Hmm ... *thinks* I don't think that Pterry's jokes were very cruel. There have been authors (and indeed playwrights) who made much worse jokes about fat people; for instance, in Gilbert and Sullivan's plays, the alto soloist is almost invariably made out to be an unsympathetic "fine figure of a woman" role. Consider Lady Jane in "Patience", Katisha in "The Mikado", Ruth in "The Pirates of Penzance", The Fairy Queen in "Iolanthe" etc. She is also always given some beautiful lines and songs to perform. Whether that makes things any better is up to the individual performer and theatre-goer.
Coming back to Pterry: I think I can see where he's coming from with Agnes, for instance. There's an expectation that she would be very fat but with beautiful hair (and a wonderful personality), because she represents the "Fat Lady" opera singer stereotype that was so common before the 1960s and 70s. (Maria Callas weighed over 200 pounds and no-one held it against her. Pavarotti, one of the best tenors of all time, weighed almost 400 pounds in the 70s. here are some facts about opera singers, their weight, and why it should - or shouldn't - matter. And from ABC News, here is a related story about opera, weight, and critics).
So there's an element of truth to this stereotype - and if we're honest, there's an element of truth to every stereotype.
Besides, isn't body weight in the eye of the beholder? It's one of those linguistic things like irregular verbs: I say "fat", you say "voluptuous", he says "incredibly attractive".
One last thing: I've been performing music for nearly 15 years now, and the "fat opera singer" is definitely a myth. Not every opera singer is fat, as I'm sure you all know. So how did the myth start? At the end of Wagner's Gotterdamerung (1871), the soprano playing Brunnhilde has to sing for nearly 20 minutes. Traditionally, she was always played by a bigger woman, which is why the myth exists in the first place. In the Victorian era, there was definitely no such thing as "fat-shaming" - indeed, the bigger the better, because it meant you weren't a little street-urchin. But times change, and society's expectations change with them.
Personally, I think the expectation that all women must have a tiny waist is ridiculous. You are what you are, and don't let anyone tell you different!
Coming back to Pterry: I think I can see where he's coming from with Agnes, for instance. There's an expectation that she would be very fat but with beautiful hair (and a wonderful personality), because she represents the "Fat Lady" opera singer stereotype that was so common before the 1960s and 70s. (Maria Callas weighed over 200 pounds and no-one held it against her. Pavarotti, one of the best tenors of all time, weighed almost 400 pounds in the 70s. here are some facts about opera singers, their weight, and why it should - or shouldn't - matter. And from ABC News, here is a related story about opera, weight, and critics).
So there's an element of truth to this stereotype - and if we're honest, there's an element of truth to every stereotype.
Besides, isn't body weight in the eye of the beholder? It's one of those linguistic things like irregular verbs: I say "fat", you say "voluptuous", he says "incredibly attractive".
One last thing: I've been performing music for nearly 15 years now, and the "fat opera singer" is definitely a myth. Not every opera singer is fat, as I'm sure you all know.
So how did the myth start? At the end of Wagner's Gotterdamerung (1871), the soprano playing Brunnhilde has to sing for nearly 20 minutes. Traditionally, she was always played by a bigger woman, which is why the myth exists in the first place. In the Victorian era, there was definitely no such thing as "fat-shaming" - indeed, the bigger the better, because it meant you weren't a little street-urchin. But times change, and society's expectations change with them.Personally, I think the expectation that all women must have a tiny waist is ridiculous. You are what you are, and don't let anyone tell you different!
