Introduction
The Fat and Proud Documentary is a documentary that is all well known for its unique characteristics that are portrayed by the fat women who are featured therein. People are usually very concerned with respect to their weight where they observe it keenly so as to avoid the danger of being overweight or rather so fat. People usually value a certain range of weight and body size, and they find themselves doing anything possible to maintain it no matter the cost, for instance through some fitness programs or even undergoing some dieting programs.
This has been so much of a concern that it has been portrayed in different media showing the dire need of people to keep fit through maintaining a particular weight. This piece of work gives a review of the Fat and Proud Documentary with much emphasis being given to aspects such as how the women live, some of the strategies they employ in an effort to manage fatness as a master status and their success level. Another television program will be discussed to give a comparative study.
The Documentary Review
The Fat and Proud Documentary portrays women who are too fat and yet proud of themselves as opposed to being worried about their size and weight. The Fat and Proud documentary present a lifestyle of overweight and fat women who are comfortable with their status quo and are ready to maintain it. The fat women do some simple exercises, for instance, dancing to make sure that they maintain their size and weight. They hold some occasions like parties where they come together once in a while to share good moments and appreciate one another and discuss the measures they may take in order to maintain their status quo and derive fun and comfort from it rather than having to mind on how they may reduce it (Frater, 2005).
The fact that they gain appreciation from other people, especially men is an encouraging aspect to them, and they take their size as a sense of identity. The women are aware that big size does not always imply that someone is unhealthy or not fit. The strategies employed by these women seem to be successful to a very great extent since they have kept them going, and they find something to share and be happy together. The main aim of these women is to ensure that they remain healthy despite their size. They do this by doing some exercises to ensure that they are active, mobile and swift such that they are able to comfortably undertake any task that can be undertaken by a normal size or rather small-sized individual, for instance, walking (Anonymous, n.d).
Comparative Study
For the purpose of understanding the uniqueness of the Fat and Proud documentary, I will use the television program entitled, I Used to Be Fat. I Used to Be Fat is a reality TV show that presents teenagers that are very motivated and do anything that is deemed to help them lose weight. The commonly used strategies include dieting and exercise. The participants are assigned motivational trainers who help them in their weight loss process by showing them the way to carry out the activities. The personal trainers are as well responsible for directing the participants towards the appropriate eating habits to avoid any chances of gaining weight.
Offering emotional support is also a responsibility of the trainers in the I used to be Fat program where they are supposed to encourage the participants to work harder as opposed to losing hopes along the process an issue that would make the weight loss process ineffective and leave the participants hopeless in their aim and goal ever to lose weight in life. In this program, we find various participants who have the same interest although their interest is driven from different points of views, for instance, being embarrassed by peers, the desire to wear cute and fashionable clothes and many more (Colls, 2006).
When comparing the Fat and Proud documentary with I used to be Fat program, there are very little similarity aspects that can be clearly depicted as opposed to the differences. The participants in both programs are brought together because of the issue of weight, and they are all determined to achieve certain goals and targets so as to be comfortable in life. Another similarity is that the participants are under certain conditions in order to either lose (I Used to Be Fat) or maintain their weight (Fat and proud).
The differences between the proud and fat module and other weight-related programs are, however, evident. While the rest of the programs concentrate on assisting people in losing weight, the Fat and Proud program advocates for maintaining the large weight or rather a fat size of the women involved as a virtue of identity where they are identified through their big size. Participants in other programs are usually not comfortable with their body size and weight and them, therefore, do anything possible to lose weight unlike in the Fat and Proud where the participant seems to be content and work towards maintaining their status quo despite the consequences that go hand in hand with being overweight or too fat for instance embarrassment, discrimination, and people making fun of them (Erdman, 1996).
Conclusion
From the research above, it is evident that the Fat and Proud Documentary is unique in a way, especially when compared to another television programming like the “I used to be Fat”. This is because of the attitude of the women who are portrayed therein. The fact that they are comfortable and proud of their big size is amazing and leaves a considerable number of people to wonder what is there in fatness that the women should be proud of. It has a great percentage of irony where the participants accept themselves and learn how they can derive pleasure from their status and instead of changing it, try to maintain it through the application of various strategies as explained above. It stands out among other weight-related documentaries as most of them are geared to losing weight through various programs such as exercising and going through some dieting processes.
Reference List
Anonymous (n.d). Fat and Proud Part 1. Web.
Colls, R. (2006).’Outsize/Outside: Bodily bignesses and the emotional experiences of British women shopping for clothes, Gender, Place and Culture – A Journal of Feminist Geography, 13: 5, 529-545.
Erdman, C. (1996). Nothing to Lose: A Guide to Sane Living in a Larger Body. New York: Harper One.
Frater, L. (2005). Fat Chicks Rule! How to survive in a Thin-centric World. New York: Ig Publishing.