserve it".

[@emilycreamer1307]

I was a fat kid. When I was 9 in 3rd grade, our class put on a Cinderella play, which I loved (I won a costume contest when I was 4 as Cinderella). I wanted to play Cinderella (which I put my name on the list for). I was not given Cinderella; I was instead cast as one of the evil step sisters (which I didn't put my name on the list for), and the girl who got Cinderella was the small, pretty, popular girl. I definitely understood that this was because I was fat and ugly, regardless of how the teacher meant it, because that's how kids are trained to think about fat people.

[@morigaena333]

Have you considered it’s because the other girl was good fit for Cinderella? Or are you obsessed with making everything about you?

[@morigaena333]

@@Ugubgugb did you not even read my comment? They’re saying this other girl got the part and they’re whining about how she’s thin. There is absolutely no reason to think that the sole reason she got the part was because she had a thinner body type. I don’t care if I hurt your feelings

[@rinsuu9848]

Oh my god that's so awful. When I was a kid at primary school we had a nativity play every year and I just wanted to be an angel or something where I could be pretty. Three years in a row I was cast as King Herod I guess cos I was tall and fat and boyish-looking. I laugh about it now but it was hurtful at the time.

[@oldstump1628]

You were wrong for the roll because you had too many rolls already.

[@azimochaa]

​@@morigaena333She was 9 dude, come on

[@HamishSteele]

Thanks for the Dead End shoutout! Shockingly, having a fat lead character often was a harder struggle then having a trans or queer lead character. There was a lot of pushback, or auto-pilot fatphobic jokes that found there way into early drafts of episodes. It felt like a constant battle to stamp that all out.

[@lazulidrawzalot0616]

Hi, Hamish!

[@viewsandrates]

It's such a good show! ❤

[@lux_24601]

Thank you for fighting for that positive representation. I loved the show!

[@MalisDelnaria]

Thank you for such an amazing show. My kid loves it and watches it over and over.

[@cipher8523]

Dead End means the world for me! It was literally the first time i've seen someone who looks so much like me as a protagonist. Thank you so much for making it!!

[@nathanaelgazzard7989]

I just came back to this video to say, the creators of Bluey listened to the feedback and have since changed the episode removing the mirror scene. ❤

[@SeaBreeze-w9999]

Shame that they are pandering to fats!

[@flatfacedcat]

I'm 30 and only realized recently that the reason I hate exercise like workouts but love "fun" in the form of outdoor games is because exercise in the gym, pilates, and so on have always been something I've done as self-punishment for for my "fatness". For the record, I've never even been "fat". Maybe a little chubby in some spots at best, but I've suffered severe body dysmorphia and eating disorders all the same.

[@CraftyVegan]

Peppa pig’s dad gets legitimately fat shamed every episode but no one says anything about that 🤨

[@ninjaseekeryo5801]

my brain cells are gone

[@joebidenjr5902]

Because he’s fat asf and should work on losing weight. Obesity is unhealthy in the long run. So if he wants to stick around with Peppa then better lose some weight.

[@user-fz2gz5rv1e]

Eff that stupid potato man, too. I was watching it with my baby cousin one time and i was so confused 😵‍💫

[@DarthSion6987]

It's a cartoon. 🤦‍♂️ Christ you people whine about anything and everything.

[@prixe12]

​@@DarthSion6987 why are you even on this channel

[@submergedinstars]

Princess Fiona’s storyline in Shrek really made me think as a child :) I was so surprised when she stayed as an ogre and it challenged my internalised bias.

[@randomhuman2595]

Didn't they make fun of Lord Farquaad for being short?

[@yuenmienyu]

@@randomhuman2595 I think so, but maybe that was solely out of hatred for his evil character. I haven't watched Shrek in months though

[@josukeshair8891]

​@randomhuman2595 bro u spamming this in almost every comment section

[@randomhuman2595]

@@josukeshair8891 Yes

[@Oinker-Sploinker]

@@yuenmienyu ok so it's fine to fat shame people who say being obese is ok cause they are definitely not good people.

[@battleaxe8252]

Being fat is a bad thing.

[@chris8266]

woah... is that common sense ?!

[@angelcollina]

I gained a lot of weight suddenly right before I graduated college even though I was very active. I have still had no luck in discovering why because every doctor ignores my explanation of what I was eating and how active I was and just lectures me about portion sizes. I’ve never been able to lose the weight I put on and am now overweight/obese and I keep feeling like there might be something out of balance but I’ve gone to several doctors and it’s like they’ve already decided before they talk to me. I even walked out of an appointment, for a basic checkup, because the female doctor spoke so condescendingly to me and refused to listen to what I said. I stood up, told her I would not be requiring her services, and walked out, but I was sobbing by the time I got to the car.

[@charlottexroyalty7819]

Ok...cool story girl now go to the gym and listen to the advice doctors are giving you and let go of all this self pity shit. It is pathetic really.

[@angelcollina]

@@charlottexroyalty7819 Well, that sounds rather dismissive and cruel, but I was doing what the doctors were suggesting, that’s why they were no help. They weren’t trying to offer any other options or solve the problem. I don’t think I mentioned my gym attendance. Yes, I do go to the gym and have for years. Also, I’m not a girl.

[@Tocinos]

​@@charlottexroyalty7819brad taste in music fan 🗿

[@romanticghost7508]

@@charlottexroyalty7819 If it’s a sudden weight gain despite normal activities, it can be caused by a variety of factors like unknown pregnancy, chronic illness, issues with organs or health problems. You’re acting horrible, how would you feel if someone spoke to you in the way you speak to others?

[@sadwasdead5065]

i'd also add mei from turning red to the list of positivie fat represntation. she's chubbier compared to her friends, but she's never shown to be insecure about it, even though the movie takes place in 2002 and the early 2000s were very fat phobic. there is a joke about her weight but it's also not really about her weight if you think about it. the joke is that one of her aunties claims that she's gained weight while the other claims that she's lost weight. the joke isn't that she's chubby, the joke is that older relatives feel the need to comment about every personal thing and that they can't seem to agree on whether or not she's lost or gained weight. i'm sure the joke would've stayed in had she been skinnier. There's also Abby, who i don't remember being the butt of any fatphobic jokes. it's been a year since i've seen the movie so maybe she was portrayed as being gluttonous, but i'm not sure about it. she is portrayed as very loud and angry but i thought that was more of the chihuahua stereotype rather than the "fat people are impolite" stereotype

[@Let_Toons]

Yeah Abby got no ill jokes either. she is great

[@jinorism]

i love abby so so so much

[@kittykittybangbang9367]

I love Turning Red so much, too bad neckbeards acted like it was the worst thing ever simply because it didn't pander to the male audience.

