How Heavy Women Should Be Portrayed

Last week, I watched the movie Falling for Figaro, and while I liked it in general, I loved one part.

The portrayal of Millie, the main character, an aspiring opera singer who happens to be an overweight woman.

And I don’t mean overweight in the Bridget Jones sense, where Bridget looks like a lovely young woman with some curves despite all her hand-wringing about her weight. Millie would certainly be considered obese.

I don’t recall a single instance of her being insulted or badly treated because of her size. She did not align with the stereotypes about heavy people – she wasn’t lazy or stupid, she dressed well, she didn’t only think about food, etc. In fact, if she hadn’t been heavy, the movie wouldn’t have been any different, and I think that’s wonderful, even if it means the world of the movie is probably more aspirational than realistic. (Although the film is British, and this may be a more realistic image of how things are in the UK than in the U.S.)

I suppose you could argue that Millie’s desire to be an opera singer meant people would be less critical of her weight since opera singers are often depicted as heavy (though I don’t know if that’s true in real life). Consider the phrase, “It’s not over until the fat lady sings.”

But even so, Millie’s teacher, a former opera singer, was not overweight, and nor were many of the other women at the singing competition Millie attended. So, I don’t think that alone explains it.

Whatever encouraged the writers, directors, producers, etc., to treat Millie as an actual human being, I hope others will take notes and do the same. With that in mind, here are the parts that particularly caught my attention.

Wardrobe

A common trope about fat people is that they’re slovenly and don’t pay much attention to their appearance. (Of course, it can also be hard to dress well if clothing designers don’t make flattering clothes for overweight people, though I think that’s gotten better.)

But this isn’t the case with Millie. At the beginning of the film, she was working as a hedge fund manager, and she dressed for it.

Even when she decided to pursue opera singing in a tiny town in Scotland, she dressed nicely. It was great to see her take pride in her appearance and want to present herself well without feeling like she had to lose a ton of weight to do it.

Intelligence

Too often, overweight people are considered not that bright, as if increasing pounds detracts from your IQ. I think again about Bridget Jones. I don’t think Bridget was stupid, but the movies did highlight her mistakes and clumsiness to make her appear less bright than she was.

But in reality, heavy people can be very bright, and Millie was a good example. She got glowing reviews at her job and was even offered a major promotion before she left to try opera. She also clearly knew the music world and was, with the help of a friend, able to get a crotchety old woman to be her teacher.

Overall, the only thing Millie didn’t seem to know how to do well, ironically enough, was cook for herself.

Food choices

It’s unusual in general to see a woman eating in a movie, let alone heating healthy food. More likely, the person is eating chips, candy, fried food, etc.

So I also appreciated seeing Millie eat real meals (most of the time). She didn’t cook them, but she clearly appreciated well-prepared food. You can see her savoring her bites as she eats something she really enjoys, which seems like a good role model for all of us.

Love life

Heavy women in media don’t often have partners, or if they do, they’re not necessarily appealing partners. More often, heavy men have thin, attractive wives, which seems to reinforce the general idea that no one attractive, talented, and/or intelligent would want to date a fat woman.

Not so with Millie. At the beginning of the movie, she’s dating a handsome and successful young man (who also happens to be her boss), and later, another handsome young man (another aspiring opera singer) falls in love with her. There’s even a make-out scene.

This was so refreshing to see. Both men were attracted to Millie, and it didn’t seem to be a matter of liking her despite her weight. They seemed to find her quite pretty and desirable just as she was.

Self-advocating

Finally, I was very glad to see that Millie had confidence and wasn’t going to cave in to anyone. She advocated for a place to stay while getting training, as well as a mentorship with the former opera singer.

I call this out because I think far too often, heavy women feel ashamed of how much physical space they take up and try to make themselves small in other ways: being quiet, not making waves, not speaking up, etc.

I hope that Millie’s example encourages women in the real world to speak up, advocate for themselves, and ask for what they deserve.

Millie is a great role model

In addition to all this, Millie had the courage to pursue her dreams, even though it meant giving up a cushy job. She worked extremely hard (dispelling the lazy myth), and while she enjoyed food, she had other interests.

In short, she was shown as a person with a full life, rather than depicted as a stereotype based on her weight. I can’t think of many other movies that do that, but I hope to see more of them.

 [EB1]Grammarly suggestion: change this to “weigh-wringing”