Muriel’s Wedding- Toni Collette not fat

She was quite fat. Especially by mid 1990s standards. When you look how small/thin the women were in Friends, you can't possibly say 'Muriel' wasn't quite fat.

As has been said, she did get slimmer towards the end of the film.

She always struck me as sturdy rather than fat. It was hard to be strongly built back then. The other female lead is more traditionally dainty.

It was all about fine bones- slender, tall, willowy. Strong wasn’t an aspiration. She looks like she could wrangle livestock when necessary. That’s more accepted now.

Bridget isn’t meant to be fat. The joke is that she thinks she’s fat, but isn’t. The “joke” poking fun at 90s diet culture when Kate Moss heroin chic was the desirable figure. In the book she writes in her diary that she weighs 9 stone 7lbs, and she wants to lose 20lbs! Obviously it didn’t help matters that the actress they got to play her had to gain weight to reach that, further perpetuating the feeling that it was overweight.

People aren’t staying fat because they don’t realise they are fat. Of course we don’t tell our friends.. You’ve put on weight ect because there’s no need, they are aware, to point it out is just cruel. If someone wants to lose weight most of us know how, shaming people achieves nothing.

One of my favourite films! Not fat at all

Is this actually an "everyone-is-so-fat-these-days" thread in disguise?

She’s quite tall so putting on about 3 stone on a slim frame in a short period of time would make her look unhealthily overweight.

She is 5’8” so I doubt she is 48kg - that would be very underweight. She seems like unremarkable to me, healthy.

Firstly, it's a film. No need to get all "big is beautiful" about it. Secondly, you're judging her based on today's weight standards - it was a different time back in the 90s and we didn't have an overweight population because people didn't condone or defend it. She wasn't morbidly obese, no, but she was overweight. The slippery slope we're on these days is all this condoning it and which in turn then allows people to get fatter with no shame or criticism. People never tell their friends that they've actually got bigger than they were because we don't want to offend them or they've let their guard down and sometimes, people might genuinely not realise that weight is gradually piling on, so you need friends to tell you the truth, not lie to you. Because it could be that you care and you are worried that a weight gain could affect their health as to being more worried you don't make them cry. Don't forget, clothes sizes have changed over the years to make fat people feel less shame about being fat so what was a size 8 back then is probably a size 4 now. I guarantee if she was skinny and they all called her skinny and stick-thin, you'd all agree that she'd ought to put some weight on and it wasn't a healthy weight - it only works one way. It's like there's defending being fat, but not being skinny. Notice how, back in the day, when people actually got shamed for being overweight, they'd nip it in the bud and slim down before it got out of hand? Now, we tiptoe around it and say "big is beautiful" and "you're not fat" (when some people really are and need to be told as such) and we've got an obesity epidemic. Clearly body-shaming wasn't a bad thing - it kept people in check of their own gluttonous ways and made them think about what they ate and how much they exercised. People now don't just magically have weight conditions that didn't exist back then yet thats always the defence, but all you hear is "oh they could have a medical condition". Could they? What, every single fat person? They've all got PCOS or an underactive thyroid? Every single one of them? It's a cop out. People just took more pride in their appearance. That's all.

Brilliant film.

You're terrible Muriel was a catch phrase for a long time with friends...

Female friendship celebrated for once!

I’m not so sure about that. I remember there was a lot of obesity chat back then too

I don’t think thread is healthy for you. You are clearly overly obsessed with weight and the perception of fat. You seem to think fat means ugly too.

Yes she’s fat in the film.
Im fat.
it’s just a describing word.

She’s definitely what I would call fat in that film. But I think most people are fat (often they just don’t realise it).

No it's not "really fat."

But this is a weird thread...

I was 48kg much of my adult life and at just above average height it was honestly too light. When I gained round pregnancy I actually felt much better and lots of parts of me started to work properly.

So a happy medium might be somewhere between the 48 and the 66. But please op, I's speak to your gp as this is quite a fixated kind of thread.

Best feminist film ever!
I always felt sorry for her one night stand who was lovely and was nearly crying at the wedding to the swimmer.

@Choppychop 50kg is what someone has said in this thread and then said she gained 18kg. I can’t work in those numbers so I converted to stone and pounds.

I've managed to go from being called 'chubby' as a teen, to 'tiny' as a middle aged women simply by maintaining the same weight and measurements. I've also dropped 3 dress sizes. Times change and size is relative.

I’d say she was a lot bigger than 10st9 in the film, but I also don’t think she’s 7st12 usually. She looks more 12st7 at her larger size.