TW: Mentions of bullying, eating disorders, suicide and self-harm, but in a way that criticises their use in fanfiction, specifically fanfiction aimed at ‘plus size!readers’
This post isn’t intended to hurt anyone, but address issues I see in fanfiction geared towards overweight readers. This post isn’t stating that every piece ‘plus size!reader’ fanfiction is the same, tropey angst-fest that is all too common across Tumblr, Wattpad and Deviantart. In fact, there are many writers who create unique and enjoyable content aimed as plus size readers, some of which I’ll link now. Comment below other good blogs for plus size readers, and I’ll add them! I’ve only really included blogs that are mostly SFW because those are the ones that I follow, but, if you ask me to include some more NSFW blogs, just comment some down below!
https://plus-size-reader.tumblr.com/ - This blog writes exclusively for plus size readers, and not all of the plots are about the reader’s size! The plots of one-shots are unique, and there are many fandoms that they write for.
https://chubbyreaderwriter.tumblr.com/ - This blog also writes exclusively for plus size readers, and there’s a lot of content for you to enjoy if you like Marvel, Harry Potter, AHS and a few other fandoms. My personal favourite fic is a Nebula x plus size!reader, because I left Endgame with a crush on Nebula for a reason I can’t explain nor understand.
https://soft-for-them.tumblr.com/ - This blog creates fanfiction for different kinds of readers, including plus size readers. Even if it’s just an ‘x reader’, it’s really easy to forget that it’s not exclusively ‘x plus size!reader’ because the writer is good at making these kinds of posts safe for many types of readers. They also write for male readers and gender neutral readers!
As a fat person myself, I’m not aiming to condemn anyone for their weight in a way that isn’t scientific, objective fact (being fat is unhealthy). If you’re overweight/chubby/fat/festively plump, you’re worthy of respect, love and kindness. Still, if you think that such a statement will negatively affect you, please don’t read this.
Also, apologies for when I’m creating examples to make a point and I go to Marvel. I’ve been reading a lot of MCU fanfiction lately (mostly Bucky-based, if we’re being honest because I’m basic).
I spend a lot of my free time reading fanfiction and, since I’m plus size/fat/chubby/whatever, I am more drawn to ‘plus size!reader’ fanfiction when I’m actively seeking out fanfiction about certain characters/fandoms. A lot of the time, I enjoy ‘plus size!reader’ fics because they allow me to explore relationships as someone who has never been in one, and through work written for people of my size. Plus, I am mostly attracted to fictional characters anyway, which is why I like pretending for a few hours of my day that a himbo loves me. It boosts my confidence just a little, knowing someone could love me, even if I’m not the epitome of today’s beauty standards.
However, a noticeable percentage, perhaps not quite the majority, of fanfiction geared towards plus size readers features the following tropes:
- Heavy, heavy smut in which the (often male) love interest fetishizes the reader’s body
There’s nothing wrong with the fact it’s smut, but the fact that smut is used as a device to comfort the reader about their body issues, and when the (often male) love interest glorifies and fetishizes the reader’s body. Sometimes, it can feel a little manipulative on the part of the (often male) love interest. This might happen in non-’plus size!reader’ fanfiction too, but it rubs me the wrong way when smut that impressionable teenagers read has a focus on the fetishization of their, if we’re being realistic, unhealthy bodies. Suddenly, every fictional himbo suddenly has a fatty fetish, and the way it’s written can come off as really creepy.
- The reader being told that they’re ‘not fat’ by the (often male) love interest, despite the fact that fat doesn’t mean ‘disgusting, ugly monster’ (though I’m convinced that all (often male) love interests think that that’s the meaning of ‘fat’)
Basically, the reader is told that ‘fat’ is some kind of terrible, repulsive thing to be. I’ve been told in real life that I’m not fat, and, even though it was said with kind intent, it just made me feel worse about being overweight because I hadn’t even said it in a negative way.
- The reader being constantly bullied, berated by and tortured by everyone on the planet, especially their family members (usually a politically incorrect grandmother, wicked mother and/or fit and attractive sisters), and the protective main characters and the (often male) love interest are the only people that are nice to them. Poor Y/N!
Basically, the author romanticises bullying as something to be ‘saved’ from, and trivialises subjects such as abuse, bullying and low self-esteem. Most of the time, Y/N basks in self-loathing until a himbo saves her from those awful, emaciated bimbos.
