Fatness in Cartoons and Advertising

Throughout fatshame, Amy Farrell talks about how fatness is looked at through the evolutionary scale, and the “civility” of fatness. A way in which exemplifies her construct of “civilization” and “citizenship” according to fatness is looking at advertising and cartoons through the ages.

In the early 1900s fatness was seen as a sign of wealth and prosperity. Men who were fat were seen as “fat cats”, and though they were typically looked on as being greedy and sinister, they were admired. Their fatness was looked upon as a sense of power and extravagance. “Fatness itself was seen as a market of prosperity and security,” (Farrell 28). These views of fatness were portrayed in cartoons. Farrell shows a cartoon that shows how fatness was respected in a fatherly figure, as well as one portraying it as gluttonous and menacing as oppressive moneymakers in a Harpers Weekly cartoon.

In the beginning of the 20^th century, when middle class folk began to contribute a great deal to the fat population, fatness was no longer seen as just a sign of wealth and respect. It was becoming a mockery, and something to make fun of the people who desired to be rich, but fell short. Also at this time, fat women who enjoyed leisure activities began to become a spectacle in advertising, and cartoons. And with these cartoons women were being mocked as being loose sexually, and were advertised as being attractive to only men of “lower civilization” according to Farrell’s interpretations. She shows the ads of men who were considered lower class (plumbers, skinny men, and hobos) as being attracted to fat women (Farrell).

Farrell emphasizes that fat is viewed as being lower in civilization, and lower on the evolutionary scale. Fat is at many times seen as attached to a stigma of laziness and gluttony. Loss of self-control brings around the view of primitive and un-civilized. And unfortunate assist in the view of thin women being superior was the way women suffragists portrayed themselves in cartoons in the early 1900s.

In anti-suffragist cartoons, the suffragists were portrayed as ugly, stern, and fat. This portrayal was to imply that their ideas were stupid and that they themselves were ignorant and incompetent. “By portraying these suffragists as fat, these cartoons and caricatures symbolically argued that they were unfit for public citizenship,” (Farrell 88). These cartoons, portraying suffragists as fat white women, also brought the idea that they would bring disorder to civilization by bringing white people down to a more primitive level (Farrell 90).

The pro-suffragist cartoons did not help the cause of fat denigration either, however. In their attempts to bring positive views to the suffragist movement, they portrayed themselves as being thin white women. “Rather than challenging the ideology of fat denigration, first-wave feminists for the most part battled for their rights within the ideology, painting themselves as slim and fit for citizenship and drawing on fat stigma to humiliate their opposition,” (Farrell 113).

Advertisements and cartoons throughout the ages have poked fun, and belittled the fat population. Today we are too bombarded by advertisements that view fat as bad, and evil. Fat is not as much seen in commercials advertising other things, but it is in the mainstream media as being advertised in relation to weight loss products. We see fat in “before” pictures for products that got rid of it. Fat is meant to be viewed as uncivilized and necessary for immediate change in general population. We are supposed to be embarrassed by our fat, and only when we become skinny are we allowed to be happy with our bodies.

“A thin body is one that represents a person who has tamed primitive instincts, who has become fully civilized, and who thus deserves entry into the pubic sphere,” (Farrell 112). One example that sticks out to me is Jennifer Hudson as a spokeswoman for Weight Watchers. Upon winning American Idol with her stunning voice, she was considered fat. But she was beautiful, and a voice for the fat population in mainstream media.

I personally was irked when I found out she lost weight and was becoming a spokesperson for Weight Watchers…was I the only one? I believe we should be celebrating her talents AND her curves.