Fatphobia in Fandom

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See also:	Social Justice and Fandom, Misogyny in Fandom, Racism in Fandom
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Fatphobia is the systemic oppression of fat, plus-size, or otherwise large-bodied people. It manifests in fandom in a variety of ways:

• Dismissing heavier characters as ugly or "improving" them by having them lose weight in fanworks
• Portraying those characters in a negative or unflattering light (greedy, lazy, obsessed with food, clumsy, stupid)
• Calling other fans fat as an insult
• Assuming anyone who's not stick-thin does nothing but sit at home and eat
• Accusing all body positivity of "glorifying obesity"
• Dismissing the concept of fatphobia as a legitimate form of stigma entirely

While not as heavily discussed as race, misogyny, and sexual orientation, fatphobia is still the subject of heated arguments. As such, some see it as a difficult topic to discuss. Some fans are very sensitive about the portrayal of fat characters in fiction, ranging from rightfully pointing out that certain negative stereotypes should be phased out to accusing writers of fatphobia anytime a fat character has any traits associated with being fat (even if a thin character in the same series displays those same traits).

Fat fans calling out fatphobia and thin privilege have written posts or threads encouraging others to unpack their own anti-fat biases, such as the popular 2018 Twitter thread by Maya Kern that encouraged artists to draw fat people.

Some fans, especially thin fans, may perceive these as guilt-tripping or inappropriately introducing issues of societal prejudice into artistic or fannish contexts. Others may even dismiss the idea of fatphobia altogether as "snowflake culture" and will frequently try to justify body shaming with arguments relating to health or self-care. Anyone who brings up a valid point about weight-based discrimination and bullying is accused of being a "butthurt fatty".

Canon

Lack of Representation

Some fans rightfully point out that there's a dearth of fat main characters who are well-written and treated like human beings; many times in media the fat person is relegated to an unlucky friend or relative, or the idiot comic relief. If they are a main character, their goal is often to lose weight, implying that the key to success and popularity is to be thin.

Another issue for some is when fat characters are portrayed as proud of their size to the point where it still defines them, rather than any talents, skills, quirks, or backstory unrelated to their weight. While it's a good thing for a character to be happy with who they are and refuse to change just to fit arbitrary beauty standards, some fans feel like these characters exist to be solely a platform for body positivity rather than letting them simply exist as human beings. Others argue that in a similar vein to queer characters, it's possible for characters to be both proud of their fatness whilst also being fully developed, and that the two are not mutually exclusive.

