The Media Empathy Foundation will pre-record a 45 minute Webinar on the topic of Weight Stigma in Entertainment Media. It will be available across all time zones to see at your convenience. While more attention is being paid to the way characters of higher body weight are portrayed in film and TV, disparaging narratives persist.  Weight stigma is so embedded in our culture that it often goes unnoticed: “does this dress make me look fat?”

On top of that, we don’t know how to talk about “people of higher body weight” (which is Media Empathy’s choice of nomenclature).  The Body Positivity Movement prefers the word “fat.”  Medical narratives use “obesity.”  All agree that calling anyone “morbidly obese” is terribly wrong… we don’t call someone “morbidly cancer.”  So, how do we change the narrative and portray people of higher body weight with authenticity and empathy?

The Webinar will include a brief presentation about weight stigma by expert Rebecca Puhl, PhD, followed by a discussion to answer three key questions that highlight  “character intention” as a guidepost to determining if a script or portrayal is or isn’t disparaging:

1. Why was Brendan Fraser’s performance in The Whale one that inspired empathy and not stigma?
2. What are some general examples of weight stigma in TV and Film that often slip through because they’re not “intended” to be disparaging?
3. What then should be considered, when writing in a character of higher body weight?

Please feel free to send us any questions that you’d like to have addressed before June 15^th and we’ll include as many as we can within the timeframe.  One that’s already come up: “is it ever ok to use body weight stereotypes in the name of satire or comedy?”