Our Fattys, Ourselves

"We don’t call ours stars 'Fatty' anymore, and studios don’t (officially) ban stars from Hollywood. But we do let stars take on our personal anxieties, and shun them when they fail to embody them in ways that please us. We blind ourselves to corporate machinations that allow individuals to take the fall, and we make it easy to associate outsized bodies with the grotesque. Libel laws are more stringent these days, and stars are, in general, more circumspect. But I’m still terrified by what humans are eager to believe of one another, especially when class, gender, and body size intersect." [The Hairpin]



Comments

  • Jake says:

    It really is a tragedy. He was such a skilled actor. I loved that the early comedians were half comedians, half athletes. And despite his frame, you can see the skill the man had in body control. One of my favorites is The Cook. Check out his knife skills. Pretty cool. And Buster Keaton's there as well.

    Here's a link:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=minKIjx-Cs8