[@ramenaddict1676]

​@@kittykittybangbang9367 right???????? People just love making fun of teenage girls

[@lovedreamer4122]

I'm glad Abby was portrayed as the impulsive hothead while Miriam was sweet and down to earth, to this day media has a big problem in portraying tomboys as aggressive, I refuse to watch anything now if there's a character like that

[@trinaq]

I wish that more children's media would acknowledge that there's many different body types and shapes. An episode of Arthur had him try to diet, and come to the conclusion that healthy exercise helps to help you fit, but not before he has a fat shaming dream where he's ballooned to the size of a blob.

[@tiannagraham5210]

wow even in a video talking about the harm in fat shaming, people are still awful in the comments… i’ll worry about my own health honestly. at first, i was like omg why are people so awful? *sad face**sad face* but honestly, i know which weight is healthy for me and i’m doing what i can physically and mentally. the people that say awful things don’t care about my health, they care about inflicting their standards on others. even the “you’ll never find someone who will love you” bullshit is useless bc i’m aroace, i literally could not care less. and even if i did care, i know there’s someone for everyone. so at the end of the day, you’re not my partner, you’re not my mom, you’re not my doctor so you really have no say on my weight.

[@kaiseayaandruis1597]

honestly, so many people being so nasty in the comments also, ignoring the fact that random people's health is nobody's business and fat people should not by bullied regardless, it's funny how their concern for others "health" when it comes to being fat never seems to take into account that some people can never be healthy, and that their weight might ba direct result of some other illness or disability, and they come in ready to tell everyone to exercise and diet they can't accept that they too could be fat without a way to change it and will just balme everyone for "not puttign the effort" bc the idea of being fat permanently scares them so much(same thing as happens with disabilities, some people will literally rather bully others than accept that those thing can happen to anyone)

[@jboydayz]

@@kaiseayaandruis1597so encouraging people to loose weight is bad?

[@kaiseayaandruis1597]

@@jboydayz encouragement when somebody is already trying to lose weight and asked for it? Perfectly fine. However, if the person haven't asked you for it, keep your words to yourself. When unwanted, even the most polite and well meaning words will become annoying and unpleasant. Not to mention how a lot of what people say is their "encouragement" is directly counter productive to actually encouraging people. I want to believe you're asking this in good faith, but your phrasing makes it seem like you're purposefully misunderstanding my words to make me look ridiculous by implying I believe encouraging people to lose weight is always bad, which is absolutely not the case. What I do take issue with is all the people who are shaming others and telling them they're fat and unhealthy and need to lose weight, especially when it's random strangers; it not encouragement, it's plain bullying, and I think it's pretty obvious that genuine, welcome encouragement is not at all something I consider bad. My issue is with people who are all too eager to preach to about losing weight without extending any good words or willingness to help people along the way and ignore the impact other health issues may have on people's weight. Telling random strangers online they should lose weight and calling them all kinds of horrible things doesn't at all help them. Shaming people has never worked to help people get better, it is proven to have the exact opposite effect.

[@BookWyrmOnAString]

​@@jboydayzits like if someone posted "i love my long hair" and got told to cut it in every comment, or if a person was talking about the struggles of being gay and everyone told them to be straight.

[@jboydayz]

@@BookWyrmOnAString There is a difference between being obese and having long hair😂🤫

[@bigpatrice2157]

Body shaming is never okay. However, educating children about how important exercise is for your health, is completely necessary. Fat people are just as beautiful as skinny people. Being fat isn't bad because it's "unattractive", it's bad because it can majorly hinder your quality of life. Especially if you're a child.

[@ffff7164]

The vast majority of the human population don't find obesity beautiful, do not impose your politically correct western beauty standards on to the rest of us.

[@zordorfe]

Preach!

[@hello_1005]

Being fat iss gross 🤮

[@Brie2230]

The Shrek franchise has some epic body positive vibes. The brief scene of Shrek and Fiona shaving together in a mirror did wonders for me as a larger afab person with facial hair. I love that embracing being a “hideous” ogre was their happy fairytale ending!

[@ImaginaryAlchemist]

Agreed! I know they're memed to death these days, but those movies do a great job of saying that everyone deserves a happy ending, regardless of how the rest of the world sees them.

[@Karin-fj3eu]

My issue is that Fiona is way too conventionally attractive to be truly compared to Shrek but in-movie they're supposed to bejust as "ugly" or whatever idk about thqt

[@I_always_have_been_Daniel49]

I like Shrek for the humor and/or storytelling

[@randomhuman2595]

Don't they make fun of Lord Farquaad for being short?

[@Future.Trunks220]

​@@randomhuman2595these people don't think critically

[@mathewber2782]

It's unhealthy to be fat Don't give kids too much food

[@certificateofirrelevance2412]

Is it so bad to say that nowadays? Its like its fine if youre fat but its still unhealthy as fuck

[@cajunking5987]

This place is full of women making excuses Lmao

[@Future.Trunks220]

​@@cajunking5987they coping hard playing mental gymnastics cuz they can't do real gymnastics 😂

[@chris8266]

@@Future.Trunks220 Lmao true

[@HeatherMantica]

I don’t understand why people have an issue with the bluey one? There is nothing wrong with showing people who do want to change their bodies. Especially when its shown as a result of not being active enough. Why do y’all hate to admit that while no one should ever be told they are worth less for how their body is weight is still a reflection of health. Health isn’t a moral thing but how you promote health is. There is nothing wrong with someone who smokes cigarettes they aren’t a bad person but if they say it’s healthy then they are. Showing two adults notice they have gotten less healthy due to an inactive lifestyle and then making changes based on that isn’t “disordered” that’s what people should be doing. I really hope we can swing past this weird part of body positivity where we forget that we are a world becoming more and more inactive and weight related deaths are at an all time high.

