MetaChat - ChatFilter re Hollywood and women and weight

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24 January 2009

ChatFilter re Hollywood and women and weight Is Hollywood's weight obsession for females supported by $ data or are they just neurotic assholes?

Okay, let me explain. I kind of extra-like a TV show when a main female character is not a skinny minnie. →[More:]Like, in Medium, I love the Patricia Arquette character. I love the "Ugly Betty" character. In Ghost Whisperer (okay, totally embarrassing, see how much I trust you all), I sort of extra-warmed to Jennifer Love Hewitt when she was a more regular-sized gal. But all of these actresses are apparently shamed and gossiped about until they change course and lose weight.

Here's the question -- is there evidence that the show's ratings and/or the movie profits actually go down when the female is not skinny? In other words, is it a financial reaction or is it just a neurotic weight thing? Because for me I like the show better with a regular-weight look, but I'm probably not the target demographic.

post by: Claudia_SF at: 19:26 | 6 comments

I dunna. I'm one of those heathens who doesn't watch TV and then looks down my nose at other people who do. Except for the looking-down-on-those-who-watch-TV part. That's not me.

OK, but to your point, yah, I'm also more able to identify with a character if she's a bit more like me. Bridget Jones is a fine example.

posted by Stewriffic 24 January | 19:32

Any "model gorgeous" woman (or man for that matter) playing, say, a soccer mom in a movie just kind of... doesn't work. Give me normal people. Sometimes we watch British movies on video just to get a sense of normalcy.

posted by Doohickie 24 January | 23:30

"Any "model gorgeous" woman (or man for that matter) playing, say, a soccer mom in a movie just kind of... doesn't work."

why would she need to work? that defeats the entire purpose of being a gold-digger.

posted by UbuRoivas 24 January | 23:36

To answer your question...yes I think it makes a difference. Shows with "normal' size female leads will have "normal' size ratings, but won't be hits. Same goes for movies.
I think Hollywood's tendency to have skinny actresses is 90% driven by the audience. It's what we want and we vote with our remotes.
But, that being said, there are still plenty of movies and TV shows that don't follow that trend and opt for acting talent over model looks. You mentioned a few, and there are more, but they're not huge hits. The masses want eye candy.

posted by rocket88 25 January | 00:00

Honestly, I'm beginning to suspect that the Hollywood tropes like, "Movies that cater to women won't sell tickets" or "Women on TV must be stick-thin and sexy to appeal to the men in the audience" are 95% based on producer biases and 5% based on phony data. The Women and Hollywood blog talks about this sometimes, although the main focus is movies.

posted by muddgirl 26 January | 10:23

Even if there is a correlation between skinny female leads and higher ratings, you can't conclude that one causes the other. Even if you could, the cause could be by design of the show, or some other factor. Ex. a show featuring skinny leads wearing bikinis on Spike channel is geared to a different (and possibly bigger) viewing audience than a show more tailored towards women's issues and emphasizing dialogue over visuals. (I'm not characterizing the shows you mentioned above, just showing some extremes)

posted by iamkimiam 26 January | 10:38

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