IT'S RANTIN' TIME *in my Power Rangers voice*:
The very fact that Gabourey Sidibe has been the target of so much hate on social media is not at all surprising. Don't get me wrong, it's very sad, but not groundbreaking news. It's indicative of the way fat people have been portrayed in media and life for decades, centuries, since the beginning of artistic archetypes. And let me be clear, it's not just fat people (because intersections are important), but particularly fat, Black women. Read that again.
The fact that she is on TV portraying a whole realized fat, black (well, biracial) woman is driving you people crazy and I love it. We are so used to seeing fat people as bumbling idiots or so consumed with their insatiable lust for food that they cannot function as real people. And here we have Gabby as Becky, a STYLISH Executive Assistant to the President and CEO of multi-billion organization, with her hair on fleek and a little bit of power. Who knew fat people had actual lives. And then the unthinkable happened!
They gave Becky a love interest and the salty, bitter, evil netizens took to the memes to find your company in the misery. Because God forbid, a big black woman be seen as sexual, attractive, or having an shred of a libido. I get it, though...when was the last time you've seen a fat person in a sex scene on tv or a movie that wasn't a comedy or a dream sequence or a sexual assault? How many times have you seen a fat person pursued as a love interest and it wasn't for laughs or some weird fetish storyline? Exactly. Listen, I say all this to say, fat people are people, too. The minute you get that through your head, the less shocked you'll be to see us actually doing normal human things like having a sex life, having a job, having a fashion sense, having basic good hygiene, driving in cars, etc. It's 2015. C'mon.
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