14 DAY TRIAL // At 30, Whitney Thore weighs almost 400 pounds (181.4 kg), but she is still doing what she loves best, and that’s dancing. It was dancing that turned her into a viral star when she started posting videos on YouTube under the moniker Fat Girl Dancing, and that eventually landed her her own reality series on TLC.
Thore has Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), an endocrine disorder that can result in unwanted and uncontrollable weight gain, but she is done with people telling her she can’t be this or that because she’s fat. By the way, the term “fat” is one she doesn’t shun, political correctness be damned!
Reality show is a hit
TLC was watching when reactions to Whitney’s videos became more passionate, so shortly after the clips went viral, they reached out to her and offered her the chance to bring her story to even more people, by getting her own reality series on the network.
Since then, Whitney has been getting increased exposure, both from the actual show and from the appearances she’s put in to promote it. Moreover, she’s being hailed as an inspiration for women of all shapes and sizes through her carefree attitude and the way she seems to simply exude confidence.
The point is, Whitney knows that she’s too heavy to be healthy, and that she needs to do her best to shed the extra pounds, which means at least half of the 230 pounds (104.3 kg) she gained once she got PCOS.
As the series shows, she’s working really hard to get healthy and lose weight, but at the same time, she refuses to settle for just half of everything in life. She wants to let people know that fat people can also be beautiful, fabulous, confident, happy, unashamed. That’s her positive message to all her viewers.
The perfect bikini after 2 decades, freedom at last
The most recent episode of the series My Big Fat Fabulous Life shows Whitney and her friend going out to buy the perfect swimsuit. This can be tricky even for medium-sized women, so imagine the challenge ahead of a size 32 one, but Whitney is determined to get it done – and in such a way as to be to her satisfaction.
“I have not really ever shown my legs, because they are really bumpy and cellulite-y and I don't really have knees anymore,” she says at one point, as the video below shows.
After trying out a series of swimsuits, Whitney finally finds one that she’s most comfortable in, and to her surprise, it’s the most revealing of all. For once, she doesn’t care.
“In all the other ones, I feel like I'm minimizing myself,” she says. “And when I put on the bikini, all that falls away. It's just, ‘Here I am. This is me right now. Take it, leave it, love it, whatever!’”
Inspirational or just plain wrong?
Reactions to TLC’s new show have been mostly positive, but voices warning of a very worrying new trend in showbiz have also been heard.
To every person who says that TV and showbiz in general need more body diversity and that having someone who’s not stick-thin tell girls and women that beauty can come in all sizes is inspirational, there are voices who claim Whitney is pretty much endorsing a very unhealthy lifestyle.
Some critics have dubbed this “trend” in showbiz of embracing plus-size women as the reverse of the size 0 obsession: it might seem inspirational and different and touching, but at the end of the day, it’s just as harmful because it proposes a body type that can’t be achieved without sacrificing one’s health.
Whitney, as energetic and lovable as she might come across, is severely overweight, so the last thing she needs is the kind of acceptance she preaches. A more realistic approach to her situation would be better, one that would focus mostly on getting back to health, as opposed to accepting herself as she is.
Whose side would you take?