[@zordorfe]

Preach!

[@cherry97girl]

My mad fat diary is one of my favourite tv shows! As someone who is plus size and has mental health issues I never really connected with a character in the way I have connected with Earl. It's so rare seeing a three dimensional character where their weight is one aspect of their personality but not the only one. We need more of this and in general more body diversity in kids tv shows to reflect real life.

[@FabalociousDee]

What really worries me is that fat children or fat people in children's TV programmes are immediately represented as having a bingeing eating disorder...and having that disorder played for laughs. It's especially worrying because not only are most fat people eating pretty normally, those who aren't are only eating that way due to INSULIN RESISTANCE. Adults go on and on about how mean children are, yet don't stop to think what those children are influenced by when it comes to the treatment of others. For real, imagine teaching children that making fun of an ill person is perfectly OK. Children's TV doesn't permit this with anorexia or bulimia, so why does mocking someone's genuine health issues get a pass here?

[@DrSleazoid]

No fat person on the entire planet is eating normal.

[@neckbackcripplinganxietyattack]

Most fat people don’t have a disorder. Almost every morbidly obese person does. Just like every thin person doesn’t have anorexia, but almost every extremely thin person does. (Regarding anorexia, not anorexia nervosa)

[@habeashumor9814]

Yup, so many people consider it a given that every fat person is an obsessive overeater.

[@lionblaze0384]

can also be hormonal, not just insulin. I was insatiably hungry for years as a kid and the problem solved almost immediately as I started taking birth control. rapid weight gain and hunger to total stagnation, just difficulty losing due to pcos. If an otherwise normal looking kid is eating obsessively, like they're constantly starving, something is wrong. They either felt starving due to a medical reason, like me, or maybe have some kind of food insecurity deal going on. Regardless of what that underlying reason is, there is an underlying reason.

[@oldstump1628]

Fat people do not eat like normal people. It is impossible to gain weight if you are eating at a calorie detriment.

[@cordyceps7531]

I’ve never watched Bluey. So I went in thinking the issue was the kids and wife mocking the dad for being overweight. Like on Peppa Pig where the whole family constantly roast the shit out of the Dad Pig for being fat. But no, Bluey just has both the mom and dad acknowledge that they’re chubby after using the scale and want to do something about it by exercising. There is literally no problem here.

[@ReneeMcNeely]

Did you watch the video? The attitudes presented towards fatness and weight gain are the issue with the episode. It's dangerous to tell growing children that you should feel ashamed about weight gain and that if you gain weight you should try to exercise it off.

[@oldstump1628]

@@ReneeMcNeely it’s far more harmful to tell kids it’s ok to be fat.

[@2pppppppppppppp657]

@@oldstump1628 I think the correct way to balance it is to promote healthy eating and exercise while also promoting acceptance of your body. In other words, the message should be "exercise and eat well because it's healthy for you," not "exercise and eat well so that you're skinny." Due to complicated biological factors involving the gut microbiome and hunger hormones, people will trend towards certain weights. There's little we can do to stop someone biologically predisposed to weight gain from being overweight, but we can encourage healthy practices, because an overweight person who eats lots of vegetables and exercises will be healthier than an overweight person who doesn't. Now, as a side effect, the former person will also weigh less than the latter, but not by as much as most would expect, and the weight is besides the point anyways.

[@oldstump1628]

@@2pppppppppppppp657 so keep pushing your propaganda? Hard pass.

[@2pppppppppppppp657]

@@oldstump1628 Lol, thanks for the thoughtful response, have a good one

[@tevkaber4604]

I think there’s a balance to be found - body positivity is great, and fat shaming and tropes are harmful, but there does also seem to be a link between average weight and diabetes. So while we shouldn’t be fat shaming, we also need to be able to encourage healthy eating and exercise. I fear that banning all mention of weight relating to health would shut down discussion. Personally I struggle with weight, and I know that the times when my weight is more in the “normal” bmi, I feel much more energetic and healthy, able to do more without getting winded. So there is work to be done in changing cultural attitudes towards weight, but there should also be healthy ways to discuss weight rather than brush off any health concerns as fatphobic.

[@gur262]

I read a couple comments here that are that way and honestly the vid is overly pandering lumping together gym anxiety with discrimination and medical reality. Like some fat people seem to think they'll feel like starving forever if they lost and kept weight off. That's just not true.

[@azure-mist]

As a fat person, I am extremely touched that someone more on the skinny side would make a whole video on us and how weight and fatness is shown in media. It often feels like it’s only fat people speaking up about it. Non-fat allies are so rare, and so valuable. Thank you for this, sincerely.

[@azure-mist]

@@ville__ Pov: Copy-paste spamming a reply to multiple people because you’re so pressed that fat people discuss our issues

[@steampunk-llama]

@@ville__ 🤡

[@oldstump1628]

Moo

[@Gamna778]

Lose some weight instead of complaining about your situation and searching for comfort groups that reaffirm your unhealthy lifestyle.

[@SapphireSeahorse494]

I'm quite skinny because I have a fast metabolism... sorta. I have digestive issues, Idrk what's going on in my digestive system. The point is, I'm very against all types of systemic oppression. I've been trying to gain weight for a while, because I'm not very healthy and the more that I eat, the more likely I am to drink more water, and I need to drink as much water as possible. like 6 months ago or so, I lost like 10 pounds in 3 or 4 weeks because I was sleeping so much that I didn't have enough time awake to eat enough. that was kinda scary. my sleep is still a problem but it's getting better. It still blows my mind and angers me every time I see queerphobia, transphobia, racism, misogyny, and fatphobia. it feels so unnatural to me to be bigoted and hurt other people like that. (I'm also kinda self-conscious that this comment might come across as trying to brag or something, I really don't mean it that way)

[@jessd8161]

I am endlessly frustrated by people saying 'kids won't notice it'. Kids pick up on EVERYTHING (and they're kinda supposed to - they're learning how to human!). I grew up during the 'super skinny' body trends of the late 90s and early 00s and massively internalised that messaging. I had serious body dysmorphia by the time I was about 6/7. I was unaware of my neurodivergence and didn't understand why people didn't like me. My child brain interpreted it as 'I must be too fat' because of the kind of fat representation on tv and in the media. The people getting bullied and shamed were primarily fat (or perceived as such) so I concluded that 'I must be too, right?' and 'once i'm skinny enough, people will finally like me'. Good representation in media, especially children's, is invaluable.

