An Unlikely Heroine—Fat and Unemployed: Doris Dörrie's Film Die Friseuse (2010)

Abstract

In her film Die Friseuse, Doris Dörrie addresses the subject of female fatness and its socio‐cultural implications. Die Friseuse is the tale of a recently divorced mother who cannot find employment because of her “unaesthetic” appearance. Endowed with the qualities of a heroine, the protagonist emerges victorious after a series of setbacks. Counteracting fat‐shaming attitudes, Dörrie raises fat‐acceptance via the comedic genre. In this essay, I argue that the role of a heroine facilitates the viewers’ identification with a fat woman, thus disrupting dominant negative perceptions of fatness as well as the visual expectations that favor thin women as objects of the (male) gaze. As viewers engage with images of a fat woman (clothed or naked), they are invited to interrogate their own biases, and perhaps even those of Dörrie herself.