Why Do Sitcoms Think It's Hilarious When Women Eat?

The "She eats to remind us her life is unfulfilled!" bit isn't new. In the 1970s, you had Rhoda Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. That's another character who was objectively killing it -- she had a cool job and her own apartment, and she was gorgeous. But she was constantly spouting negative lines about her (very skinny) body, like "I don't know why I should even bother to eat this. I should just apply it directly to my hips!"

CBSTAKE THIS WOMAN'S FOOD AWAY BEFORE SHE EATS HERSELF TO DEATH

Pre-Gilmore, being able to eat a lot without gaining weight was reserved for nerdy boys like Shaggy in Scooby-Doo and the old, not-sexy version of Jughead in Archie Comics. Their inability to bulk up after eating fistfuls of cheeseburgers was seen as a failure. Men are supposed to be large and imposing, but for the Gilmores, staying thin is a superpower. It proves they can "hang with the guys" while maintaining figures that ensure those guys are still sexually attracted to them. NOTE: In real life, Lauren Graham (who plays Lorelai Gilmore) once said she's been on a diet for 35 years, since she was 11 years old.

You might think that the Gilmores made it easier on women. Maybe that was even the idea -- it's OK to eat pizza now! Before you eat that pizza, though, just let me remind you that Amy Schumer is a size 6, and when she takes her clothes off for a photo shoot, it's hailed as an act of bravery. Amy Schumer bravely said yes to the pizza (likely less often than the average American), and no one is going to let her live it down.

Sometimes, the ability to eat and not gain any weight is even thrown in with literal superpowers. Kara Danvers (Supergirl) on the CW version of Supergirl attributes her ability to eat sticky buns for breakfast everyday and stay so thin to being an alien. Which, to be fair, is the most realistic explanation for that. According to Buffy The Vampire Slayer, being the Slayer makes you hungry, but it certainly doesn't make you gain weight, because ... vampires have a strict no-fatties policy?

On FXX's You're The Worst -- an ensemble comedy about terrible people -- the two main female characters, Gretchen and Lindsey, have Gilmore-esque junk food diets. It's again one of the running jokes in the show. Every meal is usually some kind of fatty diner food which they wolf down like animals.

FX

We also see them sneak onto a movie set to steal from the craft services table. When Lindsay's husband tries to get her to cook a healthy meal with him, she freaks out and stabs him. Granted, these are the protagonists -- their flaws are supposed to be kind of endearing. But A) none of these people are obese, and B) it's yet another example wherein women eating human food is treated like a quirk. And yet any time a model-thin woman turns up on a show like this subsisting on kale salads and Gwyneth Paltrow cleanse juices, she's going to be portrayed as an uptight harpy, the kind of woman other women hate.

It's as if in the world of sitcoms, there's no socially correct way for a woman to eat. So I guess they're pretty realistic in that regard.

Eat all you want, enjoy it, and cook it in an Instant Pot. Seriously, they're super useful.

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For more, check out 4 Weirdly Specific Things Movies Believe About Food and 6 Insane Stereotypes That Movies Can't Seem To Get Over.

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