Fatphobic Creators and Texts

• J.K. Rowling’s Fatphobia Needs to Be Acknowledged, as Well by Princess Weekes on The Mary Sue
• Voltron: Legendary Defender has been accused of fatphobia in its portrayal of Hunk. A few early gags poked fun at his size and S2 emphasized his obsession with food. However, S3 and onward focused more on his intelligence, engineering skills, supportive attitude, and the development of his courage in dire situations. His ending involves him building a culinary empire, which some fans praise for focusing on how it's about him feeding other people, but others criticize it as "stereotypical" by having a fat character working with food.
• Liana K. has criticized Buffy the Vampire Slayer for its lack of plus-sized female characters and Joss Whedon's overall idealization of slender waiflike heroines.^{[citation needed]}
• One particular Lurlene McDaniel reviewer has criticized the author for her less than flattering portrayal of fat characters.
• The Sweet Valley books often portrayed Jessica Wakefield and her friends mocking fat people, and this was portrayed as acceptable. Two notable examples:
  • In the Sweet Valley Twins series, Lois Waller is mocked by everybody except Jessica's twin Elizabeth. One of the only books where she has a major role ends with her becoming more popular because she's on a diet and starting to lose weight.
  • In Sweet Valley High, Robin Wilson is hazed by Jessica and the Pi Beta Alpha sorority, forced to wear a bikini on the beach and prank-dated by popular Bruce Patman. Like Lois, she becomes popular after going on a diet and losing a lot of weight. While Jessica is eventually punished for her behavior after throwing a tantrum when Robin beats her for Homecoming Queen, this only happens after Robin has become thin; the faculty did nothing to stop the bullying while it was going on, implying that Robin "deserved it" while she was still fat.
• Meg Griffin from Family Guy is constantly body-shamed by her peers, total strangers, and her own family for being a little chunky. Fans have also pointed out the sexist double standard in this, as half of the fat-shaming comes from Chris and Peter, who are both much fatter than Meg is.
  • There's a lot of mockery of overweight people in the show, especially overweight women.
• Olivia Dade's novel Spoiler Alert features a plus-sized heroine who's not only dealt with fat-shaming from her family and friends all her life, but has to put up with it in her fandom despite her OTP canonically being based on the idea that looks aren't as important as character and connection. She eventually posts a lengthy rant about this in her OTP's Discord server, telling her personal story and calling out the fatphobia she's seen in other fans' content and stories recommended to her by her best fandom friend.
• Jen Wilde's Queens of Geek features a chubby protagonist who gets mocked over her weight by a passerby when she cosplays her favorite character. This leads to her posting a lengthy, angry rant on Tumblr about the person's immaturity, followed by saying she loves her body and won't stop having fun because of some shallow jerk.
• The first Sailor Moon anime had an entire episode about main character Usagi thinking she was fat due to a slight weight gain, with her family and friends encouraging her to go on a diet and get slim. The DiC dub altered the plot to have her family tell her it wasn't a big deal and to teach the viewers a lesson about the dangers of crash dieting and encouraging healthy exercise habits.
  • A chubby girl Usagi was seen hanging out with in the early episodes didn't even have a proper name, only referred to as "Usagi's fat friend".
  • The mid-aughties parody Sailor Moon: The Abridged Series had a lot of fat jokes aimed at the title character.
• The children's book "Maggie Goes on a Diet" is about a fat girl who is bullied and only finds acceptance and happiness once she starts a diet and loses weight.
• The book "Blubber" by Judy Blume is about a thin girl who joins in the mockery of a chubby girl named Linda, who by the narrative's admission isn't even the fattest kid in their class. Not only does the ringleader get away with her bullying of Linda, the protagonist never learns a lesson about acceptance of fat people and Linda is still alone and unpopular by the end.
  • The book also features a fat boy named Bruce, who is more easily accepted via being the comic relief who's okay with being laughed at.
• When the Disney version of Doug slimmed down the plus-sized Connie Benge via having her spend the summer at what's strongly implied to be a weight loss camp, fans were quite unhappy.

Fandom

Fatphobia Directed Towards Fans

A relatively popular way to deride fandom is to characterize fans as overwhelmingly or exclusively fat women, with the fatphobic and misogynistic implication that a fat woman is an undesirable thing to be. Sometimes this comes from outsiders towards fandom as a whole, and sometimes it is directed from fans towards other fans, as in the example of David Gerrold derisively describing Kirk/Spock fans as "fat ladies with a sexual dysfunction" when he was interviewed for DraftTrek.

Another variation on this theme thin fans bemoaning the presence of fat people in fandom. For example, a Fandom Secrets secret maker once lamented the existence of "too many fat and not enough fit" members of fandom, drawing the ire of commenters.

Fat fans have been bullied for cosplaying thin characters who show a decent amount of skin or wear skintight clothing.

Other Forms of Fatphobia

• The drawing of fat characters as thin is seen as taboo in some parts of fandom. Occasionally this may lead to dogpiles over it. Zamii in the Steven Universe fandom was driven to a suicide attempt over this.
• Cori Falls was guilty of this in her stories:
  • Because she herself thought Tracey Sketchit from the Pokémon anime was "a chubbo" due to his being slightly thicker in his build than other characters, her fanfics constantly called him "fat" in the narrative and later portrayed him as a fat slob whom her heroes bullied and ridiculed for sport.
  • Her Yu-Gi-Oh! series introduced a fat original character solely to be the annoying villain for her favorite characters to mock and put in his place.
• "Fat" is a popular insult towards Orihime Inoue, who is actually slender but has large breasts. Rabid IchiRuki and Rukia fans would make her out to be fat as a means of trying to make her seem even less desirable as Ichigo's love interest compared to the skinny, flat-chested Rukia.
  • Mai from Avatar: The Last Airbender received similar treatment in the past, with her detractors calling her "fat" due to her love of fruit tarts and to make her seem less appealing as a love interest for Zuko. Some extreme Zutara fans even allegedly got Dante Basco to add a line about "fat Mai stuffing her face with fruit tarts" to Zuko's love confession to Katara.
• The Science Ninja Team Gatchaman fic There's Something About Birdstyle not only has Joe Asakura loudly body-shaming Ryu Nakanishi, but a section of the narrative portrays him as unable to lose more than a pound due to constant eating. (Ryu is canonically large and has a big appetite, but his weight is never an issue.)
• Some fans see a lack of body diversity in OCs or fanart as a form of fatphobia, in which some artists will suggest others learn to appreciate and draw larger bodies to better their style and themselves. This aligns with seeing fandom as a microcosm of larger society, feeling that a lack of diversity in body types represents how society feels about fat people.
• Some Super Mario fans have cited Luigi's thin build as a reason he's better than the stocky, short Mario, though this is rarer than other forms of fatphobia.

