It's still OK to be anti-fat
Will this be the last prejudice
standing?
I was catching up on my
Six Feet
Under this morning. And within the two
episodes that I watched were so many slurs again overweight people I was sort of
jolted out of morning stupor.
Keith & David reject a potential surrogate because she's 5' 2" and 160 lbs. God, they don't need the hassle of raising an "obese" child. And that must be the reason she's less expensive than the other surrogates.
Nate's high school friend who ends up on the morgue table is a "tub o' lard" who sure gained a lot of weight since high school. (FWIW: the dead body...which we got to see quite a bit of,...was no high school athlete, but certainly didn't look like a tub o' lard to me!)
I'm missing a few. You get the picture.
And these statements were not made in some kind of ironic, oh look the gay couple who has been discriminated against has prejudice within them too, or oh look the guy whose life has been a mess since high school is superficially taking solace in a slight failing of his dead friend to avoid dealing with his own dysfunction.
No, if they had played the scenes in that kind of way (which wouldn't be unheard of for Six Feet Under) then perhaps I wouldn't have even noticed it. No, I noticed it because it was completely without irony. It was completely nonchalant. It was completely OK to make such slurs.
I was extremely disappointed in the show. It has dealt so sensitively with so many issues. I may not always like the path it goes down (yes, you can count me amongst those who thought David's carjacking episode was just too ugly to watch) but I always like how it humanizes everyone.
Except fat people. They don't get to be humanized.
Keith & David reject a potential surrogate because she's 5' 2" and 160 lbs. God, they don't need the hassle of raising an "obese" child. And that must be the reason she's less expensive than the other surrogates.
Nate's high school friend who ends up on the morgue table is a "tub o' lard" who sure gained a lot of weight since high school. (FWIW: the dead body...which we got to see quite a bit of,...was no high school athlete, but certainly didn't look like a tub o' lard to me!)
I'm missing a few. You get the picture.
And these statements were not made in some kind of ironic, oh look the gay couple who has been discriminated against has prejudice within them too, or oh look the guy whose life has been a mess since high school is superficially taking solace in a slight failing of his dead friend to avoid dealing with his own dysfunction.
No, if they had played the scenes in that kind of way (which wouldn't be unheard of for Six Feet Under) then perhaps I wouldn't have even noticed it. No, I noticed it because it was completely without irony. It was completely nonchalant. It was completely OK to make such slurs.
I was extremely disappointed in the show. It has dealt so sensitively with so many issues. I may not always like the path it goes down (yes, you can count me amongst those who thought David's carjacking episode was just too ugly to watch) but I always like how it humanizes everyone.
Except fat people. They don't get to be humanized.
Posted: Saturday - June 25, 2005 at 06:56 PM EmailFeedback
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Published On: Sep 03, 2011 07:10 PM
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Published On: Sep 03, 2011 07:10 PM
