Not related to anything – I clicked on a YouTube video for a cover of Billy Joel’s “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant,” both because I love that song (sorry Billy Joel haters!) and because the name of the group – “Middle Aged Dad Jam Band” – made me chuckle. And about halfway through the video, I realized that the drummer is someone I went to summer camp with forty years ago. The internet is weird. (Also, Weird Al.)
I’ve done essay comics before, but not often, partly because they just take FOREVER to do. But I like the form, and I’d like to do these more often if I can manage it.
This is not, I admit, an important issue. Fatphobia is an important issue, but the way TV and movie writers like to do anti-fat humor without actually showing fat people is just a symptom. But I find watching how they do it interesting, and it’s not something I’ve seen many people talk about.
One thing I had to think about a lot, writing this cartoon, is how to show fat people in it. Should I just make the entire comic the “Barry” character talking to the audience, not showing anyone else? Visually kind of boring. Plus, given the theme of the cartoon, it seemed weird to not show fat people.
But I didn’t want panel after panel of fat people being hurt by the way the media depicts us. That’s just depressing, and it creates a visual story of fat people as helpless sad sacks that I didn’t want to tell.
What I finally settled on was showing a bunch of fat people experiencing anti-fat media, but I tried to show them (as much as can be done with characters who appear for only one panel) as people with lives and interests and pleasures, rather than just victims of a prejudiced media. Trying to do the complete opposite of how a show like “Friends” treats fat people, in other words.
(And yes, if anyone’s wondering, I’ve watched and enjoyed some episodes of “Friends.” Despite it’s myriad of flas, it can be a funny show! But one of the things I enjoy about it is complaining about it.)
Thanks, as always, to everyone supporting my Patreon! This comic – because of the odd essay format, because it took a lot of time that couldn’t be spent on other comics, and because it’s about fatphobia – is an example of a comic strip that I probably couldn’t make if my Patreon supporters weren’t making it possible. So thank you!
TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON
This cartoon has fourteen panels, so it’s kind of a long one.
PANEL 1
A drawing of Barry (the cartoonist) relaxing on a sofa, holding a tablet and talking directly at the readers with a friendly expression.
BARRY: Ever notice how lots of movies and TV shows tell fat jokes without showing fat people?
PANEL 2
A very fat woman with carefully-styled curly black curly hair is speaking, looking self-satisfied. Text identifies her as “Celesta Geyer, 1930s circus fat lady.”
CAPTION: In ye olden days, when folks wanted to laugh at fat people, they’d go to the circus. Today we’ve got reality TV for that.
CELESTA: “People laugh at me anyway, so I make them pay for the privilege.”
PANEL 3
Barry is talking to us, smiling and leaning an arm on the panel border.
BARRY: But some viewers find reality TV too vulgar. They want to laugh at fat jokes, but laughing directly at fat people feels too crude.
PANEL 4
Barry is looking at us and standing in front of a TV; he points a remote control at the TV as he speaks.
BARRY: So TV and movie writers have developed strategies for laughing at fat people without showing fat people.
PANEL 5
Big, friendly looking lettering takes up most of this panel; it says THE ABSENT FATSO. Barry leans over the top of the lettering, still talking to us.
BARRY: I call these strategies…
LETTERING: THE ABSENT FATSO
PANEL 6
A hand is holding a smartphone; on the smartphone is a picture of Homer Simpson eating a donut. Homer is speaking to us, continuing Barry’s dialog.
HOMER/BARRY: Strategies like… The Animated Fatso! Cartoon fatties are always safe to laugh at!
PANEL 7
A fat woman with her thick black hair tied back is standing at a kitchen counter, holding a large knife. She seems to be cutting a slice of bread off a fresh baked loaf. An open laptop lies on the counter nearby; dialog is coming out of the laptop, but it doesn’t have a word balloon, making it less like dialog and more like a background element.
CAPTION: Or The Off-Screen Fatso! Think of Howard’s Ma on “Big Bang Theory,” or Ugly Naked Guy on “Friends.”
LAPTOP: Ma doesn’t have a neck. Just chins and fat and feet.
PANEL 8
Two extremely happy looking fat women are cuddling a small baby. A laptop is on a countertop nearby, next to a feeding bottle. Small dialog is coming from the laptop, but no one’s paying it any attention.
