australian television information archive

A fat girl's fit in nature's order

ISN'T Winners & Losers doing well? It just goes to show that Australian audiences are finally ready to accept a show about middle-class people having relationships. About time. What's so great about Winners & Losers is it shows us real women, so it's totally relatable. We've all got a friend like High-Powered Professional Woman, haven't we? Or like Sort-of-Dumb-But-Sweet Blonde Woman? It's a total slice of life, with all the occasional events and people saying things to each other that that implies.

My favourite character is Fat Woman. She's great, because she shows that even fat people can have semi-happy lives despite their disfigurement, as long as they have loads of wacky personality, expressed via the medium of brightly coloured clothing.

Fat Woman is a role model for all of us chubby people out in the world who hope that some day we might be able to tag along with a group of more attractive friends.

Television has always been an inspiration to the overweight, by teaching us there is a place for us in the world, and that place is zaniness. Remember Norm from Cheers? He was great, wasn't he? He had such a terrible life, and a crippling alcohol problem, but always came up with a witty quip when it was most needed. Like all great fat TV characters, he was invaluable for cheering up all the normal, thin people around him.

There is nothing like television for reassuring you that you can play a useful role in society. Look at Lost, a show that threw all manner of disparate characters together in a stressful situation, demonstrating that no matter what sort of person you are - a handsome doctor, a sexy criminal, a handsome criminal, a sexy doctor, a magic paraplegic - you can make a contribution to the community you find yourself in, and Hurley the fat guy was a very important part of that. Not as important as the sexy and handsome people, but important nonetheless. Even on a mysterious island, people need comic relief.

Of course, some TV shows do things differently. On The Vicar of Dibley, the fat chick was the smartest, most attractive person on the show, and went about having hot Anglican sex with handsome men. Which was breaking the rules, really - fat people on TV aren't supposed to hog the limelight like that, and they're definitely not supposed to get off with normal people.

The rule is, if a fat person is to have a romantic entanglement, it is either to be with another fat person (like in Mike & Molly, although those two are a bit too witty and likeable to be completely trustworthy), or a skinny weirdo who may wear an amusing hat.

Like all people on TV, fat characters usually know their place. Just as there is the Pretty One, the Sensible One, and the Stupid One, there is always the Fat One. And if the Fat One goes about trying to be the Pretty One, then what do we have? Televisual anarchy, that's what.

Thank goodness Winners & Losers has stuck to the rules laid down by its TV forefathers, and made sure there's a place for everything and everything in its place.

I look forward to the further adventures of Fat Woman and her wacky glasses, and many, many more seasons of chubbily familiar viewing.

By Ben Pobjie
April 9, 2011
Sydney Morning Herald