More to Love?

Last week, a new matchmaking reality TV show came on the air. The premise of this particular show is identical to all of the others; 25 girls come to a house, kick, scream, fight, cry, hoochie-it-up, and "fall in love" with a token hot male.

This show, however, is different. On the new "More to Love" contestants are all fat women. And by 'fat', I mean they weigh slightly more than the average girl. Most are around 200 pounds, give or take, depending on height, and all wear entirely too much makeup and have hair sized comparably to Dolly Parton's. The guy? Over 6 feet tall and 320 pounds. Hunky and successful, charming and so warmly understanding of these girls struggle to fit in and find true love.

I wanted to wait until I'd watched this week's episode to write about my thoughts and feelings about this TV show. I felt that I needed 2 episodes to really determine if it is worth watching in it's entirety, or if I should just watch the finale in a fit of laughter and sarcasm as I do all the other reality matchmaking shows. Here are my comments:

First of all, if I hear one more contestant say to camera or to THE GUY HIMSELF, "I've always been too fat to love, I've never been in a relationship, I've never had a man give me the time of day" or blah, blah blah, I think I am going to throw up. I was willing to put up with it the first episode, since they didn't know the guy or what they were getting themselves into. I do 100% understand their feelings of feeling invisible and unlovable to the opposite sex. HOWEVER--after awhile, that guy is going to get sick of you telling him that. Shut up, please, and start loving yourself enough to acknowledge that you made it onto the show and at the very least will get your 15 minutes of hair-pulling, snot-nosed fame. Basically--we get the point, already; you've never loved yourself enough to be loved by someone else. Even a sweet guy like Luke is going to ditch you if you keep bringing that up in every single conversation and interview.

Second of all, this show is not helping to change society's viewpoint of the average overweight woman. As these contestants appear more and more desperate, lonely, naive and depressed, they are only confirming the stereotypes already put upon overweight women. Instead of allowing these stereotypes to ring true, how about showing the world that it is possible for an overweight woman to be classy, beautiful (on her own, without a mask of makeup and hair extensions) successful and happy.

ALSO, since the guy is also heavy, this show is telling the world that the only men who could ever love and appreciate fat women are men who are fat themselves. According to this show, only fat people can love other fat people. It's ridiculous, and I refuse to believe that this is true for everyone. True love knows no physical barriers.

I will say that the one thing I do appreciate about this show is the guy, who constantly reminds us that he finds real, curvy women to be beautiful and sexy. The world needs more guys like him...especially of the Jewish, successful and "finds Tracy to be the most beautiful woman in the world" variety. If you know of any of these, you know how to reach me.

Am I going to keep watching the show? Probably. I'm interested to see what happens and how the media reacts to the fat-flying frenzy that will be the final episode.

I should also say that I do find it interesting that the heaviest girl on this show weighs around 230 pounds, right around where I currently weigh. To make things even more realistic and interesting, I would have thrown in a beautiful 300 pound woman to see if the world could handle her potentially finding love. If society finds a 230-lb woman to be "ugly", I'd be curious to see how it would handle someone who is very seriously obese.

Someone I used to be.

If you're one of my readers who's been watching the show, please comment and tell me what you think. I'm curious to see the reaction of someone who isn't overweight and who has never been overweight. Do you find the idea of a fat man loving a fat woman to be appropriate? Is it possible for normal-sized men to love larger women? I'm honestly curious, so don't be shy--no offense will be taken by what you have to say.