"Fat" Monica in Friends isn't even fat

[TallGirl24]

As per title. Rewatching all the old Friends episodes. How in the name of the wee donkey was this a recurring joke? She's basically normal sized but beside some very slim costars. I know it was a different time but it is so jarring to watch now.

I think it’s perception and to do with the persons own weight; someone up thread commented that they used to think fat Monica was huge, now they think she’s maybe a stone overweight, when clearly she’s several stones over weight and well into the obese category.

the op said she was a normal weight and not fat. Normal can mean average, it doesn’t mean healthy. She is however fat.

but I think if someone doesn’t want to accept they are fat. Then they won’t want to accept fat Monica is fat either. And I say that as someone who has been everything from a low healthy weight to obese. I guess the one thing I’ve never done is decided fat wasn’t fat as a way to make myself feel better.

Very well said.

This is what happens when we desensitise fatness.

No, as I said it's well documented that salaries have stagnated and not increased in line with inflation. Junior doctor salaries are currently below 2009 levels. Real-terms pay has fallen by between 12% and 26% since 2010 across the civil service. It's something that is discussed a lot both among friends and colleagues but also in the wider media so I'm surprised you think I'm talking from a personal perspective. It's a massive cause for concern

Very true. I've never been really fat but I have been overweight for my build (height) - over 9 stone is far too heavy for me and I struggle to get in a size 12. I look best at around 8st5 (easily get in to most 12s) but I am very small built. Unfortunately I do carry the weight on my belly so I do need to be careful - I'd like to distribute some of it to my top half!

No @AngelicKaty like every other sane person I use my eyes and a mirror.

I agree. I’m a fat porkster myself, not a “curvy woman” which is how a lot of obese women describe themselves these days.

This can’t be real. I remember the episode where Monica’s dad said to her mum ‘well Judy, you did it, she’s finally full’ and Monica in the fat suit was very fat in that episode.

It’s curious, everyone always thinks, if you’re fat you know it. But this thread shows for some people they don’t. They don’t think they are fat, even when obese. I see it on other threads also. I saw one where a size 18 woman, clearly fat , proclaimed she was not, she was just one size above average, so wasn’t fat. Another poster proclaiming she wasn’t fat even though her bmi was 29. Thr same for the op and the poster who thought fat Monica might be a stone overweight. Or the posters declaring healthy weight models are significantly under weight, in an attempt to make fat the healthy weight.

it’s very clear, it isn’t a given that if you’re fat you know it. Which opens up a huge amount of issues in terms if sensitivity, health management etc.

I can understand an individual not noticing the weight creeping on. It's easy as you get older to not notice the odd couple of pounds then its just another couple of pounds until you've gained quite a bit of weight over time without really noticing. To say Monica wasn't fat when she was wearing a huge comedy fat suit though is very odd.

I don't think that Fat Monica wasn't fat. However, I do think that her face doesn't match her body. That is because of poor prosthetics, but her face is like someone on My 600lb life, and her body, while undoubtedly obese or even morbidly obese, isn't in that league.

Times have changed since Friends, and I honestly think for the better in that respect. Another movie from that era which wouldn't be made now is Shallow Hal. I read an article in the Guardian where the woman who played Fat Rosemary was interviewed, and she said it was a really awful experience. Not at the time: she said that everyone was very kind, and that Gwyneth Paltrow went out of her way to be nice to her. Afterwards, though, the reality hit that she was just seen as a body, a freakshow. Very cruel and I don't see how we can justify that in the name of ' FaT PeoPLE DOn't KnoW theY're FaT anyMoRE. Oh NoEz!'

I don’t actually agree, I think it is down to the invidual. When I was obese, but lighter than fat Monica , my face definitely was fat and puffy like that.

@TallGirl24 no, she was fat.

Your perception of what a healthy weight looks like has changed.

Even GPs don't want to tell people they're overweight in case they trigger an eating disorder (I agree it has to be handled sensitively of course, for this and other reasons) and yet a huge number of people are overweight and far fewer are in the dangerously underweight category. Someone I know asked the GP if they were overweight (they were, for them, and they were concerned a particular medication was causing it). The GP said, no, if anything you are underweight. This simply wasn't true and seemed disingenuous/irresponsible by the GP. And to the OPs original point, yes fat Monica was fat (but Bridget Jones wasn't)

I don't know, there's a whole section where one of HG's senior staff members (the one played by Nina Sosany) refers to her as 'the chubby girl,' and he says something like would we say she's chubby? She replies 'I'd say so, yes, absolutely enormous thighs.'

I mean, imho that's completely insane and untrue (and is probably the reason I can still remember the dialogue given I haven't seen the film for at least a decade) but unless the viewer was supposed to infer that the character was blind or confused we can only assume that we (the audience) were supposed to consider her noticeably bigger than average. Which, to be fair, amongst every.single.other female character in that film, she was! Whether she was significantly bigger than the average english woman in her 20s in 2003, less so.

As pp's have said, it's 'hollywood homely,' when a perfectly good looking woman who in any real life scenario would be considered pretty at the very minimum, is presented as average or ugly, either by the old 'glasses, ponytail and baggy clothes' pre-makeover cliche or by surrounding her with glamour models.

i think it’s clear people aren’t confusing the two, there is no way to confuse the two and fat Monica was obese, not just a bit heavier.

God I hate canned laughter... it makes me judge American audiences

I’m no massive Friends fan but it was filmed in front of an audience, there is a lot of behind the scenes footage which shows this.

I think part of the issue is that in order to combat the shaming and arseholery, a lot of people turned to ... well lying.

Even if you know it, when friends ,family, loved ones etc. tell you you're fiiine, you're not fat it's quite easy to buy into it, especially if you're that way inclined.

I hate the idea that something is automatically funny just because it isn't 'woke'. I have no issue with humour sometimes being offensive, but the reason I don't find Friends funny isn't that I think it is 'unwoke'. It just isn't all that funny IMO. And I agree, canned laughter is infuriating although I can forgive some shows which have it (I still love Frasier)

Yes I guess, I mean I was fat, I knew I was fat. I could see myself. And I wasn’t as fat as fat Monica.

As that’s the thing about being fat, there is no hiding it;you can see it on your naked body, in your clothes, and feel it in your general health and stamina.

And everyone else can see it too.

So the fact some people can’t see it on themselves is a surprise to me. Yes you don’t see it day after day with a couple of pounds gain, but there comes a point, when you buy a size 16 or 18 or wear only stretchy clothes so they fit, and I would have thought surely you’d know. But it appears I’m wrong. And it appears those folk can’t see it in others either.

maybe some form of body dysmorphia.

THANK YOU!

It’s like we have gone full circle. I have no problem with offensive humour if funny.

But now it seems in order to be funny it MUST be offensive. Anything “anti-woke” is automatically hilarious. It’s odd.

I understand the point she is trying to make I just think it’s a horrible way to do it.

I wasn't talking about fat monica anywhere in that post, so not sure where the 'confused the two?' came from? My entire post was about Natalie in love actually.