Size Positive Spotlight: Treme On HBO

I was hooked on Treme from the first episode. For those of you who haven’t heard about it, it’s a show that follows the lives of a number of inter-related characters in post-Hurricane-Katrina New Orleans. It’s been getting a lot of acclaim for its great writing, moving storylines, amazing music, and fine acting.

But the thing that I like most about it is the way that size diversity is treated as the norm for the show’s characters.

Season one had two fat main characters: Antoine Batiste, played by Wendell Pierce, and Creighton Bernette, played by John Goodman. And although I really wish there were a fat, female main character, fat supporting women crop often as attorneys (like Toni Bernette’s colleague), teachers, musicians, friends, and lovers. Many of the musicians who play themselves on the show are also fat.

The really great thing about all of this fabulous fatness is that fatness is never a storyline. It’s never mentioned. No one talks about diets or weight loss or whatever. Every character, fat or thin, has good things about them and not so good things about them.Fatness isn’t a sign of weakness or strength or good or evil or whatever. It just is. Fat people aren’t relegated to flat characters. They have depth, they live their lives, they dance, they get laid.

.”]The normality of fatness on Treme shouldn’t be weird, but it is. If you think about television right now, it’s hard to think of a show that doesn’t pathologize fatness (The Biggest Loser, Heavy, Shedding For The Wedding) or leave out fat characters altogether (nearly everything else on TV). The only slightly size positive show that I can think of other than Treme is Modern Family, which features Eric Stonestreet as a fat, gay father and Rico Rodriguez II as a fat, precocious 10 year old, and their fatness, again, isn’t part of the storyline. However, the women on that show, as usual, are all really thin.

Treme is really what TV should be – well-written, entertaining, and representative of real people. In other words, it’s just the kind of show that gets canceled too soon (except on HBO, right?).

Are there any fat positive shows out there that I’m missing? Let me know in the comments section below!

Check out the Treme trailer here: Trailer

If you don’t have HBO, you can get the first season of Treme here.

Golda Poretsky, H.H.C. is a certified holistic health counselor who specializes in transforming your relationship with food and your body. Go to http://www.bodylovewellness.com/stay-in-touch/ to get your free download – Golda’s Top Ten Tips For Divine Dining.