The Fallen Woman Rising

As Farrell points out in Fat Shame, the image of the fallen woman can be and often is deeply connected to body size. This is because, she argues, fatness can be used as an indicator of either upward or downward mobility. This makes sense given the fact that in our society, thinness has been associated with civilized behavior and the upper class and fatness is associated with uncivilized behavior and the lower class. This stigma came about around the time when the middle class was emerging in America and more people were beginning to have access to wealth. It was assumed that civilized people knew how to manage their wealth and were able to resist their primitive urge to eat as much as their wealth would allow. Thus, civilized people were thin. On the other hand, people that couldn’t manage their newfound wealth properly and splurged on good food were considered uncivilized-hence fat people are uncivilized. So, since body size can be an indicator of civilized or uncivilized behavior, it can also indicate moving between the two. Examples of this principle are plastered all over tabloids that we all read (guiltily) in line at the grocery store. For example, (insert any female celebrity here) was in the prime of her career, but ended up with a drug addiction which killed her image as a successful actress. The day after the story comes out that she is in rehab, five other stories come out about her weight gain and how she was letting herself go, which after all is probably why she failed in the first place (*sarcasm sign* for any of you Big Bang Theory fans out there).

Here is a real life example (if you can call this real life) that works in the opposite direction, in that weight loss was used to “reclaim an identity as a civilized person,” (Farrell 122). Amber Portwood was featured on the MTV hit “Teen Mom” (this show opens up a whole new can of worms for me, but I won’t go there today). After “Teen Mom”, Amber was charged with domestic battery against the father of her child. She spent one night in jail and is in the process of giving up custody of her child. This is clearly a woman fallen from grace. However, the latest news on Amber is (shockingly): she has lost weight! A whole 65 pounds from a size 11 to a size 5. She says that she is ready to move on from “Teen Mom” and from the assault charges and (get this.) wants to become a model. The weight loss is definitely helping her chances not only of becoming a model, but recovering her image. It’s absurd to think that weight loss can make up for domestic abuse, but in our culture, it appears that anything is possible.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1346871/Teen-Mom-star-Amber-Portwood-practises-poses-sets-sights-modelling-career.html