Fat, Fun, and Ferocious: Fatness and Gender in Disney Films based on Oral and Written Children’s Stories

This study discusses how Disney enhances fatness when turning oral or written children’s stories into motion pictures. In many cases, Disney has invented fat where there wasn’t any in the original narratives. Disney developed a template for depicting fat characters that has persisted well into the twenty-first century. In this template, depictions of both women and men confirm classic gender-coded fat stereotypes, such as the humorously burlesque fat male or female figure, the grotesque fat male figure, the over-sexualized fat female figure, and the masculinized fat female figure of power. Fat is seldom a neutral attribute in Disney’s productions, regardless of gender; rather, it is associated with comedy or disgust, as well as used to ridicule authorities, question power hierarchies, and/or enhance the appearance of stories’ antagonists. Our findings resonate with scholarship that has examined the depiction of thin and fat bodies on film, but by specifically analyzing films based on oral or written children’s stories we contribute to discussions on the mechanics at work when interpreting fat. By creating and repeating stereotypes of fat characters, Disney participates in fat-phobic discourse advocating thin normativity and fat shaming, as well as enhancing polarized representations of bodies of different sizes.