[@Cookie-xy7hk]

Yes but encouraging it is not the way to go about it. But whenever there is someone trying to better themselves they are told no cause it hurts a bunch of bitchy people on the internet. People shouldn't be shamed for losing weight nor should they be shamed for having it unless they actively promote unhealthy practices and seek to keep people from bettering their healthm

[@oldstump1628]

Kids shouldn’t be fat.

[@ewu..]

@jessd8161 I get what you mean, I was the same way growing up! People are so brainwashed to think that shaming/demonising fatness is/should be accepted and that this behaviour is helpful, it completely baffles me... I genuinely don't understand. I'm sorry that the only replies to your comment are so hateful, I hope you are doing well!

[@jboydayz]

by encouraging obesity? Do some cardio lmao

[@I_hate_mortals]

Were you fat though?

[@gizmoknow-how2022]

Motivating a fat person to do excercise is great, making fun of their appearance, considering them less than, stereotyping isn't.

[@arcsballss]

some people’s bodies don’t change as much, though.

[@gizmoknow-how2022]

@@arcsballss that's true, but people still judge them.

[@randomcat1962]

Motivating anyone to do exercise is goof

[@oldstump1628]

It’s always ok to mock disgusting people.

[@arcsballss]

@@oldstump1628 no it isn’t

[@sobree9743]

This was a hard video to watch because of how hard and true it hits. Thank you for doing such a good job on this essay.

[@gascap3]

One of the things that I really liked about Turning Red was the diversity among the group of girls and that they never used Abby as a source of comedic relief.

[@eliasmg9144]

Abby genuinely was the best character on that movie

[@kelleyceccato7025]

Mei herself is chunky, the first time I can think of seeing that in a female protagonist. She's absolutely adorable.

[@gailhanako]

She is at times used for comedic relief, but in the right way: her weight isn't the butt of the joke

[@dr.seesaw8894]

I've also seen that it's agreed that Ned from Spiderman is really good fat representation - his weight is never pointed out nor is it the butt of any jokes and he's just allowed to exist and be a really likeable character in the movies

[@0roseable]

Very true!

[@Author.Noelle.Alexandria]

Ned’s fantastic. And I know a lot of people think Fat Thor was a joke, but what a lot of people overlooked was that they were all dealing with trauma in very real ways, and when he became Hero Thor, he stayed bigger.

[@0roseable]

@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria As a fat person who watched Endgame in a cinema, I very much experienced Fat Thor as played for laughs. I heard the laughs all around me several times. They chose to play it for laughs even if they were showing a realistic response to trauma.

[@naikigutierrez4279]

@@Author.Noelle.Alexandriadidn’t he go back to be a conventionally muscled hero in Love and Thunder?

[@oldstump1628]

I’m glad he’s getting in shape. He looks much better.

[@gibbygibbygibby7237]

I never thought Trish from Austin and Ally was lazy because no lazy person has the motivation to keep getting new jobs lol

[@oldstump1628]

A common avoidance tactic is to focus on everything but your most pressing problem. It is absolutely indicative of a specific type of laziness.

[@beepbeepboop206]

Just like what you're doing! Avoiding the problem that's obviously pestering you to cause you to pinpoint other people's insecurities/ not insecurities? Who knows. Well, you seem to be avoidi ng whatever it is that's causing you to be so insecure. Please. Seek help. Touch grass. (I'm probably sounding a bit patronising by now. If so, I am truly sorry about that.) If anything, maybe it is coming from a good place but I don't really know.. You are coming across as incredibly patronising yourself. Just thought I'd let you know. :)

[@kaitiecolbert8597]

We need more characters like Mikey on Recess. He was fat but he was also portrayed as being sensitive, artistic, and kind. His size occasionally was a theme of an episode but it was rarely the main focus. If they did address his weight it was usually sympathetic- addressing how other kids’ comments hurt him rather than implying that he was the one who needed to change. I think he’s a good model for future representation.

[@morinomajou]

Especially the episode where it's revealed he does ballet! One of the most pervasive fatphobic stereotypes in kids' media is that fat people are lazy and unhealthy, so the fact that his hobby is something as physically demanding as ballet, and he does it extremely well, was absolutely lovely to see.

[@porcelainboy264]

Yeah! Mikey was the "gentle giant"

[@Kaledrone]

If he is a fatass then he does need to change.

[@cam_like_ham]

On the other hand, they did have Kirst the Worst, who was still depicted as this mean, unlikeable glutton. That hits a lot harder too considering it sets up a double standard of fatness being especially bad if you're a girl.

[@NoiseDay]

I like that the book Uglies- all about dystopian obsession with plastic surgery- says almost nothing about the character's weight. The whole point of becoming "Pretty" was to correct every little thing about a person that made them unique regardless of whether readers would think it was a flaw. It wasn't really about body shaming, but about conformity. Everyone was expected to fit into a particular visual mold. Much like beauty trends in recent years, it wasn't about not having any fat, but about having it "in the right places" as determined by society. As a teen, the book showed me how people will find ugliness anywhere so long as they are looking for it. I recommend Karolina Zebrowska's video titled "Why Are Body Parts Fashion?"

[@ArtichokeHunter]

This comment made me think of the scifi story "Liking What You See: A Documentary" by Ted Chiang (the writer of the story for Arrival). One of my all-time favorites.

[@yourhorseyepona7309]

Ay, someone remembers Uglies! I remember in middleschool commenting on the title of the book itself, how the name Uglies shows how people in this world treat anyone outside the norm, and how this name for these people is super demeaning. Just curious, have ya read the rest of the series? I only managed to read up to half of the second book.😅

[@mistressofuniverses]

My immediate reaction to that term was actually to think of the Autodale series here on KZbin where the people that did their roles in society and didn’t question things and always conformed were called “Pretty” or “Pretties” while if you had any undesirable traits in any capacity, you were deemed an “Ugly” and thus it was your civic duty to march off to your death. There’s more to it than that but it’s interesting to see how different stories will frame similar dystopias.

