Loving your body regardless of its size and shape is the primary message of the newest play on campus.
‘Fat Pig,’ which will be directed by Season Ellison, was discussed in depth at the Brown Bag Lunch discussion in the Women’s Center yesterday afternoon.
The group of women and men attending the discussion addressed the social issues and pressures to lose weight and fit in: ideas of which the play incorporates.
‘It’s tragic that the stereotypes seen in this play are true and that in our society it remains accessible in our culture,’ participant Marshall Rose said. ‘If you are perceived as fat or obese or overweight, anyone can say anything about you and no one will apologize.’
‘Fat Pig’ tells the story of Tom, a stereotypically good-looking man who falls in love with Helen, an overweight woman. The play follows Tom’s struggle with the social pressures he encounters concerning overweight issues.
Kevin Green, who will play Tom’s best friend Carter, said the roles are extremely challenging because of the negative views towards obesity expressed in the dialogue.
‘The views expressed by Carter are not the ones that I believe,’ he said. ‘I think that people should date and be friends with whoever they feel like because of who they are and not what they look like.’
However, not everyone has the same views that Green has.
According to an English study of 144 women conducted by psychologist Jason Halford and colleagues from the University of Liverpool, men seen with larger women are more likely to be described as ‘miserable, self-indulgent passive, shapeless, depressed, weak, insignificant and insecure.’
Ellison calls this phenomenon ‘fat phobia,’ which is the condition in which a person dislikes being fat and is irritated by obesity in other people.
Rose noted that fat phobias are seen in a number of different everyday occurances.
‘Overweight people don’t get hired and they don’t get callbacks for jobs because of the stereotypes about their weight,’ he said. ‘The discrimination they face is sometimes worse in some cases than race and gender.’
However, there are many cases of overweight people who workout and eat healthy, who are in better shape than those who are thin and starve themselves, Ellison said.
Regardless of the shape of one’s body, discussion members agreed that everyone faces insecurities at one time or another.
‘It’s amazing how difficult it is to view yourself growing up in America,’ Elizabeth Schnieder said, the graduate assistant for the Women’s Center.
‘It doesn’t matter if you’re thin or overweight or average, we all face distorted body images.’
Ellison hopes the play will address these issues and encourage students to love the body they have.
‘This is a piece that will provoke thought and conversation about fat phobias,’ she said. ‘You will laugh and find some parts funny, but you’re going to walk out of there feeling like you’ve been hit by a truck.’
‘Fat Pig’ will be performed at the Joe E. Brown Theater from March 27-30.
