Fat Love Stories

Abstract

Very often the excess weight of a fat woman is seen as a visual metaphor for sexual aggressiveness. Thus, one role a fat actress is consigned to is that of the slut or prostitute. However, this chapter explores the ways in which four male playwrights treat the problem of a romantic love between a fat woman and a “normal-sized” man. Eugene O’Neill’s A Moon for the Misbegotten (1952), Edward J. Moore’s The Sea Horse (1969), Terrence McNally’s Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune (1988), and Neil LaBute’s Fat Pig (2004) are all, in essence, love stories. Fat Pig and The Sea Horse expressly call for a fat woman, while A Moon for the Misbegotten and Frankie and Johnny call for an “oversize” actress and someone with “non-conventional good looks” respectively. Despite the spread of years between these pieces, there is a through-line connecting all the heroines in terms of their emotional makeup and the ways in which they interact with their suitors as potentially romantic subjects.