[@katiem.3109]

@@ArtichokeHunter I'll second the plug for Ted Chiang. I'm reading his short story collection "stories of your life and others" and though I haven't gotten to the story you mentioned yet, the three stories I've read so far were awesome. I especially liked "tower of Babylon", and I loved the fact that he decided to casually portray the central mathematician character in "division by zero" as being a woman. As a woman studying to be a mathematician it's nice to see representation.

[@ImaginaryAlchemist]

I loved that series as a teen! I'm glad other people remember it. It had a lot of good commentary in it on body image and being forced to fit a certain mold

[@Singe41]

"Fatphobia" aka common sense

[@SMCwasTaken]

FatPhobia doesn't exist Fat people aren't oppressed

[@mandarindrago165]

Proudly fatphobic 💪

[@sabretoo]

These examples are just heartbreaking. It reminds me of how the Magic School Bus reboot not only lightened Tim and Keesha's skin and de-frizzed Ms. Frizzle's hair, but also made Ralphie thinner. It's such a shame bc the original designs are all so lovable! Excellent video as always. It sucks that fatphobia is still such an acceptable form of bigotry in our culture. I hope with enough discussion like this, things will get better, but progress in mainstream media is very slow and difficult.

[@realmarchie]

That’s her sister though ms frizzle is a professor in the reboot

[@kspoo10_]

​@@realmarchie They still decided to give the sister de-frizzed hair, tho...

[@realmarchie]

@@kspoo10_ I mean, so?? That doesn’t mean Miss Frizzle isn’t miss Frizzle. Just because her sister’s hair isn’t exactly like her sister’s doesn’t mean they’re saying Miss Frizzle was unattractive. The other changes I can understand being upset about but this is a difference in hair texture between siblings. It’s not that big of a deal.

[@cjboyo]

@@realmarchie texturism is a real thing. Textured hair has been stereotyped for a long time as undesirable and lesser.

[@morbidsearch]

I agree but it is important to remember that mixed race characters were less common in the 80s and 90s because of lingering attitudes against interracial marriage

[@kuroneko5390]

When I was a teenager I was so depressed I had to go to a special clinic for mentally ill children. Most of the children where either depressed or had eating disorders. The youngest patient was a 9 year old girl that was there because of an eating disorder. I will never forget her crys when the doctors told her she had to eat or she won't be able to go outside and play with us because the exercise could be dangerous for her, since she was so thin and frail. I struggle with my weight as well but in the other direction and she told me when she looks into the mirror she sees a girl that is twice the size as me... made me realize that being thin and struggling with being too thin is also a real problem.

[@pinkdiamond1847]

That poor girl 😭 I really hope she's doing well now. Maybe it was a health and safety thing, but I think the advice is now that you're not supposed to force food on children or force children to clean their plates because that can cause a negative association with food which can ironically cause eating disorders. I'm not saying the professionals didn't know what they were doing but if the current day advice is anything to go on. They were probably compounding the problem and making it worse. Then again I think the advices for children who don't currently suffer from eating disorders. I don't really know what the advice would be when children just refused to eat anything and starve themselves to death but I feel like there's a better way than using food as punishment which is what they were doing.

[@nacchi06]

​@@pinkdiamond1847 As someone who is currently struggling with a restrictive eating disorder, I think it's a touchy subject. For most patients, restriction is incredibly competitive. If someone else leaves a crumb, you feel like you have to leave two, and the person next to you will probably feel the need to leave three. Because you have to be the one who eats less; that's what the disorder convinces you about. You strive to be sicker than the others, and there's a disturbing feeling of superiority when you are "the one who's eaten less". The hospital forces you to clean your plate because patients are actively looking for ways to leave as much food as they can. Even if crumbs and leftovers make no difference for most people who don't struggle with a disorder, for many people who don't have a good relationship with food it's important that they have no possibility of hiding food or leaving any of it

[@pinkdiamond1847]

@@nacchi06 okay but surely a better solution will be to have patients eat in private so that there is no competition and then maybe ban any discussion of how much they ate so that they don't talk about how much they ate afterwards and then maybe as a rule have them try everything on their plates but with no pressure to finish everything. As someone who is recovering from an eating disorder but is thankfully most of the way through recovery. I just have a relapse every now and then I find it much easier to eat in private then around people. In fact, I still struggle to eat around people but I can eat perfectly fine. In fact, I can eat quite a lot when I'm by myself, and one of the things that encouraged me to break out of my eating disorder was moving out of my family home and in with a housemate, but where I had the ability to eat in my own room instead of in the dining room in front of everyone which I often did and I find that actually helped me. I now live all by myself and I eat quite well but just not in public. Then again, I'm not a professional and again I assume the professionals know what they're doing.

[@lilmisslizzyc]

@@pinkdiamond1847 I went to a mental hospital as a teen and they don’t force you to fully clean your plate. You just need to have eaten an amount the nurses deem appropriate, which can still be a struggle for some, I’m sure. The only problem with imposing a rule of private eating and no food discussions is that most mental hospitals are not just eating disorder rehab facilities. Most of the patients struggle with other mental health disorders or substance abuse issues, which can lead to disordered eating, but not the cause of actual disorders. I don’t think any patients actually had specific eating disorders in the times I was there, but I don’t remember. It’s something that you would talk about with the doctor and case worker at the hospital and they would create an alternative plan for you, whether that be different food or a private location.

[@oldstump1628]

Nice cope. But obesity is a far larger problem than the opposite.

