A new year, a new obsession-worthy show. If you’ve like me and caught Big Women: Big Love Episode 1, you’ve already counting down the days until episode 2. It has everything you want in mindless reality TV, beautiful single women (some of them self-loathing) who make questionable choices in their search for love. The only big difference here from other reality shows in TV, is that these women are big.
Like much of the population, these women are overweight. But unlike most reality TV (and much of TV in general) this demographic has been largely ignored, or relegated to the role of comedy relief / sidekick. But now, Lifetime is putting the lives of plus-size pretties in the starring role as their searches for love (and the bucket-loads of drama that result) find the spotlight.
Let’s meet the ladies…
Jenn, age 26 (Los Angeles, CA)
Jenn’s a baby-voiced brunette who didn’t start dating until age 25 when she had her first kiss and lost her virginity in quick succession.
Jenn says that bigger girls are better planners as she gets ready for a date (with a guy she met online). She does yoga-like poses in front of her mirror to make sure that her clothes will keep all of her bits covered while she and he date go bowling.
It’s too bad that has to be part of her wardrobe consideration, because she ends up in the least cute of all of the outfits she tries on. (I would have gone for the polka dot dress; she’s such a terrible bowler that if she can’t be athletic, at least she should have looked cute.)
Mar, age 26 (Clifton, NJ)
Blue-haired Mar has dated Rickie on and off for a year, but after a disastrous weekend get-away that culminated with them getting kicked out of, and banned for life from a casino (?!?) she’s ready to dump him to the curb and move on.
“I want my happy ever after”
Mar looks like she lives at home with her large family. And her party-girl personality reminds me of another Jersey resident, Nicole “Snookie” Polliozi.
Over on her dating blind date, Jenn’s date chooses the nickname “Juicy” for her. Jerk. And then he takes a slo-mo video of her piss-poor bowling. She could try a little harder to not be a bad bowling cliché, but her date is such gutter ball, she should just drop and run. Even if there are curly fried and mozzarella sticks.
Mar goes out with her “thin” friends. And her getting ready is intense because she thinks, if you’re fat, you have to look flawless.
“I wear Bajas, which are Spanish for girdles.” Bajas are so intense that they make Spanx look like a muumuu. I need some bajas, now. After she stuff herself into her girdle, she and her friends down shot after shot. Booze = calories, ‘ya know? According to Livestrong.com, a shot of vodka has about 110 calories per 1.5 oz. pour. Those calories star adding up when you add things like juice or make them jumbo sized.
Kristi, age 34 (Fort Worth,Texas)
The beauty with the shiny, shiny, shiny hair is a dating single mom to 3-year-old daughter, Kayla. Kristi lives with her mom, who often babysits her granddaughter so Kristi can go out. I do feel a bit like Kristi could have been on Teen Mom, because even though she’s in her thirties, she acts like a teen.
When she goes out with her hot sisters-in-law, the SILs are the ones who get hit on. Kristi admits she’s not a “Texas Ten,” but I bet it sucks to be treated like the wing man when you’re the one flying point. Kristi’s ballsy though, and takes a group of guys to task when they are more interested in her smokin’ (literally) sisters saying, “You put me next to them and I don’t have a a chance.”
At the club, Mar is on the prowl. She hits on one sexy guy and runs into an ex-lover, who doesn’t even seem like he’s into her until she starts sucking his face.
Sabrina age 31, (Brooklyn , NY)
“I dress mannequins all day long, but sometimes I have a hard time dressing myself.” says the fashion-lover of the industry that seems to despise her size.
She goes on lots of dates but says “I’m the Queen of the first dates, I’d like to become the queen of the second date.”
She likes skinny, nerdy white guys and is set up by a friend on a date with vegan Yosi. For Ethiopian food. That looks like poop. After a few bites, her belly revolts against the revolting food. Sabrina’s reaction to meeting her date is priceless: “Oh great, another guy I can be a giant next to,” and she does a lol impression of her being a slo-mo giant. She is too funny, and consider a career in stand up comedy; but she needs to date taller men.
Jenn has a group of larger-sized girlfriends that she gets dating advice from. She tells them, “I’m a person, I deserve love. There’s someone who likes me for me. I know he’s out there somewhere”
Over eating Ethiopian food, Sabrina’s tummy rolls roil, her date tries to get her to visualize the toxins being released buy her “Budding flower.” Say what? Girl heads to the bathroom for a cleansing barf. And nothing puts the “real” in “Reality TV” like a woman wearing a microphone vomiting loudly.
Mar is a hairdresser at a salon called the WHAIRhouse. (I had to rewind my DVR twice because I thought it was called “Whorehouse.” She has some salon talk with other stylists who rag on her for having a date with Richie later that night. I know it’s done for TV, but if I was a customer in the chair and my stylist was getting distracted by other stylists coming in and gabbing, I’d be turned off.
