Leigh

'A Hawk and his Prince'

Reybarn for day 5 of FE Disability Pride, 'Support'

2020

I will be reposting some old pics for archival reasons/having it all in the same blog. I hope people that already saw them don't mind it much.

Some alt versions:

It was just supposed to be a sketch like the others but I couldn’t stop adding stuff 😭😭😭

Fat/chubby gay men are a big part of the community and gay culture, see: bears. And Harris is honestly portrayed to be closer to a bear than anything else. Do you know how incredible it would have been, for a show like Heated Rivalry, to have a chubby/fat disabled gay man as a main love interest and shown to be [sexually] desirable? There is no real reason they could not have depicted that, because that is what the book shows. I've seen people go, "what did you expect from Heated Rivalry?" Well, it's the book canon! And the people who work on this show give the impression they care about representation. The idea you should for some reason Expect them to not cast chubby actors for chubby roles, is a problem – it's fatphobia. It's cowardly. And even if he is "chubby, not fat" there would be nothing stopping them from casting a fat actor, either! Representation matters! Justice Smith, bless his soul (the criticism lies with the casting crew, not at all him! I'm happy for him and have faith he will act incredibly as Harris!), is not even close to chubby.

It's amazing that they cast a black man and diversified these painfully white couples. But, they could've cast a chubby black man. It's not mutually exclusive, they don't cancel each other out.

I'm sorry, but they have kinda erased a marginalised, under-represented aspect of a character. They made a conscious decision to erase it, knowing people would be disappointed. And it's an unfair position for Justice to be in – he will probably already get harassment from racists for being a black man playing a guy who was white and blonde in the book, but now there's other reasons people are unhappy about his casting. I feel bad for him!

We are living in a crazy ED and ozempic culture right now. The majority of media only ever depicts/prioritizes (unnaturally) skinny people. Fat characters are so often erased and dismissed. Fat/chubby characters as the love interests? It's not common. Fat/chubby people deserve, NEED this representation. It's important. You should care about fat/chubby people getting more representation, please.