Before I start getting to the meat of this post, I wanted to clarify that I, myself, am not by any means fat. In terms of weight, I have more in common with Francine Diaz the actress, than I do with Thea Balderama the character. I will do my best to stay in my lane and will be referencing what various Plus-Size activists, influencers, and critics have said on the subject. I encourage everyone to read up on what they are saying.
It has been a couple of months since iWantTFC released its newest release in their library of YA Dramas, Bola-Bola. Since its release, various publications have applauded the show for tackling the themes of body positivity and fatphobia. The young cast, made of notably new talent, have done press and have been applauded for their acting prowess.
With all of this in mind, I have been debating if I truly wanted to write this post. Especially since I left this blog for all but dead. It also seems like the general public has turned their attention to the second season of He’s Into Her. Yet, I can’t help but go back to what I can only describe as the elephant in the room, the question that has been haunting me since I first watched the show. Does Bola-Bola truly spotlight the importance of self-love and tackle fatphobia?
Bola-Bola follows teen protagonist Thea Balderama (Francine Diaz) a spirited foodie who is comfortable in her own body, as she navigates friendship, family, and food, all the while dealing with the negative treatment that she receives for her weight. All of this is put to a test when Thea’s long-time crush, Lucas (Akira Morishita), returns. When Thea bravely asks him out he tells her that he doesn’t date “Big Girls”, forcing Thea to question herself and her body.
When I first heard that iWantTFC was helming a TV show that centred on a plus-size protagonist and would tackle beauty standards in the Philipines, I was ecstatic. I am an advocate for body diversity in media and was excited to see a drama set in Southeast Asia that would tackle fatphobia. Especially since I am from Southeast Asia and am all too familiar with the harm of the beauty standards of the region.
I was hoping that Bola-Bola would feature a fat character who wasn’t just there to be on the receiving ends of jokes about their weight, or whose entire story arc didn’t centre around their weight. Needless to say, watching the trailer for Bola-Bola was incredibly disheartening. The two things that felt like a slap in the face of all the praise that the show had garnered is the fact that Francine Diaz is in fact not fat. Learning that this drama that ABS-CBN has marketed as an important conversation piece in terms of self-love, body positivity, and body diversity featured a petite woman in a fat suit was disappointing.
But perhaps the more disheartening thing was the ending of the trailer, as the voice-over from Thea narrates, “They say that people don’t change, I don’t believe that. We are all capable of amazing transformation. You just need to work for it and that’s what I did. The right person will come when you learn to love yourself” revealing Francine Diaz sans fat suit, stunning onlookers with her “weight loss”.
Fat Suits & Fatphobia
It seemed pretty obvious to me why a show that put so much focus on discussing fatphobia yet featured a fat suit and a weight loss transformation was a bad thing. Dare I say it, a fatphobic thing. However, as I scoured the internet for others who may feel the same thing, all I found was praise for the show and the casting of Francine Diaz in the role.
So, to say it as clearly as I can, I believe that Francine Diaz, while a capable actress, was miscast in the role of Thea. This is very much because Francine is not fat. Her pretending to be fat does not show her acting skills nor is it a momentous move towards spotlighting self-love.
In an article written by Aubrey Gordon, of Your Fat Friend, Gordon boldly states, “Fat suits are never necessary.” I am inclined to agree. According to Gordon, the existence of fat suits in media propels two narratives:
- To show the fat character’s sad and miserable life, often as a teenager, before showing the contrast to the thin wonderful life. Gordon uses Courtney Cox in Friends and Ryan Reynolds in Just Friends as an example.
- To have fatphobic jokes run rampant through the media. In Gordon’s own words, “a fat character is played by a thin person for a mocking, cruel kind of comic relief”.
While it may seem that Bola-Bola is progressive because the show depicts those who mock Thea as wrong, it is evident after watching Bola-Bola that Francine wearing a fat suit falls into the first narrative.
Thea is an interesting character, with much to love about her, from her outspokenness to her love for food. However, the narrative still chooses to centre Thea’s fatness as something that causes her life to be miserable. This is after all the reason that she is bullied, the reason that Lucas rejects her, and ultimately, the reason that she loses all the weight. Like many fat characters who go through weight loss transformations in media, it is only when Thea loses weight that can she be happy and her life start.