Kristi heads out to meet a guy she’s met online. She says that she has to work harder to be flirtier, more inappropriate and funnier than thinner girls just to catch a guy’s eye. We meet Jason, Kristi’s crush “I credit him for opening my up sexually.” Although this is the first time they’ve met, they’ve had lots of phone sex and spicy texting. Is this how people date now? I think having phone sex in my parents house would be way more awkward than real sex in my parents house. And I just vomited in my mind.
Back to Kristi, who enjoys lots of sexy kissing with Jason in the bar, but Jason’s non-moving hands make it seem like this could be his first kiss with a real, live, woman. Kristi isn’t Ms. Suave either: she delivers the epic come-on line at right –>
Since Kristi lives at home and has a young daughter, there can be no sleepover (Where does Jason live and why can’t a sleepover happen at his house?)
Mar’s picks up Richie who looks like a cross between a Hispanic Spike Lee (in the Mars Blackmon era) and a nerdy Johnny Depp. On a skateboard. And Mar likes him. She knows he’s not the guy for her, but she’s not sure how to end things with him. He takes her to a fancy and beautiful restaurant and she’s starting to feel bad for wanting to break up with him (and cheating on him the night before). Despite his loser exterior, he turns out to be incredibly sweet.
Mar reveals that she and her ex hooked up (after totally lying and saying that they only talked!) and Richie freaks out. Their break up is messy (this show comes from producer SallyAnn Salsano, who also produced Jersey Shore and Freak Out, so she knows hot dramaz) Love it!
This season we meet the last of the “Big Women” (we haven’t yet met Jessica) when they attend a seminar called “Supersize your love life.” And based on the preview clip, the drama gets out of high gear once the ladies leave their home owns and take LA by storm! (and we mean catfight-storm! Cloudy with a 100% chance of claws!)
I think that Jennifer is a stuck up an judgemental she is Fat an she is delusional judging others is so cruel I find her obnoxious can’t stand her uneducated abusive mouth wish she wasn’t on the show I turn it off when she’s on get real black girl I say that cause you are not a women
I think you mean Jessica. Jennifer is the one with the voice. Jessica is the morbidly obese woman who keeps referring to herself as skinny.
I started watching this show initially because it features overweight women, (a demographic very rarely featured on television, even though the CDC currently believes that approximately 70% of the US population is now overweight.) Unfortunately, it is even MORE rare to see obese women featured on it in a positive way and without the usual stereotypes. So, I was very hopeful and optimistic that this show would help dispel a lot of the myths and stereotypes that plague us. But, if you have also now watched an episode of this show then you now that certainly did NOT happen.
It is bad enough that they couldn’t help our cause, but worse than that, they actually modeled the most offensive and extreme stereotypes to the point that these women more closely resembled caricatures of obese women.
For example:
1) At every, single meal, they ate extreme amounts of the most unhealthy foods available.
2) They drank excessively and “partied hard”.
3) They were very sexually aggressive.
4) They reeked of desperation, dancing on (not with) multiple men, with Jessica even going so far as stealing away the 2 guys Mar was chatting up and 1 she had JUST made out with! Kristi asked a guy to “massage my vag” . They said the night was about “dicks and drinks”, and most of them said they wanted to meet a guy that night to “make out with or have sex with”. 5) They were literally so desperate or drunk that they would’ve sleep with anyone, (even if it is only going to be a one night stand!) 6) The were so loud and wild while drinking that everyone was staring and talking about them. 7) Most of them were seriously delusional about their appearance and weight, like Jessica we said, “I know I look good! I am nothing like those women!” Like Jenn said to the camera, “Jess truly thinks she is smaller than we are and she isn’t!” She’s right, Jess isn’t smaller than the rest of them, but she IS smaller than you Jenn. And speaking of Jenn, she left the room crying because while she was there, (AT A SEMINAR FOR FAT WOMEN!!!!), someone actually had the insight and observational skills to realize that they ARE actually all fat. When Jess stated this very obvious fact in a self deprecating manner , Jenn leaves the room bawling, and proceeds to hide behind the bed under the blanket, (the same way a child would go hide under their bed or in the closet. All I could think was, “Lady, if your skin is so thin that you can’t handle hearing a ‘Hey, we are all fat here’ comment from another overweight person, then you should have NEVER, EVER put yourself on national television and put yourself out there like this. After all, you are going to hear MUCH, MUCH worse than that, and from thousands of people online in comments such as these, in online reviews, on social media, and even from comedians, (such as Letterman, Leno, Fallon, Saturday Night Live etc.). So you need to develop a thick skin fast, because once your show gets on the public’s radar and you develop a following, believe me you will ALL be hearing a ton of negative comments!”]