[@hpnut4ever]

When I was a kid, I had a book called Catundra. It was about a cat who is so fat from eating things she "shouldn't" that she can't chase mice, who then tease her about it, and this makes her feel awful. Some other animal character (a mole or something, I don't remember) tells her that if she loses weight, the mice won't have any reason to make fun of her. It turns into this "journey to fitness" to stick it to the haters. I didn't realize until I found the book much later at a thrift store that the book had scarred me emotionally as a fat child. What the fuck kind of message is it to give to kids, that if someone teases you about being fat, just stop being fat and they'll leave you alone? As if people wouldn't then be able to find something else to bully you for? Where was the acceptance and compassion and self-love? Goddamn. Somehow I missed a lot of the fatphobic stuff in kids' shows and movies, but I remember watching episodes of Will & Grace after school and hearing at least once in almost every episode that one of the very fit main characters was fat. Upon rewatching the series last year, I found that it truly does come up in the vast majority of episodes across all eight seasons. No wonder I'm still trying to grow out of self-esteem issues around my size. Also, thank you for sharing that you are asexual. Since I realized that I am asexual a couple of years ago, it's felt very lonely in some regards because I don't know anyone else who is, aside from one friend who lives a long distance from me. It was comforting and grounding to be able to connect you in my mind as "one of my people".

[@EveryFairyDies]

Damn, this hit hard. Especially your discussion of "a fat character daring to assume they're deserving of love". As a fat person my whole life, I've really felt this one. I also really don't like Rebel Wilson or Melissa McCarthy because they're lauded as "female comic actors" but all their characters are just fat women who are meant to be laughed at, not laughed with.

[@Author.Noelle.Alexandria]

Wilson and McCarthy choose those roles at this point. They could both insist on something different.

[@randomcat1962]

@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria people need money

[@oldstump1628]

@@randomcat1962 no one needs to act. It was absolutely a choice.

[@galaxychill9578]

James Somerton's "The Gay Body Image Crisis" details the Queer side of the conversation.

[@marocat4749]

Yep, very sad but very good.

[@gaywalllbiter]

Love his videos, would highly recommend and Second this video

[@smmmmmmm3603]

wonder who james stole those ideas and words from

[@haydentcem]

Isn’t childhood obesity a bad thing?

[@JiixBooks]

The kid in the neverending story in the books was a fat kid being bullied by skinny children for his weight but in the movie they casted a thin child which aggravated the author a lot since he wanted especially to show how poorly fat children are being treated

[@skunkywild2116]

I didn't know that! That's so frustrating to hear! Also, in the book "A House with a Clock in its Walls," I believe the main character kid was fat (and I believe it was never acknowledged in anything besides a neutral way), and in the movie, of course the actor for the same character was thin. So frustrating...

[@NathasyaStellaHermanus]

Dang that sucks. Especially when the author actually had a good intention

[@EmblaBexell]

That really sucks since it would change the story quite drastically… :/

[@jboydayz]

cubby bubby

[@sharkofjoy]

For unrelated reasons, I spent several hours reading r/medicine, the subreddit for doctors, nurses, pharmacists, etc. It was very interesting, but the one thing I couldn't get over was the all caps hysteria over fatness. In so many ways, the forum was a place of frank discussion about difficult topics, except when it came to weight. The descriptions and conversation about fatness were shocking and horrifying, and spoke loudly to the type of discrimination that I have zero doubt fat people experience when seeking any form of healthcare. Disgusting and worrying.

[@naikigutierrez4279]

Reddit hates fat people, specially fat women.

[@CJ-wh7ik]

Go to r/medicine and this time read those post with more understanding. There's undisputed amount of evidence that points to the simple fact that being fat is the same as being unhealthy. What is so shocking about medical specialists being against "fatness"??

[@naikigutierrez4279]

@@CJ-wh7ik LMAO you think that people in r/medicine are experts.

[@CJ-wh7ik]

@@naikigutierrez4279 More expert than ppl on r/beingafatass that for sure

[@KiraNightshade]

I worked as a receptionist in a medical office for a few years, and the way people there talked about some of our patients was awful. Genuinely, when patients go above 300 or 400 lbs, it becomes difficult to provide proper care. Like, our tables are only so wide, same with the standard chairs you'll find in waiting rooms and to fit into exam rooms, scales stop registering, patients have to go elsewhere for stuff like MRIs or CT scans (can't remember which or if it's both), and for emergency service workers, physically picking up people of certain weights is not only difficult but could either injure them or put the patient at risk, like if you're trying to avoid jostling their neck or keep pressure on a wound, etc. But at the same time, just the lack of compassion and empathy was mind blowing. At least one of our patients who was in this weight range was on a power scooter so it isn't like she could "just exercise" and goodness knows what effects any meds she took had or what food she could afford. The judgement was kept to themselves among my coworkers, but it was still disheartening, and I had to wonder about implicit bias from the doctors. It genuinely sucks because a lot of weight on the internal organs does put stress on them, there are issues that stem from too much body fat. But attributing every health issue to weight, especially dismissing unexplained pain, not cool

[@monicareyes1712]

Nothing wrong with the bluey episode

[@AdolfHitler-lk4vo]

but muh fatphobia!!!

[@gefelipeking563]

Average blue haired girl

[@PokhrajRoy.]

All you have to do is type the words fatphobic and ableist and people come out in hordes to deny but actually confirm it.

[@HiBuddyyyyyy]

I’m not saying this makes it okay at all or excuses it, I think some people think bigotry is just actively mocking people. Like they either don’t know or don’t want to think about how they could be doing something fatphobic because they aren’t actively harassing fat people, so how can they be fatphobic.

[@steelplatedheart]

@@HiBuddyyyyyy agree and also people in these comments are literally harassing fat people imo even if they don't see it that way because they've convinced themselves that providing unsolicited pseudoscientific medical advice and insulting people they've never met for having a body different from theirs is the moral position actually. Literally found someone saying 'being fat is a choice and people who don't lose weight are lazy' already.

[@somerandomguyontheinternet6735]

@@steelplatedheart Well being fat is a choice. Yes losing weight is hard but it is doable and definitely worth it.

[@Kaledrone]

Both of those things are very good. Fat people are disgusting and disabled people are providing nothing to society and should look into euthanisia.

[@Kaledrone]

@@steelplatedheart It literally is a choice, you coping about it in your echo chambers and finding articles online saying the opposite doesn't change that. Keep munching on them burgers while talking about being a big tummy mf is not a choice.

[@zoe-715]

That's why representation like Guillermo in What We Do In The Shadows is so important, because he's never the butt of the joke because of his weight. He just exists and he's badass.

[@henjin.]

Wait, this isn't satire? Oh God.

