Abstract
More to Love, a romance-themed reality television program featuring an all-plus-sized cast, touts itself as a progressive portrayal of “real” women bordering on fat activism. A qualitative content analysis of the program, however, reveals a contradictory and more complex story about gender, body, and relationships. On the one hand, More to Love acknowledges the reality of size and works to debunk several myths about fat women and men. On the other hand, the show negatively depicts fat and also reinforces traditional gender stereotypes along with the age-old fairy tale script that equates heterosexual partnership with happiness. An analysis of these media depictions puts a new spin on an old story and reveals new theoretical understandings about gender, body equality, and romantic relations. Ultimately, the show conveys a superficial form of body equality where fat women too can be loved, but only if they are willing to overexaggerate their femininity and submit themselves to external validation via the objectifying male gaze.
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