By Rudy Harries
Sarah Grant is a working-class writer from Glasgow, determined to change the way that audiences perceive plus-size women through feminist and sex-positive film and television projects.
In her first book, Fat Girl Best Friend, she wants to shine a spotlight on a lineup of plus-sized women across media from the past 20(ish) years, and show her audience not only how tropey the representation of these women are, but how these tropes have affected her own development along with a whole generation of other plus-size women.
Fat Girl Best Friend is a great read – sharp and serious about the damage that these tropes do to plus-size women, but with enough wit and charm to make it a fun read. The short sections inside short chapters make it easy to absorb in a couple of sittings, and I’m sure many plus-size people reading it will find themselves fist-pumping the air, as I did, at the expert takedowns of some of film and TV’s most fatphobic characters.
A highlight for me is the section on the infamous “Fat Monica” running gag on Friends, where Sarah argues: “Chandler should find [Fat Monica] sexy no matter what size she is, […] I really did appreciate the alternative episode which spelled out that now matter how their lives panned out, Chandler and Monica were meant to be together, […] but if I were Monica I don’t know whether I could ever trust someone who makes it so clear that they prefer me to be thin.”
It’s with this kind of balanced, nuanced approach that Sarah discusses the good, the bad and the ugly of plus-sized female characters, including Stranger Things’ Barb, Hairspray’s Tracey and Edna Turnblad, and Pitch Perfect’s Fat Amy.
By Rudy Harries