Jason and I are working through Season 4 of Louie, and we just watched episode 3, So Did The Fat Lady. It was unexpected and exciting to see the show address the subject of the difference in discrimination between fat women and fat men. I love Louie C.K.’s stuff as much anyone, but find it cheap when he (his character) ogles scrawny 20-year-olds, or complains that he is so disgusting that no woman would ever sleep with him (despite the fact that his character gets laid often).
Sarah Baker’s character, in a seven minute monologue, calls him out on exactly that. The speech is great, and Baker is phenomenal:
“I mean, you, you can talk into the microphone and say you can’t get a date, you’re overweight. It’s adorable. But if I say it, they call the suicide hotline on me.”
Anyway, for anyone looking for more fat-positive feminism, may I suggest the incomparable Lesley Kinzel. I read her book, Two Whole Cakes, last summer, and it was full of her intelligence and straightforwardness and sense of humor, and lots of great quotes, such as this one:
“This is a book about many things, but it is mostly about not being sorry.”
