The average movie heroine is blonde, thin, and gorgeous. Hollywood may have expanded its definition of beauty to include the occasional brunette or redhead—but the body type has been clearly established. Wouldn’t it be great to see a fat woman play the lead role in a Hollywood film? Imagine how the tone of a film would change if a fat woman were cast in the lead role.

Take the whole James Bond series, for example. Bond’s leading ladies have all been the stereotypical runway model type. Imagine if James had a fat girl as his leading lady … and I mean leading lady, in a skintight gown proudly showing off all her rolls and glittering with diamonds. Imagine how that would change the perception of the film. Not only would James have his hands full dealing with evil masterminds bent on taking over the world, he would have to defend his lady against countless social slurs and all types of discrimination.

Plus, James would be even sexier than he already is for outing himself as a BBW lover. The model types vying for his sexual attention would have their claws out at the big girl, plotting their seduction and takeover. Maybe some men would even start to envy him for his big beautiful girlfriend. Maybe he would inspire men to go out and find their own big bombshells.

Alfred Hitchcock (one of my favorite directors) was famous for casting icy blonde beauty queens like Grace Kelly and Tippi Hedren in his films. What if Jimmy Stewart’s girlfriend in Rear Window had been a fat girl instead of princess Grace Kelly? How do you think the tone of the movie would change? Or what about Dial M for Murder, where poor Grace is the victim of her husband’s murder plot? Would the audience have been as sympathetic towards her character and would she have seemed as vulnerable if she had been a fat woman?

How about Pretty Woman? Let me state unequivocally, for the record, that I have never seen it for these reasons:
> I can’t stand Julia Roberts,
> I’m not much of a Richard Gere fan either, and
> It’s the kind of moronic Hollywood crap that makes me heave.

Still, due to the fact that I don’t live in a cave, I do know the basics of the plot (if you can call it that) which are: Julia Roberts plays a whore with a heart of gold who’s only whoring because she really, really needs the money (not for a crack habit, for survival). She meets a rich guy who hires her, then falls for her and makes her his official woman.

Imagine if she had been a fat whore who he’d hired and fallen in love with. Now that would have been interesting! There would be some real plot and drama. That would have been a movie I would definitely want to see. But of course, Hollywood would never make a movie like that because Hollywood’s interpretation of a pretty woman is the only one that exists.

C’mon, Hollywood. Have some balls for a change. Let’s see if you can handle a fat woman center stage.

Gabriela Falarz is a blogger, freelance writer and editor, and size acceptance activist. She is a plus-sized woman who believes all large people deserve to be happy, celebrate their beauty and fight for their rights. She is a regular columnist for Large in Charge magazine. She also regularly blogs about fat-related issues in her blog Celebreight Yourself. She lives in Toronto and can be reached by email at gabrielafalarz@gmail.com.