Bittercon: Fat People in Space

[attackfish]

Based on our genre, there aren't any. Why not?

I am tempted to just to leave this question alone and see what discussion it prompts in everyone else.  This is something I have noticed in a vague, background kind of way, but I never really thought about it (though I probably should have).

Part of it, I know, is that literature and other media as a whole don’t portray a lot of people who aren’t skinny.  People in fiction are usually skinny unless there’s a reason for them not to be skinny.  A side character may be fat and jolly, or bustling and fat, or lazy and fat.  A villain may be fat and greedy, or fat and stupid, or fat and dirty.  A character is fat, much like a character has a disability, or is nonwhite, because the author chose for them to be that way.  Skinny is a default in fiction, and fat is a deviation.  Nowadays, there are more fat main characters, especially in Romance and YA novels, but fat people in fiction are a tiny percentage compared to fat people in real life.

Part of this also has to do with the space program, and the visibility of astronauts as the Science Fiction genre was coming into its own.  Astronauts, as most of us are aware, have to be incredibly physically fit, and have to pass a physical examination before they even begin training that tends to weed out anyone not of slender build.  A lot of Science Fiction involving space travel has an understandable tendency to draw on this.

Some of it has to do with Science Fiction’s aspirational roots.  Science Fiction is most often about imagining a future for ourselves, and from the start, many of those futures were better than the presents from which they sprang.  We would have peace and plenty.  We would travel the stars.  And we will have conquered disease and disability, and everyone will be healthy and beautiful.  And not fat.

Even in horrible futures, skinniness is predominant.  Many dystopians posit a food shortage, and if people are starving, they certainly aren't fat (okay, in real life, that’s not strictly true, but...)

None of this changes the fact that there is a lot more room for fat characters in Science Fiction than are currently there.

So, fat Science Fiction characters: why not?

Written for bittercon the online convention for those of us who can't make it to any other kind, on a topic adapted from a panel at the 2012 Chicon, the text of which is quoted at the beginning of this post.

Comments

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

There is - at least one: The guy in the Heinlein story who saved his space station by pressing his ass against a leak. (He refers to it as "this broad, fat thing I'm sitting on.)

Also, Bujold has a fair bit of physical variation in her people; I can't think of anyone heavier offhand but I wouldn't be surprised if she's got one or more.

Spider Robinson has a fat time traveler, Mary Callahan.

However, that doesn't contradict your essential point; "I can think of one!" is nowhere near proportional representation.

[slimequeen.livejournal.com]

Crossed Genres Press put out a book last year called Fat Girl in a Strange Land. It's an anthology all about plus-size characters. I confess, I wasn't too sure about the concept. I've been overweight most of my life, was teased brutally in school, and I'm pretty sensitive about the subject.

I received a free review copy of the ebook for Fat Girl and was pleasantly surprised. There were some great takes on the subject, like a crew sent to terraform a planet and they must maintain high weight ratios to survive.

There's also a Jennifer Estep book called Hot Mama where the superpowered heroine needs a plush layer (and eats heavily to support it) because she burns so many calories when she uses her power.

I wish more publishers would go for diversity in this area. It's great to see more emphasis on people of color, and maybe more will be written on different shapes as well.

[pervert-bitch.livejournal.com]

I can only think of Wall-E :P

[meganinhiding.livejournal.com]

The only characters that immediately come to mind is Baron Harkonen and Rustum Battachariya from Charles Sheffield's Cold as Ice books.

[weirdlet.livejournal.com]

In the Vorkosigan saga, especially later on- there aren't a lot, but it's mentioned that the lady who becomes Emperor Gregor's wife is short, plump and adorable. Mark, Miles' clone-brother, becomes heavier (though the circumstances are potentially triggery) and maintains it after as a means of differentiating himself from Miles. A lot of the characters are military, so fitness is a Thing, but the planet central to the narrative is also just coming out of the Time of Isolation wherein they had to go back to an agrarian society, and not-starving is mentioned as a desirable aesthetic.