How a gender reversal in fat-shaming reveals its absurdity

Back in 2010, a totally normal, utterly human thing happened to the actor Wentworth Miller. He gained weight.

There are lots of reasons why our body size fluctuates — we age, we get sick, we get stressed, we switch up our diet or physical activity. But in Miller’s case, the change in his body was due to depression, a condition he’s had since childhood and which led to a suicide attempt at the age of 15. During the 2010 bout, Miller said “eating became the one thing I could look forward to. Count on to get me through.”

The star of the TV series Prison Break, which ran from 2005 to 2009, opened up about his depression earlier this week in an essay he wrote in response to a meme that recently resurfaced on The LAD Bible, a bro-focused online forum. Two images of Miller were posted side-by-side: the first a publicity still from Prison Break in which he is wiry, shaved bald, shirtless and covered in faux tattoos. The second is paparazzi shot from 2010, where Miller is hiking with a friend, his hair grown out and his body thicker. The caption? “When you break out of prison and find out about McDonald’s monopoly.”

“The first time I saw this meme pop up in my social media feed, I have to admit, it hurt to breathe,” Miller wrote. It wasn’t just the mean-spirited joke about his weight that stung, he added, it was also difficult to be reminded of that day’s hike, one of the few times during a very troubled period when he actually smiled.

Miller’s candour about his mental illness and the damage caused by of tabloid cruelty and online bullying was inspiring — perhaps especially so because he is a man. The body-policing of celebrity women is so relentless and intense that the judging of a famous lady’s muffin top, underarm jiggle and thigh dimples has become ambient noise. Sometimes it takes flipping genders to remind us how prevalent and absurd — and dangerous — it is.

Melissa McCarthy has suggested one way to address the sexist double standard in Hollywood is to start asking male actors about their bodies in the same way female actors are perpetually questioned about their diet and fitness regimes. “There are so many more intriguing things about women than their butt,” she recently told the website Refinery 29. “It can’t be the first question every time, or a question at all. Can you imagine [the] asking some of these guys I work with, ‘How do you keep your butt looking so good?’ It would be like, ‘What the f--k are you talking about? Why are you asking about the shape of my butt?’”

It’s true that men don’t face the same degree of pressure as women in this area. Contrast the lust-worthy Dad Bod, deemed great as-is, with the sexless Mom Bod, a sagging mess that needs to be “bounced back from.” Or consider Leo DiCaprio, who may have been dubbed the “Great Fatsby” by Page Six for appearing less than sleek in his swim trunks, but who happened to be frolicking at the time with a svelte 21-year-old model in a bikini.

Leo aside, there does seems to be a growing expectation that male celebrities meet a narrowly defined and nearly impossible to achieve body type. The rise of comic book movies have made stars of supremely buff guys like Chris Hemsworth (Thor) and Henry Cavill (Superman), while Guardians of the Galaxy’s Chris Pratt was initially considered too pudgy to play Star Lord (“I thought it was an insane idea to cast the fat guy from Parks and Rec as the lead of our superhero movie,” director James Gunn told GQ. “I didn’t really even want to see him.”) Once he had the part, Pratt went to extreme lengths to develop rippling muscles and six-pack abs.

There may be a momentary pleasure in seeing the tables turned, but subjecting men to the same fat-shaming as women isn’t progress. As Miller makes clear, this scrutiny can be devastating, whether or not the person is also suffering from mental illness. Real liberation comes when no one’s worth — female or male, celebrity or not — is measured by the number on a scale or the circumference of their waist.

More columns by Rachel Giese: 
How race and gender bias creep into your smartphone
Hulk Hogan’s sex tape lawsuit matters more than you think
There’s value in live-tweeting Jian Ghomeshi’s trial