Um, A TV Show's Job Is To Entertain People, Not Model Healthy Eating For The Unslim
A silly boohoohoo at Refinery29 about skinny girls on fictional TV who eat a lot of junk food.
The reality is, some people can eat some crap or even a lot of crap and not put on weight.
So the notion that this is unrealistic is, well, unrealistic. There are -- yes -- individual differences. To be slim is not unrealistic -- to be slim is how some people are without much effort, and how other people are through eating a high-fat, low-carb diet.
Back to the eating on TV thing, Kayleigh Roberts writes at Refinery 29 on "Our Obsession With Gorgeous Gluttons On TV."
If you're one of the hundreds of adult humans with adult human metabolisms who rewatched the series leading up to Netflix's highly anticipated Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, you couldn't have missed it: The Gilmores never exercise (and they will mock you if you choose to do it yourself) and they eat more junk food than even a 6-foot-4 teenage boy can handle (we're looking at you, Dean).It's easy to feel uncomfortable watching the Gilmores, with their model-thin bodies and borderline dangerous dietary choices, but they're not alone. The '90s and '00s saw the emergence of an archetype, a gorgeous glutton who took over television. You've seen her all around -- she's rail-thin, conventionally attractive, and she eats every meal like the world is literally ending. She's had a lot of names, not just Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, but Grace Adler, Sam Puckett, and Liz Lemon.
No idea who these characters are. I watch none of these shows.
Flash-forward to the '90s and early '00s, however, and the landscape of television changed drastically. On TV, we watch Grace Adler eat a doughnut off a pencil, Liz Lemon lie, be-Snuggied, on her couch and proclaim that she's working on her night cheese, and, of course, the Gilmore women consume enough food to feed a small nation and ask for coffee in an IV.This move away from food being just for the "dumpy" best friend to drown her sorrows in is a positive one (yes, television, please normalize women eating -- we do eat, often in large quantities and with a shimmer of glee in our eyes). But the sad downside is that the female characters who were shown to have healthy appetites, for a span of almost two decades, still looked just like the ones who could only eat on screen for a laugh, and the implications of that on body image are real.
"There are so many expectations put on us as women, and this is just one more adding to the unattainable standard that we're held to," Yuko says. "I like that these shows are destigmatizing eating for women, because that should never have occurred in the first place. But in some cases, they are holding us up to a standard that most of us will never be able to reach."
Also, the notion that famous television actresses and then -- don't forget! -- Vogue models should look like the rest of the population...like that tired lady with the screaming kid at Target who hasn't lost her baby weight...well, what a silly little tantrum-ish thought.
What's next, complaining that "Good Behavior," featuring the fantastic Michelle Dockery (last seen as Lady Mary on Downton Abby), doesn't model healthy or realistic career choices because her character is a pickpocket and hotel room robber?
Aw, c'mon, its fiction. So that the couch potato eating Bonbons can imagine herself slimmer and more stylish, and be that fine thing onscreen.
Radwaste at November 18, 2016 12:05 AM
The body-positivity people are going to start demanding that people eat like pigs and look like them, then demand that all other characters see them as drop-dead gorgeous!
Anyone remember a short-lived sitcom called "Babes" which featured three plus-plus-plus sized women sharing an apartment?
A shame it was taken off. I thought it was pretty funny myself. Probably due to complaints about the fat jokes. For instance, when Wendy Jo Sperber's character suggested they get involved with good causes, one of them quipped, "The last cause we got involved in was 'Save The Whales.' And the irony of that was lost on no one!"
Patrick at November 18, 2016 2:32 AM
The Liz Lemon thing bothered me. She is quite skinny and attractive but she acts and other characters act like she is 300lbs and homely. Eventually the cognitive dissonance gets to me and I can't watch any more. I think Tina Fey has some sort of body image issue because this is common to her characters.
Ben at November 18, 2016 5:57 AM
I've never watched the Gilmore Girls. They often show the characters actually eating? How do the characters maintain a dialogue if their actors' mouths are all full of food? Most of the time, you'll see food in front of a character, but they never actually eat any on camera, so it's left vauge as to how much they actually ate. It would never occur to me that the character intended to eat every single bite in front of them, unless the character themselves said so.
