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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be a bit uneasy at the concept of new E4 show "my mad fat diary?"

64 replies

wannabedomesticgoddess · 12/01/2013 23:56

If the trailers are anything to go by, its about a 16 year old who is FAT and feels she doesnt fit in or isnt normal. Oh and did I mention shes FAT.

WTAF has being fat got to do with it. Plenty of people feel like they dont fit in. Especially teenagers. And since when is being fat "mad"?

I really do not understand what message they are trying to put across. And yes I probably should watch it before I comment, but the trailers are making me cross. Since when is it ok to promote that fat people should try to be more normal?

And I hate the word FAT. AIBU? Or do other people feel the same?

OP posts:
Fakebook · 12/01/2013 23:59

Being a teenager and fat/thin/tall/short/alive isn't fun. It's just a tv programme.

PomBearWithAnOFRS · 13/01/2013 00:01

I saw the trailer for this earlier and my first thought was "but she's not fat" and then it got "uncomfortable" and I can't quite say why, it just didn't look like something I'd want DD to watch iykwim.
If they have such a pretty girl as the one who's playing the title role, and make her out to be "fat and mad", what hope is there for any ordinary schoolgirls who aren't uber glamorous and film star thin Confused - I don't like it when anyone is singled out for their appearance, and especially not when it's someone who is prefectly ordinary and nice and not fat etc, who is then held up as someone with "something wrong".

frootshoots · 13/01/2013 00:02

Why are you only picking up on the FAT part? And not the spending time in a nuthouse part for example?

YABU.

Original poster
wannabedomesticgoddess · 13/01/2013 00:03

You have put that much more eloquently than I could Pom.

But its not just a programme Fake. Teenagers will watch that and take something from it. Its naive to think they wont.

OP posts:
cheddarcheeselover · 13/01/2013 00:05

erm, well the girl is very definitely very overweight!

I think it looks quite good, I was a fat teen and having someone to identify with would've been ace. sort of a female adrian mole?

Original poster
wannabedomesticgoddess · 13/01/2013 00:05

Because the fat part is all over it. 16 stone is written on the screen beside scales. The word fat is used countless times.

Time in a "nuthouse" (I assume thats e4s term and not yours) has completely passed me by. Is that what its about?

It gets worse then.

OP posts:
PomBearWithAnOFRS · 13/01/2013 00:06

I was the "fat swotty" one at school, and I hate the thought of anyone else ever going through what I went through. Hopefully it will turn out to be a story of how she is still liked and respected and has friends and self respect and self belief and it will be inspiring, rather than all about how she suffers for being different. I just wish the trailer gave us a clue which way it will go Confused

cinnamonnut · 13/01/2013 00:06

PomBear, I think it's definitely fair to say that she is overweight.

CaptainRex · 13/01/2013 00:07

It actually based on a real diary written by someone in my school, who spent time in a mental institute, and wrote the diary of her life as a way to heal at the time

so YADBU

JaneFonda · 13/01/2013 00:07

Yes, you probably should watch it before you comment.

It's based on the teenage diaries of a writer, who was overweight and therefore writes about her difficulties.

Nowhere does it mention that being fat is 'mad' - the premise is that she has just come out of a psychiatric hospital - it seems to be quite tongue in cheek.

The actress playing the lead role is fat, so it's not as if she's a waif thin model who they are portraying as being morbidly obese.

OP, YABU. Lighten up, it's a TV show about the teenage years - where fitting in really does seem to matter!

MissyMooandherBeaverofSteel · 13/01/2013 00:08

YABU. And you obviously haven't even watched the advert for it properly.

I'm quite happy to see a programme about a teenager that doesn't fit into the usual stereotype we are constantly fed.

If you don't like it or it makes you feel uncomfortable then just don't watch it.

Original poster
wannabedomesticgoddess · 13/01/2013 00:08

You would want to identify with someone who hates themselves and wants to be more normal?

Obviously I am taking a different message from it than others then.

OP posts:
frootshoots · 13/01/2013 00:11

Its actually based on a true story, the diaries of author Rae Earl she wrote when she was a teenager. It's not just something E4 have cooked up to take the piss out of fat mad people.

PomBearWithAnOFRS · 13/01/2013 00:12

I'm not sure she is "very overweight" *Cheddar - I think we get conditioned almost by the media. We see hyper thin stars and they are held up as icons of all that is beautiful and stunning and lovely, and then when we see someone with a normal figure we think "oooh look at the size of her arse/thighs" she's fat" when really, she is perfect, and it's the celebs who are overly thin iykwim.
Someone like Alexandra Burke comes to mind, she is fit and toned, and dances and is a star, and yet all the pictures of her look hefty or chunky next to the Keira Knightly, Victoria Beckham, Nicole Richie types. It's not that AB is the slightest bit overweight, it's just what the media tell us we should think Confused
They say the camera adds weight too, when people are on screen, and people just are bigger now than they were previously, puberty comes earlier (in the western world anyway) because we have the diet and health care to allow it.
Yes a lot of people including me are obese, but not everyone is, and the very very thin look that is touted as being beauty isn't ideal either - being very overweight or underweight are just as damaging.

cheddarcheeselover · 13/01/2013 00:12

pretty much every teen wants to be more normal though don't they?
It looks like something I would have liked, but it is impossible to jude before anyone's seen it!

frootshoots · 13/01/2013 00:12

God I'm a slow types Grin x posts galore!

cinnamonnut · 13/01/2013 00:14

PomBear, I know that the media conditions us, but I really DO think that actress is overweight. It is unhealthy if we all assume that is normal - she is bigger than is healthy

volvocowgirl · 13/01/2013 00:14

YABU. And either haven't watched the ad properly or have seen a different one to the one I keep seeing.

But I also think they have been unreasonable in setting it in the nineties rather than the eighties like the book - which is very good BTW.

cheddarcheeselover · 13/01/2013 00:15

I think it can work the other way though - so many people are overweight now that people become accustomed to seeing bigger people, and a healthy person looks skinny!
I'm v overweight myself btw!

HoHoHoNoYouDont · 13/01/2013 00:17

The first trailer I saw for this she was saying she was 16 and gagging to get laid. Hmm

WorraLiberty · 13/01/2013 00:17

Pom she's clearly fat Confused

OP I think the 'mad' part comes from the fact she was in a mental health unit or something? I'm not overly sure because I've only seen the trailer twice and wasn't concentrating.

Probably best to watch it first and then comment/decide.

PomBearWithAnOFRS · 13/01/2013 00:18

I wonder if the actress is big, or if she's put on weight for the role - Rene Zelwegger (sp?) did for Bridget Jones iirc. I wonder what the girl from this one weighs ordinarily?

Original poster
wannabedomesticgoddess · 13/01/2013 00:18

I have watched the ad properly. I looked at the screen and listened to the words. At no point was "nuthouse" mentioned.

The trailers are very misleading then if its not a pisstake of fat people. A person shouldnt need prior knowlege of the book to "get" the trailer.

OP posts:
threesocksmorgan · 13/01/2013 00:18

just don't watch it
easy

WorraLiberty · 13/01/2013 00:22

Yes the words 'nut house' were definitely mentioned in the two trailers I saw.

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