More to Love Sucks

So, I took yesterday and today off from my "diet" just to make things easier as far as getting used to my new school schedule and such. Also, my grandparents are in town from North Carolina, so Thomas and I went to my dad's house to spend time with family and eat some delicious pizza last night. Things will be back on full force tomorrow, however, I will be taking two days off next week because Monday is my birthday and we are also celebrating on Tuesday!

Anyway, this evening I was unfortunate enough to watch the plus-sized reality dating show More to Love. I had been sort of morbidly curious about the show since I first saw ads for it, but I never went out out of my way to watch or DVR it (I have only seen snippets on The Soup and The Dish). Well, it came on tonight right after Hell's Kitchen, so I figured I'd check it out since I had the chance and now I really freakin' wish that I hadn't.

You know, aside from the blantantly shallow, sexist and mysognistic undertones (overtones?) of ALL dating shows (even ones that consist of a single woman choosing from several men - oh, yes, it is true) this show has gone out of its way to promote every negative stereotype about plus sized/overweight women that it possibly can.

Am I shocked or even the least bit surprised? Of course not. Does it still piss me off? Certainly!

According to this show, all overweight women:

1. Hate themselves because they are fat.
2. Are inexperienced in dating because their weight has held them back (both through their personal insecurity and a lack interest from men).
3. Are always self-concious about their weight.
4. Don't like the way they look in a bathing suit.
5. Need VALIDATION FROM A MAN to make them feel good about themselves.
6. Can not possibly like their outward appearance, thus it is extremely important for everyone to like them based on their personality.
7. Have been teased, judged and rejected all of their lives.
8. Have missed out on "important" life experiences, such as going to their high school proms or competing in beauty pageants.
9. Will only be able to find love on this television show.
10. Envy thin women and desperately want to be skinny.

Obviously, weight is a source of insecurity and self-conciousness for many people - both women and men, who are unhappy with their appearance/health and aspire to be someone different. But, weight is NOT the only thing women are insecure about. Where are the women on The Bachelorette who think their noses are too big or their teeth need to be fixed or they have a mole in a funny place or whatever? I am not an avid watcher of that show or any similar ones, but I have never come across this kind of emphasis on dating shows for "average" (in most cases, underweight or surgically enhanced) sized women.

As my husband said, "Where are the fat, sassy women who love the way they look and could give a shit what anyone thinks? They are completely unrepresented."

Maybe I am judging the show harshly from one viewing, but I can't imagine it has been or will be any better. Now, one reality show that addresses weight and is getting it all right: Dance Your Ass Off.

I was put off by the ads that I saw before the show started, but I came across it while flipping channels one day and I really got into it. For those who aren't familiar, the show is a dance competition with overweight contestants who are judged based on their dance performances and weight loss each week (like a combo of The Biggest Loser and Dancing With the Stars). They meet with personal trainers, doctors, nutritionists and their dance partner/instructors to work out, eat healthy food and train for their dances.

I have never heard any of the contestants talk about how they hate themselves, or how desperate they are to lose weight so they can get a boyfriend or girlfriend. Most of them emphasize over and over again how they want to lose weight to BE HEALTHY. And instead of having some skinny dance icon host the show, they have Marissa Jaret Winokur, a very plus-sized former Tracy Turnblad from the Broadway version of Hairspray. Awesome.

I guess the biggest issue is that TV reflects cultural ideas and kind of exaggerates them, and reality TV particularly thrives on the most basic broken down stereotypes about different groups of people. Unfortunately, we haven't gotten to the point in our culture that this kind of treatment of fat people is really considered offensive. Fat people are still funny, dumb, hate themselves but are ultimately to blame for all of their own problems and they just need to get off of their asses and do something about it and they definitely don't deserve proper health care coverage because they make themselves unhealthy and BLAH BLAH BLAH.