Plus-Sized Heroines

I was poking around the Goodreads website today, adding some books to my “To Read” list, and saw an add for a new title by the author Liza Palmer. Palmer’s first novel, Conversations with the Fat Girl, is one of my favorites comfort reads about a plus-sized woman working a dead-end job, getting kicked out of her apartment, and watching her now-size-4 best friend have the perfect wedding. As a non-skinny person myself, I’m always glad to read about heroines who are normal sized instead of looking like underfed super models. (Seriously, there is nothing more annoying than reading the back of a book that sounds really good until you come across a line like “Can Amanda prove to the handsome doctor she is working alongside while tending to the poor in the Congo that despite her title as Miss Universe she’s more than just a pretty face, finally finding a man that loves her for her brains as well?” Come on, how many people can relate to that?) The page for Conversations showed some other novels like it, and after a few clicks I found myself at a list of 80 books with plus-sized heroines as recommended by other readers on the site.
   
I scanned through the list and found a few of my favorites (like Bridget Jones’ Diary and The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things) as well as a few that surprised me (Silence of the Lambs? Really?). I read through the descriptions of a few hoping to find some new treasures. What I realized as I read abstract after abstract was that while it was true that they all featured plus-sized heroines, the majority of them also featured heroines who were on diets in order to either a) like themselves or b) get a guy to like them.
   
Why is it that we can’t have normal-sized women without them having weight issues? In every novel I’ve read with a plus-sized leading lady, the woman was basically ashamed of her size and tended to eat her feelings. Bridget Jones judged bad days by how many sweets she’d eaten. Maggie in Conversations had a weakness for pink boxes from the local bakery. Even in The Earth… teenage heroine Virginia felt guilted into eating salads by the people who gave her evil looks when she stopped to get a slice of pizza at a NY street-cart. Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I read a book about a curvaceous lady who was happy with the way she looked.

The only average-sized princess
in movies happens to be green.

Hollywood isn’t immune to this concept, either. I can only think of a handful of films where the woman didn’t have to go through an ultra-slimming transformation in order to land the guy. Besides the aforementioned Bridget Jones, the only things I can think of are Queen Latifah’s romantic comedies (like Last Holiday), the musical Hairspray (plump teenager girl snags the heartthrob!), and Shrek – which, although animated and about ogres, featured a princess whose true love preferred her plump rather than trim. I considered adding My Big Fat Greek Wedding to this list, but the bride had to have a complete makeover before her crush would make a move. (I do have to give props to Melissa McCarthy, the fabulous actress from Bridesmaids, Mike and Molly, and Gilmore Girls, for always playing a “woman who happens to be chubby” rather than a stereotypical “chubby woman”. You go, Melissa!)

If the average American woman is a size 12, then why aren’t we publishing books and making movies about women like the majority? We have no problem putting average guys like Kevin James in leading roles, but where are the average ladies? I mentioned this before in my post about the movie Marty, but I would love to see a movie, TV show, or novel about a curvy woman who not only is content with the way she looks but ends up with a handsome guy who loves her for who she is and what she looks like – no makeovers involved.

Part of me feels like it is my responsibility to write stories and books with plus-sized leading ladies. Every storyline I come up with features an average-looking girl looking for, running from, or denying love. You know how writers say they have a story inside them that needs to be told? Maybe this is my story. Surely there are women and girls out there who would love to read about a heroine who looks just like them but doesn’t need to be on a diet to love herself. I know my sixteen-year-old-self would have appreciated it.


Princess Fiona photo courtesy of dreamworks.wikia.com