Funny, Heartbreaking and Provocative

That's fat people for ya!

Funny? 99.99% of the world's would-be comics can't be wrong, can they?

And heartbreaking — well, what a waste of potential! Especially if the fatty is a teenage girl; I mean, she has such a pretty face, amirite? It's a shame, when you consider that there surely is, for every fat girl with a pretty face, some sad young thing who fails to meet the prevailing standard of prettiness in her locale despite being virtuously slender. That girl could have put this otherwise wasted pretty face to good use — heartbreaking!

As for provocative — some of these fat folk fail to be properly ashamed of themselves! Some might even reject the notion that practitioners of Bodily Correctness, both public and private, appoint themselves to the task out of concern for the health of others — now there's a provocative notion!

Funny, heartbreaking and provocative is also how the ABC Family channel describes their new show Huge, which is based on a book of the same name by Sasha Paley. The show, which premieres tonight at 9 p.m./8 p.m. Central, is about seven teens and the staff at a weight-loss camp called 'Victory'.

"The implication," says Ginia Bellafante, who reviewed the show for the NY Times, "is that no one has truly come here by choice — parents or the insidious culture of thinness at large have militaristically exerted their pressures." Although Bellafante maintains a careful tone throughout, one does detect the eye-rolling behind the I-don't-want-you-fat-people-emailing-me words.

Ms. Bellafante chooses to begin her review with several paragraphs on the subject of "gainer blogs", implying that people perversely directing their efforts to gaining rather than losing weight are the heart of the fat acceptance community, which she further mischaracterizes in order to bolster her dismissal of it as a "fringe movement", clearly unworthy of being part of the august social institution which is "hourlong dramatic television." Nevertheless, Ms. Bellafante believes, the show "stands in some sympathy with a rebellion mounted against so many hours of 'The Biggest Loser.' "

So here's your sympathy, fatties — now put down that snack and listen up! Yeah, we know you've got that hidden stash of candy, Will, why else would you be fat? And we know you're going to feed it to the other campers, the ones who are really trying, because you want them to stay fat, too!

"Will" is Willamina, played by Nikki Blonsky, whom Bellafante characterizes as "the apparent embodiment of the spirit of fat pride". Because that is what fat pride is about, campers! Sneaking candy! The show's website says that Will's "sardonic and rebellious nature make her a menace to some and revolutionary to others." Hey, one person fighting for the freedom to not hate her body is another person's candy-sneaking terrorist! Or something.

But as Ms. Bellafante points out

in truth the series can go only so far because a real sanctioning of teenage obesity would feel like a renewed condoning of the subprime mortgage market.

Wow, that's deep.

So, supporting the idea that people should simply mind their own business about other people's bodies is equivalent to supporting elaborate financial schemes in which you induce people to invest every penny they can scrape together in the purchase of a home through an intricately structured contract which they don't understand but which you, as the professional, assure them they can afford, withholding from them the knowledge that once you have them roped in you will be bundling that mortgage with a bunch of others and selling it to some more suckers, while knowing that the basis for their accepting your counsel as to what they can afford is that they think you are the one they will owe their money to and that you will want it repaid and therefore would not mislead them about what they can afford.

My, yes, Ms. Bellafante, that is some deep shit, there.

Fortunately, the ABC Family Channel seems prepared to avoid this moral quagmire. A section of the show's website, under the heading "Live Huge" promises to provide "tips on how to eat nutritious snacks and meals, add exercise into your busy life, and build a stronger, more positive sense of self -- because living a healthy life means having healthy self-esteem too!"

Which could, wonderfully, be supportive of HAES, but sounds more like: Fattiez! We love you just the way you are! Come watch our show! Just as you are! Then we'll tell you how to not be that way! Or, we love you as you are because we know you can be different! Is there a more seductive message than that to a young person who does not love hirself as zie is?

In any case, one suspects Ms. Bellafante sees this as coddling, as well as something worse: The waste of an entire hour of her dramatic-television-watching time, which could otherwise be spent watching people Ms. Bellafante finds more attractive, and can watch without that painfully constricting girdle-of-verbal-repression she must don in fear of those prideful, vindictive fatties.