Fat Ladies UK

So, Iain and I have been watching Law & Order: UK on BBC America, because, for evident reasons, US-UK mash-ups are rather popular at Shakes Manor.

It's actually quite a good show, and it's fun to see how some of the early episodes of the original Law & Order have been Britishized for a UK (and anglophile) audience.

One of the interesting things I've noticed about the show is its fat people.

Notably, it has them.

Particularly fat women. You can always find a fat guy or two in the US version—"Casting call for portly Italian to play butcher on national crime drama"—but fat women are few and far between, and, when they do show up, they are fat not because Fat People Exist, but because fat is routinely used as a lazy shorthand to convey negative attributes to American audiences.

"You can tell she's a bad mother instantly because she's FAT and wearing unstylish clothes!"—The writers of Law & Order. Etc.

But on Law & Order: UK, fat women are just another part of the population. Across four episodes, I've seen a fat female cop, a fat female witness, a fat female attorney, and a fat female forensics analyst (and possibly some I'm forgetting), all of whom were fat for no other reason than because Fat People Exist.

And not inbetweenie fat—not "Bridget Jones" fat. But actually fat. Like me kinda fat.

It was remarkable to see these women on my television. Which is terribly sad, really. That shouldn't be remarkable, since the existence of fat women (and men), even in New York, is not remarkable.

(Shh, don't tell Karl Lagerfeld!)

I felt good seeing women who look like me in a show I was watching.

And then I felt bad, thinking about all the reasons I have so few opportunities to see women who look like me, and so many women I adore, in US-made entertainment, except as cautionary tales and punchlines.