So there I was, half paying attention to the television, but keeping an eye on the commercials, as I always do, just to see if maybe some company out there will realize that not everything they sell me has to be hawked by thin, beautiful people… and it happened!
It’s a wacky commercial, to be sure, but still: It features a fat woman – and not only that, she’s married, and to a thin man! Is this real life!? Take a look (caution, lots of making out):
Maybe this doesn’t seem like a big deal to you, but it sure is to me. I used to ignore commercials as much as possible, but since starting BFD, I’ve started paying attention to them to see what the world is selling me. And, of course, it’s almost exclusively selling me skinny. Even in commercials for things that I am repeatedly told only fat people consume! Check out a Wendy’s commercial – and remember, the consumption of fast food by fat people is slowly destroying this fine country:
If that red-haired woman really eats that much Wendy’s, shouldn’t she be more than a size four?
It’s pretty funny, but it’s also a serious issue. The lack of body diversity in advertising means that unless you are thin, you almost never see yourself portrayed positively anywhere. And that helps perpetuate the idea that your body is not good, and you should be ashamed of and embarrassed by it. Now imagine being an impressionable young person and never seeing your body type anywhere – except in adverts for products and shows telling you that you need to change your body to be accepted, to be successful, to be loved.
So while that StubHub commercial is pretty ridiculous, it’s also a great step toward bringing some much-needed body diversity to our television screens. What a great thing it would be if we could see people of all shapes and sizes in the media, if advertising could become a reflection of who we are as a world.
And don’t even get me started on the entertainment industry, and how many super talented people there are out there who are never given a shot simply because they aren’t thin enough!
I’ll have to be content – for now – with a fat woman and her thin husband falling in love again with the help of a talking tree. Baby steps!