- The reader, who is horrifically abused and berated by society, being saved from suicide and/or self-harm by their (often male) love interest
Basically, the author romanticises and trivialises mental illness, convincing impressionable, insecure teenage girls that every problem in their life can be solved through the power of a fictional himbo
- Every female they encounter (usually with the exception of canonical characters) being a thin, whorish bitch who desperately wants to get with the reader’s (often male) love interest, and/or a thin, whorish bitch who convinces the reader that their not attractive enough to date her (often male) love interest. The nice female characters present no real competition, often insisting to the reader ‘oMfG bUcKy tOtALly liKeS yOu’, but the reader always compares herself to them.
Basically, every woman who isn’t the chubby reader is competition (and therefore a bitch) or a likable canon character (who presents no romantic competition). It’s often reiterated that Y/N isn’t as skinny or pretty as, if we’re using Marvel as an example here, Nat or Wanda, and then the (often male) love interest will say something along the lines of ‘they’re too skinny for me’.
- The (often male) love interest convincing the reader that their body makes them special, and that anyone who isn’t overweight is unhealthy, hideous and unworthy of love (unless, of course, they worship the very ground upon which the reader walks)
Basically, the author is insisting that being overweight is something to be praised for and something that makes them ‘not like other girls’. The reader is also discouraged, when they are entirely unhappy with their bodies, from making any effort to be healthier because a it’s the thin people who really need to sort out their diets and change to accommodate the reader’s feelings.
- The reader’s identity is that they’re fat, sweet and is truly beautiful on the inside, and the reader character truly lacks any depth beyond ‘fat, bullied, boo hoo, please kiss me, Bucky Barnes’
Basically, the reader tends to be an overly sweet, generic, generally sympathetic character so that every character that doesn’t horrendously bully them feels terrible for her woeful life. If the writer dares create any flaws that could make the reader realistic or interesting, the world would implode. Overall, it never feels as though there’s any real reason why the (often male) love interest is drawn/attracted to the reader in any way, because they have all the intrigue of a blank piece of paper.
- The reader is treated as though they’re inferior by every single thin, conventionally attractive female on the planet, but, by the end of the story, the (often male) love interest has fallen for the reader because they’re superior to all of the women around them
Basically, the reader is treated as though they should feel as though they’re better than those ‘twig bitches’, because ‘at least they don’t look like a skeleton’
- The reader being called a ‘pig’, ‘whale’ or, if the author’s feeling especially creative ‘lardass’
Basically, either teenagers or grown adults are only capable of insulting a fat person by calling them by the names of ‘fat’ animals
- The (often male) love interest saying that the reader is better than other girls because they don’t look ‘anorexic’, and/or defending the reader by saying something along the lines of ‘at least they’re not anorexic like you, Lindsay’
Basically, the author is insisting that thinphobia is justified when it is used against fatphobic women, and that ‘anorexia’ is an insult that insecure teenage girls should use to get back at thinner people
- Presenting eating disorders as easily curable illnesses that can be taken away by (often male) romantic attention
Basically, the author gives the reader an eating disorder (usually anorexia or bulimia) for the sake of being a romantic device, then implies that the power of a himbo can cure any disorder
- The reader isn’t allowed to be at all confident, unless their (often male) love interest loves them.
Basically, the reader shouldn’t feel confident in themself, or love themself or their body, unless a himbo wants to bang them.
These are just some of the tropes in ‘plus size!reader’ fanfiction.
Please, if you’re writing fanfiction for a plus size audience, try to avoid these tropes. So many of us plus size people are tired of reading the same story of bullying, abuse and crippling insecurity, in which all of the reader’s problems are cured by the himbo. I don’t understand why we can’t have stories where the reader just so happens to be fat and, sure, maybe they do get the occasional comment, but they aren’t too badly affected by it aside from the occasional moment of self-doubt.
If you are going to include mental illness and eating disorders in your work, I implore you to make it realistic and not to use it as a device to get the reader and their love interest together.
If you want to build up the confidence of young, plus size women, don’t tear down every other woman in the process.
Also, for the love of God, please write more WLW fanfiction for plus size readers.
EDIT: I really understand that a lot of plus size readers ARE insecure about their bodies, but my issue is that the author can often make this the reader’s only trait. I’m so insecure about myself a lot of the time, and, sure, it can be comforting to read fics like these. However, it can get a little stale when too many plus size reader fanfictions are the same story about ‘reader is insecure and sad’ and ‘love interest comforts reader and it’s fluffy and/or smutty’.
I also really understand that many plus size readers suffer with mental health issues, eating disorders and bullying; I personally suffer from issues with panic attacks, for around three years actually, and self-harm, and I have been for over a year now. A lot of writers, probably inadvertently, use these issues as a means to comfort the reader and generally trivialise the problem, rather than showing it like a truly damaging mental illness.