[@meljstephan]

I've never seen your channel before, and I have to thank the algorithm for actually giving me a good recommendation. You are immensely intelligent and well-spoken. It is clear that you have taken careful time researching and reflecting before speaking. Love it

[@ItssMelissa]

I also want to point out how much less effort gets put into drawing fat characters in cartoons, at least from what I remember growing up. It felt like the fat characters were always relegated to just being a Giant Square or a Giant Circle in contrast with their thinner peers' bodies having more interest with curves, being made up of multiple shapes to create an interesting silhouette or having layered clothing. Thinner characters had more well thought out and complex designs. Whereas I remember most fat characters in cartoons were contrastingly simpler in every aspect, including when it came time to explore that character's life. It’s a design cliche that turns me off a piece of media very quickly and I don't really see that genre of fatphobia discussed as much- how its not just about looking down on fatness, its the fact that there's barely any effort put into a fat person at all; as if they aren't worth it or as if their fatness is enough of a personality on its own that there’s no need to explore anything else

[@Dave102693]

Anime is even worse

[@oldstump1628]

Did you want them to draw fats as cottage cheese looking scum bags.? Yeah it’s realistic. But unnecessary.

[@carolinabaldini1432]

As a tween i had internalized the idea that guys liked girls who didn't care about what they eat and likes "hamburgers and pizza over a salad", however i quickly realize that was only acceptable if you where skinny, not chubby like me

[@jasperjazzie]

exactly, it's so weird how liking food is seen as a cool and quirky trait, yet it's only if you're skinny and if you're chubby you need to "just stop eating" like which is it y'all

[@sunsnows]

@@jasperjazzie its cuz the skinny girls know how to eat the food and not get fat over it lmao.

[@oldstump1628]

You can eat enjoyable food and not be fat. It’s called moderation.

[@shallowbay3624]

Because fat girls are not attractive tbh

[@carolinabaldini1432]

@@sunsnows if you had ever spoken to women or read any child star memoir you can see that a lot of times Iy was not exactly because of healthy behavior (I'm taking about tweens meaning 12 to 16) as we were too young to have any information of nutrition and eating healthy is a habit that comes with practice, being skinny at that age has way more to do with genetics and your parents habits that with personal control

[@ElNPC217]

Fatphobia doesn't even exist

[@SeaBreeze-w9999]

It exists and it's good

[@yamaspajamaz7718]

yall are soo soft. Just stay healthy instead of overreacting to kids shows making jokes

[@certificateofirrelevance2412]

The worst part is that it wasnt even a fucking joek it was a single face that the dad did how the fuck will that give children body dysmorphia i think im going fucking insane

[@Wereblood]

So I live in Colorado in the USA, and I'm very lucky in that we're one of the states that insurance has to cover transgender care. The thing is, when I went in search of getting my top surgery I was pointed to one place multiple times. It was where I was supposed to go because I have Medicaid. But when I called they gave me a long list of what I needed, one of those things? A low BMI. Now I'm fat, and I don't mind that, it's not something I obsess over, but on the phone they made this sound like something the state required and it really fucked me up. I already have major depression issues and I knew I couldn't pay for this out of pocket so I didn't know what I would do. Later when I went to my primary care doctor and complained about this she seemed really confused and then livid. Turned out as far as the state was concerned literally all I needed was approval from her, that's it. Again I was lucky that I had been going to a primary care doctor who specialized in transgender health. So what was going on? Denver Health had recently opened up it's transgender health wing and wanted to make itself look as good as possible. It didn't want any possibility of anything at all going wrong. It also wanted to be able to take pictures and other things of that order. So they didn't want me because they considered my fat body unappealing to take pictures of, and they considered the like .01% increase in anesthesia risks too dangerous to their bottom line. I ended up going to Rose Care Center. The doctor their was very respectful, very helpful through the whole process, and she told me she had other patients who came in who had gone through the same thing as me. I loved her, and will always be grateful for her. Plus, after the surgery I got a card in the mail signed by my whole surgery team with little personal messages that I still keep and cherish. They all made up for what happened to me before I got to them. If you have a fat body in Colorado and want top surgery, skip the headache of Denver Health and go to Rose Care Center, you won't regret it. Lol I didn't mean to make this an endorsement for Rose, it's just Denver Health really was such a horrid experience for me, I cried so much trying to deal with them and their insane demands for my body. I guess I just want to save other people the heartache.

[@maryeckel9682]

As if trans people don't have enough obstacles and microaggressions thrown at them! That's at least bordering on malpractice.

[@cynamentl]

I'm really glad you got the care you were looking for and thanks for the recommendation! You might not have meant to turn it into a referral but I know I really appreciate it 💞

[@upliftothers4599]

Aw, I love the note, that is so sweet! Congrats on getting the surgery and I wish you a healthy recovery and much gender

[@oldstump1628]

I’m so glad Colorado makes it easier to sterilize you.

[@haileewetherbee180]

When I was 14 I went to a doctor for pain and numbness in my hands and was told there was nothing wrong with me except I would feel better if I lost weight by the specialist I was sent to see. At this point I was a size 12 and weighed maybe 160lbs and was able to sustain a jog for nearly an hour and could swim and tread water for many times longer than most of the kids my age. I was in the best shape of my life but the number on the scale meant more than my actual problem. It took until shortly after my 16th birthday to be diagnosed with bilateral carpal tunnel and have surgery to correct the issue when the non surgical treatments did not work due to it taking over 18 months to diagnosed. My age, gender and weight all stacked up against me and prevented simple health care that could have prevented the need for more extreme care until after it was too late. It still is a fight every time I develop a new issue related to a genetic condition I have

[@wokeesg]

160!?!!😳

[@meonyoutubenow]

Obesity, if that's what you are refering to, is not recognized as a genetic condition. Carpal tunnel syndrome is VERY unusual for 14-year olds to have as it is almost exclusively caused by wrongly performed weightlifting over a long period of time. It is by no means part of a normal anamnesis for a GP to even consider that. Overweight on the other hand is very commonly associated with nerva-muscular disfunctions. Also the force and downward pressure of obesity equals that of weightlifting and can indeed lead to carpal tunnel syndrome over time, especially at an age when the bone structure has yet to calcify. His diagnosis was likely correct but as you mentioned unfortunaly came too late. There is a good chance you would have never developed bio mechanical deformities had you not been way too heavy to begin with. You can thank yourself and parents for at.