CAPTION: Or the ex-fatso! This character supposedly used to be fat. But they’re played by a thin actor so fat jokes about them are okay. Like Will on “Will and Grace” or Monica on “Friends.”
LAPTOP: It’s a new band called “Will Is Fat.”
PANEL 9
This panel shows two versions of Barry, with a lightning-bolt-shaped graphic dividing them. On the left, actual Barry, in a t-shirt that says “flashback,” is talking to us and snapping his fingers. On the right, imaginary thin Barry is smiling as he talks to us; his t-shirt says “present.”
FAT BARRY: ( Annoyingly, the “ex-fatso” trope supports the myth that any fat person could simply choose to become and remain thin. )
THIN BARRY: So easy!
PANEL 10
A fat woman sits at a cafe table, with a coffee mug and book and muffin on the table. She’s got a drawing board propped up on the table, and is leaning forward as she draws, looking pleased with what she’s drawing. She has an undercut, many earrings and a nosering, and tattoos. She also has a cell phone propped up; dialog comes from the phone, but it’s small and she doesn’t seem to be paying it much attention.
PHONE: Thor, eat a salad!
PANEL 11
A fat man sits in an armchair, watching TV. He has a old cowboy movie style of dress, with an embroidered shirt and sideburns. His cat has jumped into his lap and is cautiously stepping onto his stomach to sniff at his nose; he smiles at the cat.
TV: Look at my titties, Austin Powers.
PANEL 12
We’re looking at a TV; a thermos is in front of the TV, and a sock is lying on top of the TV. On the TV, Barry is talking straight out at us, looking serious.
BARRY: If a real fat person played “Fat Bastard,” some (not all) viewers would have felt uncomfortable. That reminder that fat people are people could make things less fun.
PANEL 13
All the previous rows had three panels each; this row has two panels, so panels 13 and 14 are a bit larger than previous panels have been.
We are looking at the inside of a dim movie theater, looking at a section of the audience. There are about a dozen people in this panel, all fat, all watching the movie – except for Barry, seating in the middle of the group, who is talking to us, and the woman seated to his left, who has turned to face Barry.
BARRY: But even when Hollywood doesn’t show us, we’re still here. In the audience. Being sneered at by proxy. Can’t the studios just skip the fat jokes altogether? And also, hire more fat act–
WOMAN: Ssh!
PANEL 14
A well-lit, large office, with a large fancy-looking desk, and a big window overlooking a city. There are framed movie posters on the wall. An executive-looking man wearing a collared shirt and tie is sitting behind the desk, in a big leather-looking chair, and talking cheerfully into his phone. On his desk are a notebook (paper kind), an open laptop, a second phone, and a framed photo.
EXECUTIVE: Just a sec, gotta turn off some internet weirdo. So I got budget numbers on that fat suit comedy…
CHICKEN FAT WATCH
“Chicken fat” is a long-dead term for the little bits of unimportant but hopefully amusing things cartoonists stick in the backgrounds of their comics.
PANEL 1: There is a framed photo of Garnet, from the TV show “Steven Universe,” on the wall. On the sidetable is a magazine called “NO IDEAS MAGAZINE,” with a front cover photo of a stick figure man shrugging, and a coffee mug with “I’m actually a fork” printed on it.
PANEL 3: Barry’s tshirt says “allergic to sunshine.”
PANEL 4: Barry’s tshirt now has a picture of a very muscular arm flexing, above the large letters TOUGH GUY. If you zoom in, you can read the small letters, which make it say “not a TOUGH GUY you can easily take me down.”
PANEL 6: Homer’s t-shirt has a picture of Binky from “Life In Hell,” the comic strip Matt Groening did before he created The Simpsons.
PANEL 8: One woman’s arm has tattoos of two Steven Universe characters, Garnet and Pearl. The other woman has many visible tattoos, including a sort of demonic skeleton Micky Mouse, and a coffee mug saying “cofee = god.”
PANEL 10: The woman’s tattoos include a dancing banana and a ring of keys. The book on her table says, on the front cover, “A Book by an Author,” and on the spine it says “a Spine.”
PANEL 12: A book lying next to the TV has READ THIS written on the spine.
