Today, a bit of creepy irony, courtesy of Janet Bloomfield’s JudgyBitch blog.
Yesterday, Bloomfield put up a post (archived here) with the title “Feminists borrowing from terrorists now?” The source of her outrage? The anger directed at the now-notorious “Are You Beach Body Ready” ads posted in London tube stations by a weightloss powder company called Protein World.
The ads’ detractors, many of them feminists, think that the ad campaign contributes to fat shaming. Some of these critics have — gasp! — written on the ads with magic markers to express their dissatisfaction, acts of minor vandalism that the company’s CEO indignantly denounced as “terrorism.” No, really.
The company has also, it claims, gotten a number of threats, including a bomb threat. That’s a lot more serious, and completely indefensible; bomb threats are indeed intended to terrorise.
The irony? When I went to take a look at Bloomfield’s post last night, this was the first comment left on it:
I’m sorry, but that’s pretty fucking creepy. And it’s now been up on her site for a day.
I’m not quite sure how Bloomfield figures that bomb threats are terrorism but a comment warning feminists that “I’ll have my vengeance” is fine.
Bryce, comedy is not in and of itself making fun of fat people. A lot of thin serious actors also cut their teeth in comedic roles. Comedic roles sell more and make more money.
@Bryce
Wow, way to eliminate 3 actors. That only leaves over a dozen others. Good job showing us who’s right.
And how dare you not be familiar with John Goodman. HAVE YOU NO HEART? HAVE YOU NO SOUL? HAVE YOU NO TELEVISION BECAUSE HE’S IN A SHIT-TON OF MOVIES AND TV SHOWS.
Seriously, how is anyone NOT familiar with John Goodman?
Comedic roles are also just as often as dramatic roles full of emotional depth.
Jorge Garcia.
@Orion
Already got him.
Also nothing you said about James Earl Jones’ career changes him being a well-respected fat actor whose roles aren’t about his weight.
We can have a conversation about racist tropes if you want, but this isn’t that.
@isidore13
Should we start listing public officials and CEOs and shit who are men and are overweight compared to their female counterparts?
Well, I mean, you can. I don’t have all night to list them all, and, fuck, we’ll need a hella a lot more time to dig up fat women CEOs and public officer holders.
Bryce, didn’t you admit that you’re wrong and apologise for WATMing in the last thread?
@isidore13
I’m pretty sure, off the top of my head, that Chris Farley and Jack Black have many roles that have jokes about their weight. Everyone else may have one or two.
Also:
This is the point where I lose all benefit of the doubt and know you’re just fucking with us. Only one of the most active and well-known actors in freakin’ history…
@M.
I’m sure it’s totally possible for Bryce to have not seen any episode of Roseanne, The Big Easy, Raising Arizona, Stella, King Ralph, The Babe, We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story, The Borrowers, The Big Lebowski, Saturday Night Live from 1989 to 2013, The Runner, Futurama Christmas specials, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Coyote Ugly, The Emperor’s New Groove, Arachnophobia, The Princess and the Frog, ParaNorman, Community, Monsters Inc, Argo, The Internship, Flight…
Okay, I’m sure I’m missing some…
I was going to add to the list with guys like Brian Dennehy, Paul Sorvino and Vincent D’Onofrio, but if you don’t know who John Goodman is I won’t bother.
Bryce: I would not describe James Earl Jones’s performance in Field of Dreams as a “distanced authority figure.” And do you really not think that comedies can’t and don’t have serious and in-depth character portrayals? Wes Anderson (among others) would have a bone to pick with you.
If anyone is unfamiliar with John Goodman, I recommend The Monuments Men and Bringing out the Dead.
But, seriously, where are the female equivalents of these actors? Kathy Bates is the only one I can think of who garners some of the same kind of respect, and gets some of the same depth of character in her roles.
The only movies I can think of, that I’ve seen, that has a fat woman with any kind of character development, and is shown as being worthy of love, is My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Hairspray. And even in Hairspray, Tracy and Edna Turnblad’s weight is played for laughs.
Why was a Sharpie waiting for the bus?
James Earl Jones won the first of his two Tony Awards for Best Leading Actor in 1969. You should stop discussing actors you know nothing about.
@ m
There’s no way I’m would dispute that fat men are much more visible through the media and popular culture, and that overweight men receive a degree of validation here, but that doesn’t mean they’re presented in the same manner as their thin counterparts. John Goodman..I’m just not aware of his recent roles but it seems like most people still place him as Dan Conner, cuddly father figure. Tom Selleck might be another example, he’s ‘distinguished’ and a little portly now, yet he was fit and athletic in his Magnum Mo-tastic days.
“John Goodman, not really familiar with him …”
Here he is, singing a song.
I tend to recognise actors more by their faces than by their names, I imagine lots of people have seen John Goodman in a number of things but don’t recognise him by name.
Nobody has mentioned Louis C.K. yet?
I’m all the time hearing women talk about attractive they find him. Is there a female equivalent that men love? Not that I can think of. Oh, and there was a whole episode of his show about this very subject. His character liked a woman who was in the same weigh/conventional attractiveness scale as him. And he was embarrassed to be seen with her.
I think that says it all.
James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano. Not a joke. Speaking of New Jersey, has there ever been a female governor as fat as Chris Christie? I don’t think so, and I don’t see it happening.
Not to spam the thread right now (I have tomorrow off and have been celebrating with lots of wine), but I can’t be the only one annoyed at having to prove bias against women to semi-regulars on a fucking feminist blog, right?
Bryce, people here have been extremely generous in assuming that you have some other motive than to whine that feminists are not devoting enough attention to Dude Problems.
The longer you go down this path, the less inclined we’re going to be to be generous.
@WWTH
This is the first time I’ve done it and I’m already fucking tired of it.
Oh, speaking of fictional mobsters – Marlon freakin’ Brando.
Bryce:
Um, yeah, that’s pretty much what we’re talking about here. Fat women do not get the same visibility and validation in the media that fat men get. Fat men can be stereotyped as the affable, goofy fat guy – but not always. Fat women are usually either completely invisible non-entities, or the butt of fat jokes.
Hmm. I was going to link Bryce to an article about why he’s pissing us off, but both posts vanished into the ether without even going into moderation. Glitch or is Vagenda filtered?