Huge: Delving Deeper

I really like the Y.

“SCREW BODY FASCISM,” reads the handmade sign by Will’s bed. She made it, at least partially, from clippings taken from a magazine. A magazine that belongs to another girl.

“Ok, it fell on my bed, and when I see propaganda that I know is destroying girls’ brains, it’s my duty as an angry feminist to destroy it.”

Will really, really doesn’t like this shit. Amber has her own pin-ups, which she calls “Thinspiration.” Will puts up Rubenesque beauties from classical art. “They’re fatspiration,” she says pointedly.

I think she’s being snarky about the ‘angry feminist’ part. I hope so. Because destroying someone else’s property does not reflect well on any kind of feminism.

HEAR YE, HEAR YE. We do not advocate the willful destruction of property, even if it is propaganda.

First Impressions: Huge

When I saw the previews for Huge, I knew ABC Family had taken on something rough. The protagonist, played by Nikki Blonsky, hates the fat camp she’s been sent to, and makes no bones about it. “Wow,” I thought, “How are they going to play a pro-body/pro-fat message while we have a national obesity epidemic on our hands?”

What I know about so-called fat camps isn’t great. Kids (sometimes adults) are sent to a closed environment to lose weight, through enforced diet and exercise. Better programs will also address psychological issues and provide counseling. They’re controversial, with detractors saying they’re too harsh, unhealthy, and have poor success rates, or that campers gain the weight back after they leave. Others consider it a sort of tough-love, life-changing push toward health. Data is still be collected, so there isn’t yet a definitive answer. (My guess is that, like most things, the approach works for some people and not for others.)