Gordon goes on to say:
“There is a cultural weight to fat suit narratives, and it pulls everyone down. These narratives are contrived by thin people for thin audiences, regularly taking a set of assertions for granted:
1) Becoming thin is a life accomplishment and the only way to start living a real, full, human life, 2) All fatness is a shameful moral failing, 3) Thinness is a naturally superior way of being, 4) Fat people who stay fat deserve to be mocked.
This is, ultimately, the reality of Bola-Bola. Because while iWantTFC and ABS-CBN may write countless articles and make cute videos discussing the “Importance of self-love” in Bola-Bola, they are still enabling and regurgitating the fatphobic narrative that thinness is superior.
If you have watched Bola-Bola, then you may have noted that it is only when Thea loses her weight that is she shown as happy. Her bullies have nothing to hold over her, her family and friends still are by her side, but perhaps most importantly Lucas has learned the error of his ways now that Thea is thin. This reinforces the idea that those who are petite and thin are healthier and deserve more respect and love. In comparison, those who remain fat are ignoring their responsibility to create a body that would earn them respect.
The other problem with fatsuits is the way that it simplifies people’s weight loss journeys. In an article by the FluffyKittenParty, Linda, the author, states the harm of a fat suit is that it implies “that shedding a fat body, is as simple as removing a fat a suit.”
The danger of narratives that surround fat suits is that it allows the weight loss journey to be simple and one that doesn’t involve any danger or loss. However, this is not true, as Linda points out, discussing the painful surgeries and operations that people must undergo to go from a “fat body” to a “thin body”. Linda lists the dangers of fat loss, from the various dangerous methods that people use to the pain that surrounds having excess skin once all the weight is lost.
Weight Loss as a Story Arc
As I pointed out earlier, ABS-CBN released an article and a video in the wake of Bola-Bola’s premiere called “6 lessons on young love and body positivity from Francine’s “Bola Bola“’”.
The article points out that Thea’s weight and her desire to lose weight are tied to two things. Firstly, Thea uses food to cope, a habit that she picked up when her father (Lito Pimentel) abandoned their family. Secondly, Thea’s decision to lose weight is not just because of peer pressure, but because she wants to make healthier decisions.
I take issues with the way that the show depicts these realities. Firstly, it depicts Thea’s stress eating/emotional eating as the reason that she is fat. While I do appreciate and commend the writers for exploring different ways that people cope with anxiety and grief, I cannot feel like they still let their audience down.
On one hand, I do appreciate that Thea comes to recognize that her coping mechanism may not be what is best or healthy for her. However, the show never truly digs into how Thea overcame this habit, depicts a healthier way to deal with grief/anxiety, or even healthier coping mechanisms. Instead, Thea is just shown as magically petite and well adjusted, and all her problems are resolved. The weight loss transformation is used as shorthand for character development without truly digging into the gritty details of Thea’s emotional wellbeing.
The other issue I have with the way that food is depicted. Food is both Thea’s love, as she is a foodie, and her greatest weakness, as it is the reason that she is fat. If you have watched the show, you may be able to recognize that as soon as Thea loses her weight and Francine sheds the fat suit, there are fewer depictions of Thea eating. This struck me as odd because the show depicts food as a way that Thea connects to her family.
I believe that the choice to depict food as the sole reason for Thea’s weight is a shallow understanding of weight. Firstly, it reinforces the idea that fat people are fat due to their own bad life decisions. This narrative ignores how genetics plays into weight and puts the entire blame for Thea’s weight on her diet. An article written by Harvard University points out that genes contribute to the causes of obesity in many ways.
“Research suggests that for some people, genes account for just 25% of the predisposition to be overweight, while for others the genetic influence is as high as 70% to 80%.”
The article points out that individuals whose genetics may account for their weight if they have one or more of the following characteristics:
- They have been overweight for much of their life.
- Their family members big sized. The likelihood of developing obesity is as high as 80% if both parents are obese.
