Abstract
This essay will look at a particular aspect of the ongoing identity politics surrounding the representation of women and how fat females are commonly represented in Hollywood film in the late twentieth century. Although films are constructions that aim to reflect or depict reality, they often provide flattened characterizations of fat people, particularly fat women. Because no artistic production can escape the culture within which it is made, Hollywood movies, as well as independently funded and distributed "art house" films, often embed popular stereotypes or misconceptions in the characterization of marginalized people, including the obese. There are many ways to "represent" fatness in film: through the script, cinematography, plot, and the whether it uses a real fat body or a rubber suit. This paper will investigate how one might negotiate representations of obesity in a society that perceives fat as a social evil and fat individuals as "agents of abhorrence and disgust" (LeBesco, 2004, p. 1). -- Page 7.
Highlights
Nwnerous representations of women have appeared in artistic, literary and cinematic productions in the span between the Venus of Willendorf's creation and the appearance of Kate Moss's naked, protruding spine in the Calvin Klein advertisements from the 1990s
There are a handful of Hollywood actresses with more meat on their bones than Hollywood's size zero standard for example America Ferrara, Queen Latifah and Jennifer Hudson - such actresses are rarely cast in lead romantic roles
Alley, whose weight-gain the tabloids documented with scathing headlines and unflattering photos, plays herself in the Showtime series and her goal in the sitcom is to land her own network show - and to be thin enough that Kid Rock will want to sleep with her (Franklin, 2005)
Summary
Chapter I: Playing Fat North Americans' cultural fear of fat expresses itself in Hollywood's apparent refusal to hire fat actresses for overweight roles. Paltrow's portrayal of Rosemary's inner beauty still satisfies the viewers' scopophilic pleasure and reaffirms conventional viewing expectations, something that would be missing from the experience if we only saw Paltrow in fat suit or an obese actress for the entire film This movie is problematic because it reduces women's identity to one of two options or binaries. Hal would join the chorus of cacklers (for example, Mauricio and the audience) in laughing at Rosemary's stigmatized figure, rather than considering her as a desirable mate What, is this narrative really about: an overweight girl who finds true love despite society's shallow obsession with appearances, or the fact that an obese woman cannot be loved without first being perceived as something else meaning, thin?. It is as ifthe female readers live vicariously through her binges and experience a glimmer of what it might feel like to be allowed to satisfy one's hunger without suffering from post·indulgence guilt or shame
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