PANEL 13: In the audience, all the way at top left of the panel, is Uncle Iroh from “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”
PANEL 14: The movie posters on the wall are for the movies “MOVIE POSTER” and its sequel, “MOVIE POSTER 2.”
I choose to believe the banana is singing “Ring of Keys” from Fun Home.
Possibly related comment:
I remember a movie I saw back in the 1950’s (one of the “Ma and Pa Kettle” series) that featured two genuine fat women in it. There was a scene where the women subdued a skinny gun-toting criminal by bouncing him back and forth between their bodies until he passed out. (The audience thought that was quite funny,)
BCB: I was consciously thinking of Fun Home when I drew the keys!
“That reminder that fat people are people could make things less fun.”
So true. Slight modification …
That reminder that ____ people are people could make things less fun.
What does that say about us? How much of our humour is based on “othering,” or downright cruelty? I think back on much of what I found funny in the past, and there’s definitely a streak of cruelty there, which we brushed off back in the day.
The Maintenannnce Phase bonus episode on “Shallow Hal” made a lot of relly good points on this. Having an actual fat actor would not only force viewers to justify to themselves that they are basically turning the existence of fat people into a constant joke, it would also force the people involved in making the movie to actually interact with at least one fat person, instead of only their own biases, stereotipes and imaginary fat people.
They also did one on Wall-E. I think the animated fat people on the space ship definitely fit into the category of “it’s ok to laugh at them because they are not played by actual fat people”. I know the whole movie is animated, but still.
The whole movie was animated, but I don’t think that makes a difference at all. :-)
I haven’t heard either episode; I should look for them. Oh, wait, bonus episode – so for Patrons only, right? Never mind.
Yeah, those are bonus episodes. I love the podcast so much, I would support the patreon regardles, but the extra episodes are nice.
The one on Wall-E also looked at Spy as a “palate-cleanser”. I don’t remember everything they talked about, but I think comparing the two really highlights what a huge difference it makes to have not just a fat actor but a fat star. Suddenly, while her fatness is still central to the story, the jokes are not “look, a fat person! Existing in the world! HA ha ha!”. Which honestly, so many fat jokes boil down to. Making fun of those who are stupidly underestimating people because of their biases against fat people, exposing those prejudices in the process, is just so much more satisfying.
(I remeber Leverage had jobs that depended on using peoples own biases against them a lot of the time and I always found those cons extra satisfying. I wish they had done an episode where they took down someone fatphobic, but I don’t know if that is an issue the writers and producers are even aware of.)
Any normal person whose body burns fat as its supposed to can choose not to be fat.
Something like Prader–Willi syndrome isn’t way more common than average in post 80:s USA specifically.
This is not to say that the environment has not changed. Its not like 50:s Americans had way more self-discipline.
@Siednon: You really think you´re the first fatphobic mansplainer to come here trying to tell us how it´s super easy to lose weight?
@Seidnon:
There’s a cartoon addressing this issue: https://amptoons.com/blog/?p=27164
Sorry, I could not make the embedding work right.
Even if this were true – and there has yet to be a single study about any kind of weight loss intervention/ plan, including “lifestyle changes” and “just eat healthier,” that led to a significant weight loss that was maintained long-term by more than a tiny percentage of participants, why would it matter?
Even if fat people had options to become thinner, how would that justify discrimination against fat people? Even if fat people chose to stay fat, why would that make it okay to not represent them as whole, complex human beings instead of only making them the butt of jokes? How would it justify excluding actual fat people from telling fat people’s own stories and instead using thin actors in fat suits to tell the stories about fat people that thin people think should be told?
Discrimination and stereotypes do not suddenly become less bigoted if the thing for which people are being discriminated is something they could change. Anybody who would argue differently is just echoing bigots of the past (and, sadly, present) telling people to change who they are and how they live if they want to escape prosecution and bigotry. (You may be born queer, but you are choosing not to stay in the closet. You may have been raised in a certain religion, but you are choosing to still believe in it. You may have fallen in love with a woman of another race, but you are choosing to actually be in a relationship. You may be suffering from severe gender disphoria, but you are choosing to transition… I could go on and on.) The existence of people who choose to live their lives in different ways does not give anybody the right to discriminate against those people. Unless and until the choices people make about how to live their lives cause actual harm to others, there is no justification for treating them badly simply for being different.
