2023-11-13 18:19:26
Fat characters did not reach 4% in Spanish series and films in 2022. An implacable fact that shows that in the audiovisual fiction produced in this country there are few roles, whether protagonists or secondary, with dissident corporalities. Its presence does not reach 6%.
Cinema omits diverse bodies: “We don’t access sex scenes because no one falls in love with the fat woman”
This has been revealed by the first Report on fatphobia in national audiovisual fiction prepared by the Audiovisual Media Diversity Observatory (ODA); from which they demand that people with non-normative bodies not only appear in fantasy, horror, suspense or supernatural productions. The reason: “Not to promote harmful collective imaginaries that associate disability or physical dissidence with an otherness stagnant in cruelty, marginality and villainy.”
The investigation, sponsored by Prime Video and which has had the support of Filmin and Impact Hub Madrid; includes a study of the intersection of these profiles with issues such as gender, age, racialization, disability and belonging to the LGBTIQA+ collective. The sample consisted of a total of 1,721 characters spread across 99 films and 61 seasons of 59 series. The report concludes that there are “little differences” between film and television.
The publication of its results comes accompanied by the campaign More reflections where to find usled by Laura Galán, winner of the last Goya for Best New Actress for Little pig. Precisely, the horror film directed by Carlota Pereda is one of the only ones that did feature a fat main character in 2022.
From ODA, they affirm about this film that it represents “a break with the traditional representation of fatness on screen while at the same time influencing the specific problems faced by fat people.” Now, who has been considered as such when preparing the study?
From ODA they recognize that when preparing the report they have been aware that it is a concept that is established “based on the contrast with rigid regulations.” This explains that “the least thin character in the cast is automatically perceived as fat” and why there are cases in which the same performer has been conceived as fat in some productions while not in others, despite the fact that his body is still being the same.
Furthermore, they point out that “although in other situations it is possible that certain characters were not understood as fat, if within the fictional universe they were read that way – normally, through comments attacking their physique or judging their relationship with food -“, they have been accounted for in the final results.
Greater presence in dramas and comedy, and fewer women
Only 40 characters out of a total of 741 (5.4%) in movies and 46 out of 980 (4.7%) in 2022 series are fat. In both cases, the majority concentrate on drama and comedy, something that ODA attributes to the fact that “although they do not appear as comic relief,” their presence “may have to do with the tradition of using corporality as laughable element, especially in the case of men.” When considering the gender of these roles, it is established that “women are more subject to body regulations” and that their representation is “more associated with hypervigilance towards their bodies.”
Another of the parameters analyzed was age, with adulthood being the age in which more fat bodies appear. Specifically, almost 50% of fat characters in movies and series are between 30 and 50 years old. When focusing on childhood, it is striking that in 2022 there would be no character under 13 years old with a fat body. The 7 that did appear in cinema, mostly appear in films starring groups, such as Oliver’s universe, Full of grace y I’m going to have a good time.
In the relative range between 18 and 30 years old, teenage women with fat bodies appear, but their appearance begins to form part of the plot. This is what happens to Brenda González in Scoundrels, who receives fatphobic comments throughout the feature film in the form of comedic relief. As a general rule, they are not protagonists, except for the exception paradigm that marked Little pigwhich revolves around the fatphobic violence suffered by Sara (Galán).
Worse is the data when observing the intersection between LGTBIQA+ characters and fat bodies is practically non-existent, with only one character in all the Spanish series of 2022 and 3 in the movies. “This fact should invite us to reflect on what imaginaries are created for people queer “fat people and how this absence of intersection also has to do with how fat people are stripped of their own desire,” they defend in the text.
The same happens with the racialized fat characters and those with disabilities, reducing the number of the latter to three. The study praises Briseida, played by Michelle Rodríguez, who in With the years that I have left He does consider that “they demonstrate that it is possible to create interesting, intersectional and empowering narratives for racialized fat characters.”
In ODA they describe that the social perception that exists towards diverse bodies involves, in most cases, “understanding bodies with appreciable physical disabilities as non-normative.” Hence, almost half (14 of 29) of the characters with these corporalities have some disability, which is why they say that “there is a certain instrumentalization of these bodies, since they are usually used to give color to the universe of the story.” .
Of course, Elena Criminal, director of communication at ODA, acknowledges to this newspaper that, before preparing the report, they already imagined that all the data was going to be low. The person responsible highlights the most worrying aspect of the study: “How naturalized we are about fatphobia and the absence of diverse bodies in fiction. And how difficult it is to change the imagination. It is the report with which we have received the most violence. “It arouses a lot of anger to talk about this topic.”
The history of representation of fat people
The campaign launched by ODA together with Filmin takes a journey through the representation of fat people in fiction. A sequence that speaks for itself, as already happened in the documentary Disclosure: Ser trans en Hollywood.
“Stop judging me. For you I’m just the fat one. When your reflection in the mirror is not what is expected of you, you are reduced to your appearance, to your body. It doesn’t matter what you do, what you hate, what you dislike, what you are like. They only see a stereotype. “It’s not you, it’s not me, you are, we are your expectations,” says actress Laura Galán, looking at the camera from a movie theater in which scenes from different titles are projected. Among them, Pipi Longstocking, who claims that it is impossible for another child to drown because he “is too fat.”
“I’m that child who doesn’t stop eating. I am a meme. I am the fat one, the fat one. And of course I deserve it: ‘Not having eaten so much.’ but I am also the guilt, the fear, the shame. “That feeling of rage that keeps getting fatter and fatter and fatter, until it explodes,” the actress continues stating about fictional sequences like her own. Piglet, Self-defense, Precious, Dumplin, The cake dynasty, Stars by the pound, The meaning of life, Matilda, Hairspray, A fantasy world, Pink Flamingos, The whale, Fat front y Vickie the Viking.
“The only way we have to inhabit your screens, realities and houses, is from otherness, from the margins, from mockery, being gordes happy,” he laments. The interpreter emphasizes that this is something that happens mainly to men with fat bodies, who are given roles of “endearing” fat people like Alfredo in Paradise cinema, or who solve crimes: “Always the fat one who doesn’t bother.”
For women the price is different: “But what happens if I’m not funny, nor kind, nor endearing? What if I am a fat woman and also lesbian, bisexual or trans? What if I am a fat person who desires and is desired? ”She asks. “I don’t see us on the screens but we exist. The time has come for you to see us and for us to see ourselves reflected,” she concludes, claiming that the time has come for their stories and bodies to be seen beyond the stereotype.
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