Of ALL the women, Kristi has to win the top prizes for the most delusional, the most pathetic, the most embarrassing, and the most demeaning example of an obese woman that I have seen in YEARS!!! I pity her daughter and her parents. No one wants to have a whore for a daughter or a mother. (Actually, I should retract that statement, because it is too offensive…..to whores, who I am quite certain would not want to be associated with her! After all, at least they aren’t just giving it away for free like this skank, which tells me that they know their true worth more than she does. Evidently even SHE she thinks she is worth nothing since she (like many of the others on here), is giving herself away for nothing. (According to her, most of these men don’t even respect her enough to stay to hold her afterwards. But, her daughters father would at least do that much, which is why she fell for him).
FYI Kristi…….they don’t stay b/c they don’t need to since they already got what they wanted from you!!!
Ladies, you have to teach people how to treat you. Only you can do that. If you want to be respected by a man and loved, DO NOT sleep with anyone again until you are marred. Yes, I know in our culture everyone else does it. That’s why it is even more important that you don’t. I waited until marriage at age 27 and never regretted it and never had trouble finding or keeping a man. It is like an insurane policy so that I knew no one was with me just for sex, since they weren’t getting that from me. It actually seemed to make every, single man even MORE interested when they found that out. It became a challenge to them. (And you know men love the chase!) No one wants to feel like they are one of a number. (You don’t want to be another number in a long line of women he has conquered, and he doesn’t want to be part of the blur of your men.) According to studies, if a man can hold off before being married to you, he is much less likely to cheat afterwards. Please consider this alternative ladies!!
I hope that when these women see themselves on tv, they will be embarrassed by their behavior enough to modify it and be more mindful of their responsibilities as role models.
Nothing is worse than virgins who run around TALKING ABOUT BEING VIRGINS. So trashy. Its unnatural to have only one sexual partner in your life, but whether you’ve had 1 or 100 it’s nobody’s business.
This show is disgusting. That love clinic was there to try to show women you don’t have to throw yourself at a man. Their attitudes were atrocious. And everything involved drinking? These are NOT your ordinary fat women. These are girls that just want sex. Making out with someone on the first night and “planning” it. And then to have him move on to someone else? The one with a child is awful. Stay home and take care of the kid you layed down to have. You owe her a life before your “screwing” life starts AGAIN. You’re loud and you’re gross. And try to take what the coach actually said to you to heart and learn something. Nobody was interested in what was said to them. They all couldn’t wait to get out there and drink and play around. I thought they might learn something about how the guys look at them. And it isn’t about weight, either. And the girl with the dumb voice. See a voice coach and learn how to communicate. All in all this show gives us full-figured girls a bad rap.
Really enjoyed this review. You hit the nail on the head about so many things about the show (and yes, I rewound when I saw the name of the salon, too!) Hope you recap each week!
To be fair to us New Jerseyans, Snooki was a tourist (as we’re most of the JS cast) from upstate New York. Jenni, Nicole, Angelina and Ron were all from NYC. Pauly was from NH. Every summer we dread the tourists who swarm down to vomit on our boardwalks and urinate on our lawns.
This show basically reveals the shocking truth that being fat (a word most of them seem to avoid like they avoid reality itself) makes it harder to attract a hot guy. If they really wanted to make themselves more attractive they would stop whining and start doing whatever they could to slim down. And I’m guessing the guy that Christy was feeling up in the bar was married. The weak-stomached one COULD have ordered something different, or at least give Yossi warning about her preference for ribs instead of making a federal case out of where they were. In her defense, at least she had a job, which is more than I can say for 3-week-old Christi, who seems a little manic to me. Mar seems to be the drama queen of the show. And Jenn made me feel bad for the owner of the bowling alley. Her bowling form was to walk to the lane and use a floppy underhand move to drop the ball right on the floor in front of her.
Sabrina is a friend of mine & she just has a super weak stomach & a lot of food allergies, so eating food with hard to recognize ingredients is no bueno. And yes, it’s edited to be dramatic… cause it’s TV Calla Kcub.
And Man from Hell, please claw yourself back down to the feiry depths where you belong. Thanks.
Sabrina was disgusting the way she melodramatically behaved at the Ethiopian restaurant, scoffing at the food, acting like she was too good for it, and then throwing it all up. Give me a break. If that was all scripted and faked for drama, fine, but if she is really like that, if she is really that snotty and prissy, I would never want a second date with her either.
Look love chunks , stop crying bout your larg assets , grow up and start doing something about it ! Why would you pick the slim and trim girl over me ? Let’s see ? Hummmmm fat is ugly because it’s untoned extra lard on everyone’s person …..you see people are all in the same boat here we all must watch what we eat and work out ….if we don’t our lot in life is packing around extra weight . Do you get it now ? Fat people act like they got a sickness ….the only sickness you got is a short case of guts when it comes to discipline…..and swiming a bit ……fruits and veggies are very sliming ….this show makes me want to puke on my tv !
Shutup man from hell