Why did you look at a cartoon that does not revolve around weight loss at all and decide that, instead of engaging with the actual topic, the most important thing to do was to tell everybody that fat people are responsible for their own fatness? Why is it impossible for you to encounter a cartoon about the experiences of fat people without proclaiming that fat people could be thin if only they really worked for it? Do you realize that you are kind of proving the point, reducing the existence of fat people to a problem that needs to be solved? And the solution is to stop fat people from existing?
What is it about someone saying: Hey, don’t treat us like shit just because we are fat! that makes it impossible for you to either talk about the actual topic at hand or, if that is just not something you are interested in, simply not comment at all. Why do you think the only thing about fat people that is worth discussing is how to stop them from existing?
Hey, I tried to fix my formatting but apparently the comment was marked as spam?
Thanks for letting me know, Lauren! I’ve fished the comment (which I really liked, btw) out of the spam trap, so you should be able to see it now.
@Siednon: You really think you´re the first fatphobic mansplainer to come here trying to tell us how it´s super easy to lose weight?
Phobic? You think I’m afraid?
There’s a cartoon addressing this issue: https://amptoons.com/blog/?p=27164
That’s a strawman. Fasting isn’t the only alternative.
there has yet to be a single study about any kind of weight loss intervention/ plan, including “lifestyle changes” and “just eat healthier,” that led to a significant weight loss that was maintained long-term by more than a tiny percentage of participants,
No you are wrong.
Afraid of fat people? Probably not. Of a world in which anti-fat bias is not simply accepted but called out for the bigotry it is? A world in which fat people are treated as people? Based on your comments here, it sure seems so.
Really? Link to the study please?
The cartoon doesn’t apply only to fasting; it applies to all calorie-deficit diets.
And before you provide a link, please read this post: I’m Asking You For A Peer-Reviewed Study Showing That A Typical Fat Person Can Become Sustainably Non-Fat Through Deliberate Weight-Loss
You didn’t understand the cartoon. Let me explain: The point is that any dieting that leads to weight loss is effectively starvation. The body reacts to starvation by increasing appetite, decreasing metabolic rate, and so on. This is because in evolutionary time, people who sought food more vigorously and whose bodies could reduce caloric use in times of famine were more likely to survive and reproduce. There is no way to tell the body “it’s okay, this starvation is limited and intentional and actually (possibly) good for our health.” Lose 20 pounds going from 300 to 280 is the same as from 120 to 80, as far as the body goes.
In the cartoon, the curly haired person is claiming that eating less will cause weight loss because of “physics”. She is right in so far as you cannot break the laws of thermodynamics and if you don’t eat enough, you will eventually burn fat to compensate. The dark haired person is pointing out that the same goes for holding your breath: You can’t break the laws of physics and will eventually pass out if you don’t breath. But that doesn’t mean that it is easy or comfortable to try to do so intentionally. You will start breathing again before you pass out, just as you will eat more and regain weight if you diet. It is, as the character says, biology.
Now do you get it?
I second the request. Let’s see these studies you’re claiming show ability to lose weight long term with lifestyle interventions.
Well, look. Like about 30% of American men, I am overweight — and I really should lose some weight (which, so far, I’ve been too lazy to do). If someone thinks that I’m fat — then they’re right, and I’m not going to let it bother me or make me accuse them of “fat phobia”. I am a flawed human being, just like all other humans. The fact that some people might notice the fact that I LACK THE SELF-DISCIPLINE TO LOSE WEIGHT … is really close to the bottom of the list of things that I care about. Not everything in the world is a reason to feel like an oppressed victim.
Anthony, I have to wonder if you even read the cartoon. You seem to just be recycling a much-used argument and posting it here without either having absorbed the cartoon or understanding the main points of the cartoon.
Which fat person in the cartoon looks like they’re being presented as “an oppressed victim”? Because all the fat people in this cartoon, to my eyes, look like they’re fairly content and leading good lives. Do you think it’s sad to take care of a baby? Or to pet a cat?
There is one panel (of 14) in this cartoon that some of your comment might be relevant to, if you squint. Instead of commenting on one part of one panel, why not try to engage with the strip as a whole?
There is no way to tell the body “it’s okay, this starvation is limited and intentional and actually (possibly) good for our health.” Lose 20 pounds going from 300 to 280 is the same as from 120 to 80, as far as the body goes.
