I've watched the show and vacillates between showing how difficult life is for such an overweight person and how wonderfully she is doing being this overweight. In other words (I don't know if she realizes it) but she's sending out mixed signals.
It's obvious life is difficult for someone as large as she is.
Quick story: I had a best friend in high school. She was the most kind hearted person I've ever known. Just amazing. In school she had an amazing figure (21 inch waist) big boobs, amazing. Then right out of high school she met a pig of a male. She was abused and ended up with 2 sons. They were both handfuls but one was terrible. She turned to food. A few years went by and I saw her and she was overweight but it was still manageable. Then more years went by and when I saw her she was bigger than Whitney. She'd called me and said "her Hospice nurse told her to tell her friends good-by" (she was dying of cervical cancer).
I went to see her at home. She was in a hospital bed in her living room. Some male was there who couldn't speak English. She asked him to leave us. I found out later from her family he was a man who had an obsession with extremely overweight women and was stealing her money. Enough about him....ugh!
Anyway, we talked about the old days and she told me that she'd been to the Drs and the Drs told her that she was just too fat for the machines (I guess Chemo, etc) and that she just needed to go home to die. This is what she did.
I remember she told me she had a broken arm because her sister was changing her sheets and accidentally turned her over and she'd rolled over on her arm and broke it. That's how large she was.
I adored her. She was still as sweet and wonderful as way back when.
We loved and I made arrangements to see her again in a few days. I also made arrangements to have flowers sent to her. I saw her on a Friday and Monday was a holiday, so the flowers would be sent on Tuesday.
I got a call on Tuesday from the florist saying they couldn't deliver the flowers because the recipient had died. I called her family and she'd died over the weekend. The male that had been with her had fled with some of her jewelry, etc. The police was looking for him.
Anyway, the problem very overweight people experience is people look the other way, or make fun of them. It seems like making fun of fat people is STILL something that seems to be acceptable in some quarters.
I hope this girl will eventually realize there's nothing cute about being overweight. It's deadly.
Someone once said to me, "Have you ever noticed people say, "She has a pretty face" when they look at an overweight person? Do you have any idea how many times that actress has heard that? Did you hear how many times people said that at the Golden Globes and every other award show?
I love "This is Us" but I don't like the way it's as if they (and this show) seems to be making it normal and OK to be overweight. I'm not saying anyone has to be mean or rude or hurt people who are overweight. I'd have gone after anyone who'd done that to my friend. I DO want them to have compassion but also interject that it isn't healthy and the person does need to loose the weight and when they come at you bouncing around acting like "its all wonderful", look at them and say, "How could it be? I love you so much...I'm there for you to help you but not enable you".
Where's the line between the enabler and the supporter?
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