Australian television's 'Biggest' oversight

You may have read this morning about a fracas that exploded after Marie Claire (US) writer Maura Kelly posted a whining, fatphobic blog about new comedy show Mike & Molly.

Here's a promo for those of you who aren't familiar with the show:


And here's just some of what Maura had to say about it:

"So anyway, yes, I think I'd be grossed out if I had to watch two characters with rolls and rolls of fat kissing each other ... because I'd be grossed out if I had to watch them doing anything. To be brutally honest, even in real life, I find it aesthetically displeasing to watch a very, very fat person simply walk across a room — just like I'd find it distressing if I saw a very drunk person stumbling across a bar or a heroine [sic] addict slumping in a chair."

Wait, wait, don't get your lynch mob mobilised just yet - some of Maura's best friends are fat!

"Now, don't go getting the wrong impression: I have a few friends who could be called plump. I'm not some size-ist jerk."

At the time of hitting 'publish' on this blog, there were 134 pages of comments on Kelly's Marie Claire piece.

My immediate response (as well as most of the feminist/size-acceptance/fat activist blogosphere's - Bloomie's post, Fuck You Maura Kelly, Stare At This Fat, is particularly brilliant) was something like this:


Maura Kelly has since updated her post to include a fairly pissweak apology of sorts. (Her behaviour is even more galling when you consider Marie Claire's position as one of the more progressive women's/fashion magazines.)

The more I thought about it all, though, the more I pondered the possibility of the same sort of blogwar emerging in Australia when it comes to seeing larger bodies on television: to wit, what larger bodies?

As has been noted by various commentators including the inimitable Jess at Defamer, Australian television stars are smaller than ever.

Fatness in Australian television, with scant exception, exists only in the realm of other.

We have the implied abject terror of The Biggest Loser, which cloaks its fatphobia in the guise of "health and wellbeing" (when in reality, most people just tune in to watch fatties carry out "fitness" tests that would kill most people on the spot).

Yes, of course, some people are morbidly obese and could do to lose weight for the sake of their health. But there are also plenty of people who are "big" and perfectly healthy, indeed, fitter than some people whose size fits society's norms.

Elsewhere, we have the occasional "headless fatties", those furtively filmed fat people - generally eating fast food or sitting on public transport - who make up the anonymous colour and movement of Today Tonight and A Current Affair reports on the Obesity Epidemic™.


You weren't aware of the term? Well, now you know what it is - television LOVES to film fat people without their permission (or even their knowledge) and pass them off as evidence in the fight against size-acceptance.

Incidentally (and tangentially), in England, being filmed as a "headless fatty" led to the formation of one of my most beloved activist groups, the Chubsters, whose gang sign is "donut hands":


(I write about Donut Hands here terrified by the knowledge that I may get "slaughtered on the spot" for doing so.)

But aside from headless fatties and the poor, wheezing freakshow members of The Biggest Loser, exactly where is the size diversity on Australian television?

Surely subscription TV would be a great place to start. I remain surprised that Foxtel - hint hint, guys! - hasn't yet picked up the terrific (if sadly short-lived) Huge, about a group of teens attending a weight loss camp.

Starring the inimitable Nikki Blonsky (from Hairspray) and the pleasantly surprising, considering her bloodline, Hayley Hasselhoff, it's spirited and poignant and fun.


And given that it was in soap-operas that Australian broadcasting first pushed the boundaries of its viewers social mores (think Number 96 and its gay love scenes, etc), surely it's time for someone bigger than a Size 10 to move into Erinsborough or Summer Bay?

If I have inadvertently missed an Australian television character then feel free to correct me. (EDIT: Toadie briefly had a fat girlfriend back in his wrestling days on Neighbours.)

Yes, we have some bigger Australian TV "personalities", but inevitably their position on our screens feels like little more than a placeholder for the inevitable Lite N Easy/Jenny Craig contract.

And while it is of course every person's personal decision whether to lose or gain weight - provided it is their personal decision - doing so in such a public manner does make you wonder whether the accompanying message is more injurious than it is encouraging.

When Australian celebrities/"personalities" are more or less happy with their bodies, only said bodies aren't 'acceptable', we do our best to make them go away.


Look at the divine Casey Donovan, forever wiped clean from the Australian Idol history books. It certainly wasn't for lack of talent, so surely it must be because of the way she looks.

So we're left with a quandary - at least we know we'll never see the Australian equivalent of Maura Kelly's Marie Claire fatphobic ranting, but the only reason we won't is because there's nothing on our screens to inspire it in the first place.

And that's a sad state of affairs.