No. Our bodies don’t have objective calorie counters but make a estimation based on things like volume, chewing and palatability.
It thinks that 2000 calories of cheesecake or soda pop have less energy than 2000 calories of eggplant.
Cheesecake and pepsi simply weren’t a thing for most of the time of the existence or our species.
Really? Link to the study please?
Do you not have Google like the rest of the world? Fine.
Rock, Cheryl L et al. “Effect of a Free Prepared Meal and Incentivized Weight Loss Program on Weight Loss and Weight Loss Maintenance in Obese and Overweight Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial.” JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association 304.16 (2010): 1803–1810. Web.
Svetkey, Laura P et al. “Comparison of Strategies for Sustaining Weight Loss: The Weight Loss Maintenance Randomized Controlled Trial.” JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association 299.10 (2008): 1139–1148. Web.
Gardner, Christopher D et al. “Effect of Low-Fat vs Low-Carbohydrate Diet on 12-Month Weight Loss in Overweight Adults and the Association With Genotype Pattern or Insulin Secretion: The DIETFITS Randomized Clinical Trial.” JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association 319.7 (2018): 667–679. Web.
Another problem with that study I just quoted? “For at least 1 year” isn’t a very impressive claim, if we’re looking for evidence of sustained weight loss.
Look this isn’t rocket science. If person a lost say 5% of weight on year 1 due to just cutting back on mayo and drinking water instead of sugary drinks then they can continue it on year 2, 3, 4, etc.
If you make a claim, it is on you to substantiate it. You claim that there are studies that prove it is possible for a significant number of fat people to lose a significant amount of weight and maintain that weightloss long term, you show us those studies.
Which you haven’t, by the way.
The first study only followed the participants for two years. And even if we assumed that those people maintained that weightloss long term? A mean loss of around 7.4 kg? That will not turn a single fat person thin.
The second study? A mean starting weight of 96,7 kg? Those are not the people that are called obese. Losing a mean of 8,5 kg? likely not enough to turn these people from probably being categorized as “overweight” into “normal weight” people, never mind “obese” people. And after a mean weight regain of around 5,5 kg? meaning that the average participant of the study managed to maintain a weightlos of only 3,5 kg after three years?
You are actually proving my point, not your claim.
The third study? Weightloss was once again tracked only for twelve months, but even if we leave that aside, a mean weightloss of 5,3 to 6,0 kg? Not turning a single “obese” or even “overweight” person “normal”. Once again, proving my point that none of these studies show a significant weightloss.
Actually, you are demonstrating on of the central common misunderstandings of how weightloss works. Assuming that a weightloss of 5% actally happened because of a change to a healthy way of living? Then that loss is what the participant has after one year of healthy living. The next year, they would continue living the same way. Same diet, same amount of exercise, same balance between “calories in, calories out”. How would living the exact same lifestyle cause them to lose additional weight? Losing more weight (assuming a simple model of “calories in, calories out”, which actual experts do not) would require a contiously increasing restriction of calory intake and/ or a continous increase of exercise.
Not a single one of the studies you refered to reported continued weightloss after the first year. In fact, none of them reportet even maintenace of the whole weightloss. None of them reportet an amount of weight lost that would be significant in the sense of turning fat people thin.
Which is exactly what I said.
Putting this as a seperate comment, because it’s a different issue: You have yet to name a single reason why the assumed “choice” to be fat would justify discrimination against fat people.
How would living the exact same lifestyle cause them to lose additional weight
Because they would keep burning more fat than gaining it. People who regain weight don’t actually stick to a healthier lifestyle change but rather do a one and done diet.
The more fat one has the more time it takes of course but a 5 kg loss over 10 years would be 50 kg.
Putting this as a seperate comment, because it’s a different issue: You have yet to name a single reason why the assumed “choice” to be fat would justify discrimination against fat people.
Frankly I don’t care that much about how fat people are represented in some Hollywood movies I rarely watch.
Nope. Rocket science is simple: put enough power behind it and force the power in the right direction and the rocket will go up. This is biology. Biology is complex and messy. The same number of calories in may produce different results depending on level of stress, amount of sleep, timing of the intake, genetics, hormonal status, and probably type of food eaten as well. To name a few variables.