Subverting Fatphobia: Fat Representation in Canon and Fandom

Representation in canon

• One of the many reasons Gundam: The Witch from Mercury is so beloved is that it not only features body diversity among its characters, but that the fat characters don't display any of the usual stereotypes.
• The 1960s Addams Family sitcom had an episode open with the family telling chubby Pugsley he didn't need to lose weight and gain muscle just because a girl he liked called him "fatso". The same episode had Fester trying and failing to lose weight so he could impress a female pen pal, only for it to turn out she preferred larger men. (She herself was also quite chunky, and not demonized for it.)
• Boy Meets World's Topanga gained some weight in the final season, but she was still presented as incredible beautiful and desirable. One episode did have her feeling insecure about it, but it was centered on body image in general (other characters spoke up about their insecurities as well).
• Brom and his daughter Meg in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn are both fat, and Brom does get a little flak for his size, but only once. Otherwise, more emphasis is placed on the incredible strength the two boast as a result of being farmers (Meg is said to be able to lift a full-grown cow).
• Candace, one of the bosses in Fire Emblem Fates, is a very large woman who's said to be incredibly speedy and a gifted treasure hunter. No jokes are ever made about her size or her looks, and she's a capturable boss who can be used as a unit on the player's team. (Though she doesn't have any dialogue thereafter.)
• The mobile game Pokémon Go recently introduced further trainer customization, including a variety of larger body types.
• Ryu Nakanishi from Science Ninja Team Gatchaman is fat, but just as athletic and fast on his feet as the thinner team members. He also boasts considerable physical strength.
• Connie Benge in the Nickelodeon iteration of Doug is chubby and portrayed as a sweet, fun-loving girl. Larry the AV nerd and twins Al and Moo Sleech are also on the huskier side, and Doug's teacher Mrs. Wingo is plump as well. Doug himself isn't thin, either, to the point where even when he does go on a diet to shed some excess weight in time for a pool party his sister has to remind him he's always had a little pudge to him.
• Alphys from Undertale is short and stout, overcomes her insecurities by facing up to her less than moral actions rather than losing weight, and gains the love of her longtime crush Undyne.
• Miyuki from Tokyo Godfathers was fat in her past, but the flashbacks don't show her being bullied or mistreated over it. She's thinner in the present, but this is presented less as a positive thing and more as an unfortunate side effect of being homeless and unable to afford food on a regular basis.

Representation in fandom

• Fans, especially writers or artists may create works about canonically fat characters like Aziraphale from Good Omens. He is played in the TV series by Michael Sheen and has a rounder body shape than his counterpart Crowley. In both the TV series and the novel he is notable for enjoying food.
  • As an example of fat representation, the fanwriter ineffablefool writes “mostly-fluff...adoring of the visibly-fat version of Aziraphale which I headcanon”, according to his AO3 profile. He has also inspired fanart of a visibly-chubby Aziraphale by fanartist squeegeelicious and uses visibly-chubby Aziraphale in a Reversed Omens AU by fanartist speremint as another inspiration.
• Fans may also create fat-positive works about characters who are not canonically fat, under tags such as Chubby X on AO3.
• Weight gain is a fairly popular kink on the Fire Emblem: Three Houses kink meme. Fans like to envision slender characters growing softer and thicker post-war as a sign of peace and comfort.
• In My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fandom, fans who drew the ponies in human form often made Pinkie Pie anywhere from plump to fat and proud of her size.
• In Undertale fandom, realistic depictions of Toriel give her healthy padding around her midsection and thighs.
• This NSFW Doug fic is a direct response to Disney slimming Connie down, portraying her as her old thicker self and proud of it.

Fat-Positive Fanart

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  Pin-up art of a plus-size Ariel of The Little Mermaid (HugoTendaz, 2016).

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  Isabela of Dragon Age II depicted as fat (Skimlet, 2018).

Resources & External Links

• Fat Shaming - Ao3 tag