- They can’t lose weight even after increasing physical activity and sticking to low-calorie diets for many months.
As seen in Bola-Bola Thea fits into all three categories. Thea talks about how she has been overweight for most of her life, Thea’s mom (Arlene Muhlach) as well as the rest of her family are depicted as being big sized, and when Thea starts exercising there doesn’t seem to be much of a loss of weight. It was especially sad to see the way that Thea’s relationship with food changes as her weight does. Fat people are often judged for their relationship with food, so it was so empowering to show Thea’s love of food so un-bashfully.
The show also attributes Thea’s decision to lose weight as one that is rooted in health reasons. An article written by CBC delved into the nuanced relationship between health and weight. The article interviews, Sarah Nutter a professor of counselling and psychology at the University of Victoria whose research focuses on weight stigma and eating disorders.
Nutter argues that while society may believe that weight is an indicator of health, one’s weight is far more complex than that. Nutter believes that it is important to be able to separate weight and health and not stigmatize people who have higher weight, because doing so may cause more harm. Such harm could include unhealthy ways to lose weight such as eating disorders or body dysmorphia.
The other issue I had was the belief that Bola-Bola is a show about self-love. The article from ABS-CBN states, “The series highlights different types of love – puppy love, love for family and friends, and most importantly – self-love. After Lucas’ rejection, Thea vowed to love herself…”
If the sentence had ended there, and Thea realized that she didn’t need Lucas’ acceptance to have value, I would have a completely different perspective on the show. However, the quote continues with, “…by losing weight and by prioritizing her happiness.”
The implication of this, goes back to Gordon’s point, that the “Becoming thin is a life accomplishment and the only way to start living a real, full, human life”, as well as the idea that smaller bodies are seen as inherently healthier.
I am not going to police what people do with their bodies, but in conversation with my friend, we discussed how we believed that to frame exercise as a form of self-love after a rejection isn’t self-love. If the writers of Bola-Bola cared about self-love, then the narrative’s sole focus should not have focused on how Thea needs to lose weight. To quote plus size Pinoy model, Kat Gumabao, “Your worth is not defined by a number on a scale or a label.”
“Your worth is not defined by a number on a scale or a label.”
Kat Gumabao
Conclusion
I read somewhere that fatphobia is the last accepted form of discrimination and I am inclined to agree. However, in my opinion, those who are discriminated and marginalized by society should not have to continuously change themselves to be accepted by society. If Bola-Bola truly wanted to tackle fatphobia and self-love then a more progressive narrative would have shown those around Thea accepting her for who she is, rather than her conforming to societal expectations of what a healthy and happy body looks like.
A question that I asked myself as I watched Bola-Bola was if Thea’s weight is such a pivotal part of the show, why didn’t they cast a fat actress to play the role? As I have learned from plus-size models like Kat Gumba, Trina Soledad, and Kimi Liu, too plus-size influencers like Teena Arches and Danah and Stacy Gutierrez, and actresses like Cai Cortez there is room is being made in the Philippines to showcase the talent and beauty of all Filipinos regardless of size. The only answer that I can think of why Diaz was hired instead of casting a fat actress is that iWantTFC and ABS-CBN don’t actually care about fatphobia in the Philippines. Instead, they care about reinforcing the idea that the only type of bodies that deserve respect and love are those who fit into a specific standard of beauty or those who are willing to do whatever it takes to fit into that standard.
References/Further Reading
- Finding My Personal Style Helped Me Embrace My Filipina Identity by Ann Pornel
- Why these women say it’s time to embrace fat bodies by Naheed Mustafa
- Pinay Plus-Size Models Powerfully Advocating Body Positivity and Self-Love by George
- Plus Us: Understanding The Fight Against — And For — Fat Suits by Gianluca Russo
- When Thin Actors Play Fat Characters by Your Fat Friend
- 4 plus-size women on the harsh reality of eating in public – and how they continue to overcome it by Leah Sinclair
- The Trouble with Fat Suits by fluffykittenparty
- Why people become overweight by Harvard Health Publishing
- Fat-Bias Nearly Cost Him His Life by Doctor Mike
ERICA TALKS SH*T 