[@haileewetherbee180]

@meonyoutubenow I have a genetic disorder hEDS which among other things means my connective tissues are loose and it causes chronic pain. It took over a decade of fighting doctors and having surgeries common to people 3 or 4 times my age to get diagnosed. Your comments about weight are quite ignorant and you should really check facts before spewing ignorant comments like that. I hope you get off the internet and interact with real people and learn something if you can't see just how utterly inept your comments make you look

[@zayy4440]

If only there was a way to lose weight LMAO

[@Dpw20001]

Eat less, move more. Problem solved.

[@certificateofirrelevance2412]

Hell its even easier just dont give in to your impulses

[@selvaggiapizzetti897]

Fat phobia is not a thing •

[@SquirrelOfTheNight]

I almost cried when I saw the Duke in Resident Evil Village. For ONCE, a fat character isn't demonized, isn't the bad guy, isn't the comic relief. He is the one reliable ally of the main character throughout the game. He is obese but his weight is never brought up in conversation. He is not seen eating all the time either, as the stereotype would have. He is a glorious and fascinating character.

[@houselivesay4013]

he ran out of breath the first 5 secounds if it was irl😂

[@zayy4440]

Bro did you see that behemoth LMAO you look up to that Thing? He looked like he was going to swallow the screme with his mass

[@TaliPolk]

Ignore the other two comments. It is interesting to see hard-core resident evil fans be nice to him and even have their own repertoire with him. Since he doesn't exhibit the stereotypes and is just an interesting character all his own, the audience is able to see him as a person rather than an object of comedy or digust or as a villian.

[@davideogamer7910]

Bro Duke is the GOAT, him and the mysterious stranger are my BOIS

[@Man-ej6uv]

the duke is a homie fr

[@raziraphale]

About the intersection of fatness and gender nonconformity - I think it goes beyond just not having access to as many clothing options or gender affirming care. I feel like there's this social pressure for fat people to almost... Hyper perform gender. As a fat person perceived as a woman, it took me so long to explore more masculine presentation, because to refuse to perform femininity as a fat woman, to refuse to put in the "effort" of it, is to be seen as slovenly and unhygienic. How many times have I seen skinny women get praised for pulling off simple casual fashion choices that would get me pitying looks if I dared wear them to the grocery store? Fat woman are never given the same freedom to dress "comfy", or go bare faced, or not shave our legs. We have to atone for the crime of being fat by dedicating ourselves to being the perfect woman in every other way. Anyway great video and to any fat butches reading this you're braver than any U.S. Marine

[@gaflene]

Between binders not fitting correctly and masculine clothes being seen as "low effort" it's been really hard to be openly nonbinary. I can't do anything about my chest so I'll never pass, except get top surgery which I don't really want.

[@bedtimeat8]

I went the opposite way. If everyone already thinks I'm disgusting I don't need to put effort in. It also helps that ive never worked in a office environment where i would be expected to dress well. I find it hard to wear actual pants instead of leggings or sweats these days.

[@n48_art]

@@gaflenei’m not sure if i’m just gonna get your hopes up for nothing as i have a small chest but look into trans tape, it seems to accommodate bigger chests

[@aspenrose_]

@@n48_art isnt trans tape dangerous?

[@upliftothers4599]

​@@aspenrose_ From the little reasuerch I've done, it is safe, you just have to be careful when removing it, and use an oil or something. Basically, do your research, listen your body, take/ use accurate measurements, and you will be fine :)

[@RAATz-]

looks like somebody didn't get the message of wall-e

[@avivastudios2311]

I had the same thought. The movie was about love, consumeism and the humans being too lazy to make a difference.

[@RAATz-]

@@avivastudios2311 exactly!!!

[@pressedferns]

I just want to say genuinely, thank you so much for this video. As someone who has spent my whole life as a plus size person, I obviously knew about fatphobia, but never really thought about how deep it went I always thought about it surface level rather than a more intricate network of hatred. I didn’t realize how much the “lazy, evil, stupid” trope affected how i view myself. Now that i’m more conscious of the mental effects/biases it’s given me, i’ll think about that mental stuff when it comes to my ed recovery. This was all very well put and interesting!

[@morbidsearch]

The way the Total Drama fandom always complained about Owen getting so much screen time and dubbed him the "Writer's Pet"

[@ouci]

he's still a gross-out comic relief but yeah the way people reacted to owen being a major character really says a lot lol

[@soaringsquid0.129]

But Owen is awesome 😫😫

[@PramkLuna]

Tbf my issue with owen was the gross out humor, I'm glad he was able to win a season or annoy al in tdwt

[@sporkzzz]

I love Owen with my whole heart he's such a sweetheart 😭

[@jasperjazzie]

honestly i never got the hate for him, i didn't find him particularly funny but at least he wasn't unlikeable like gwen became in the later seasons (which tbh she also got a ton of screen time but you won't see anyone complain about that)

[@ArtichokeHunter]

What really hit me in a surprising way is the way that protagonists are thin (and otherwise "attractive") /without trying or caring/. I feel like this has had a big impact on me. I've never been a makeup kind of girl (and that's not going to change) but as a teenager I dreamed of just waking up attractive one day. I felt bad about my appearance, but I also felt deeply ashamed of caring about it. Even as an adult, gaining a little weight brought back some of those feelings, although I think my familiarity with fatphobia helped me combat those feelings and accept the changes that my body went through.

[@oldstump1628]

Why accept the change when you could chose to be healthier?

[@ScurvySeamate]

What do you mean not trying. Knowing that most of the people in this comment section are grown adults who can only stomach Disney Cartoons, protagonists in more mature shows actually do work for it. You goober.

[@oldstump1628]

@@ScurvySeamate it’s funny how every infantile idiot is also obese.

[@prixe12]

​@@ScurvySeamatewho are you to call anyone weak when you are a grown ass adult talking shit to strangers on the Internet for having a higher body fat percentage then you get a job

[@AlejandroJMA]

Proudly fatphobic 💪💪

[@tylergates4075]

Sounds more like you are Fit-phobic