I'm just not getting what the problem is here. I don't expect to be able to eat like a football running back and not turn into the Goodyear Blimp. So seeing football players at a training table doesn't matter to me one way or the other.
Cousin Dave at November 18, 2016 6:24 AM
they eat more junk food than even a 6-foot-4 teenage boy can handle
Oh, please. I was a teenage boy once, and nothing edible was truly safe from me. To rub salt in her wounds, it wasn't until I got into my mid-late 20s that I needed to be mindful of how much and what I ate. Up to that point, I was a scrawny 5'10".
I R A Darth Aggie at November 18, 2016 6:26 AM
I was a teenage boy once, and nothing edible was truly safe from me.
We have all witnessed this. It's truly incredible.
Amy Alkon at November 18, 2016 6:45 AM
Comrade, all art must be bent to the service of society, to build a high standard for healthy, productive, and high-tax paying people. Bad examples will be abolished, except as examples for punishment. That donut harms you and the society which must pay for your healthcare.
Andrew Garland at November 18, 2016 6:47 AM
Sam Puckett? That character was on a Nickelodeon kid's show called iCarly. Neither the character nor the actress who played her (Jennette McCurdy) was rail thin. Yes, one of the running gags on the show was her appetite and her penchant for stashing snacks (including a rack of barbecued ribs) in her purse, but she was an adolescent playing an adolescent. So I'm not sure what was supposed to be so upsetting about her.
Yeah, I know, I'm talking about a kid's show. My daughters watched it. Most of the time it was kind of silly, but a couple of the episodes were oddly well-written and touching.
Old RPM Daddy (OldRPMDaddy at GMail dot com) at November 18, 2016 7:39 AM
That donut harms you and the society which must pay for your healthcare.
And therein lies the true aim of ObamaCare: we pay for your health care, so we get a say in your life choices.
Dangerous physical activities: forbidden
"Bad" foods: forbidden
Booze: forbidden
Red meat: forbidden
Dangerous sexual practices: forbidden
I was warned that if I voted for Mitt that the government would be in my bedroom. And they were right!
I R A Darth Aggie at November 18, 2016 8:28 AM
1) In almost no shows do people eat or can you see what they are eating or do they mention it. Usually it is just so they are doing something during a lull in the action.
2) In most shows no one seems to even have a job (unless the show is about their job, like cop shows). Is this realistic?
3) There is a contradiction in this: we MUST eat healthy, but don't you dare fat shame me.
4) I could eat anything I wanted and as much as I wanted till I was 50, but am male and exercise a lot. Jealous? Tough.
5) If you are a hedonist (do what feels good) why is it axiomatic that the highest value is to live as long as possible? Why not drink and smoke and ride a motorcycle until you go down in flames? We are busy legalizing pot and then telling people they can't smoke. Why? Why not eat all the terrible food if it makes you feel good? This debate about the good life goes back to before Roman times--read about the Epicurians and their opponents. I think some people are just genetically abstemious and then we all should join them.
cc at November 18, 2016 9:07 AM
What bothered me about Liz Lemon was that she was constantly portrayed as this unattractive piggy woman but she was super hot.
NicoleK at November 18, 2016 1:08 PM
I don't watch this show, so forgive me any innacurate assumptions. But it is very shitty for tv shows that require female characters to be thin enough that the actresses have eating disorders and then portray then eating junk food like hedonists. Especially in light of our obesity epidemic. You can beat up on people about personal responsibility, but more people are overweight than are normal weight at this point. "Entertainment" involving emaciated women eating like hedonits isn't well-intentioned.
Allison at November 18, 2016 5:43 PM
I personally think they are all backed up and in severe pain from needing to use the bathroom all the time.
gooseegg at November 18, 2016 5:50 PM
But it is very shitty for tv shows that require female characters to be thin enough that the actresses have eating disorders and then portray then eating junk food like hedonists.
So, write your own TV show then
lujlp at November 18, 2016 6:26 PM
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