Hollywood’s slim pickings for fat characters: A textual analysis of Gilmore Girls, Sweet Magnolias, This is Us, Shrill, and Dietland

ABSTRACT Fatness is often represented in news media as the scary outcome of self-inflicted, unhealthy behavior currently fueling the “obesity epidemic.” Reality television repeats this narrative of “real” fatness by showing “out of control” fatties in search of thin-terventions. This raises the question: how are fat people portrayed in fictional settings? To understand where and how fat bodies are placed on shows, fat kinship, and the evolution of fat characters over time, we conducted textual analyses of five television shows – Gilmore Girls, This is Us, Shrill, Sweet Magnolias and Dietland – over a 20-year period. Our research questions are: During the first two decades of the twenty-first century, do we see a move into fat liberation for fat female characters, or do we see performative body positivity with new and adapting barriers for fat female characters? Do these shows actually challenge power relations, or do fat characters always get disciplined into being the “good fatty”? We found that fat, white women are central – or more visible – in television shows today, compared to when Gilmore Girls first aired in 2000. Indeed, fat women are portrayed as stronger and more successful, occupying diverse spaces and roles; however, their bodies are still hyper-regulated by others. Shrill and Dietland in particular challenge fatphobia and offer moments of fat liberation – but these moments are fleeting and are often tempered by reminders that women still live within a thin-obsessed society. Although media representations of fat women have made progress, more representation, especially intersectional portrayals of diverse fat experiences, are necessary to dismantle fat oppression.