Survival of the Thickest and the current state of body positivity

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Survival of the Thickest is a new series on Netflix starring comedian Michelle Buteau, inspired by her bestselling essay collection of the same name.

For this week's wrap panel, comedian Ashley Ray joins culture critics Sarah-Tai Black, Peter Knegt and guest host Amil Niazi to discuss what the series tells us about the state of the body positivity movement in 2023.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, where the panel discuss Carly Rae Jepsen's latest album and Doja Cat's recent treatment of her online fans, listen and follow the Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud podcast, on your favourite podcast player.

Amil: Peter, can you give us a sense of what the show is about?

Peter: Yeah, so Michelle Buteau plays Mavis, a stylist in her 30s who goes through this really horrible breakup and uses it as an opportunity to reinvent her life and herself, especially as a stylist — taking on clients and making them feel better about their bodies. That's the essential vibe.

WATCH | Official trailer for Survival of the Thickest:

Amil: She's 37 in the show, although in real life Michelle Buteau is 46. I was really wanting this to be a show about women in their late 30s,  early 40s, because we just don't see that enough. But that's my own bone to pick. Sarah-Tai, it's also a series that really leans into this idea of body positivity, body diversity. Michelle Buteau herself called it a love letter to "oddy bodies and the fatty baddies." What did you think of those body-positive themes in the show?

Sarah-Tai: I mean, I've been waiting for the Black woman-and/or Black femme-fat person-centered show. I love that unlike a show like Shrill, which I kind of have a love-hate relationship with for many reasons, we don't have that initial [phase of] spending half a season trying to get her over some kind of self-hatred, because she's grown. That phase should have been passed. And I love the idea of a show that just focuses on a fat woman living her life out loud. Fat pleasure. Fat comedy. The first episode does have a few self-deprecating jokes that as a noted fat person myself, I'm like, "We don't need this." What I really was not expecting was the queer orbit around her character…. It was nice to see her really enmeshed in that community. I also like the way it's kind of dealing with sexuality — and that might not be body positivity, but it is body autonomy. And as the season goes on, it gets really interesting in that sense for me.

WATCH | Teaser trailer for Survival of the Thickest:

Amil: I mean, I binged it all in one day, so I overall really found it very enjoyable. Ashley, you're a comedian. How did this mix of comedy and body positivity land for you?

Ashley: I thought it was great. Michelle has been doing this in her comedy for a long time. I'm a huge fan of her standup, and this is an excellent representation of what she does — just how charming, bubbly she is. You truly feel when you watch this, you want to spend time with her, smoke with her, have a drink with her. It's just that engaging of a show. And on top of it, it's so sexy, you know?

Amil: It is very sexy.

Ashley: It's so sexy. I'm fat, I'm plus-size, and watching this I was just like, "Yes! This is the representation we deserve for our love lives." She has men falling all over her — gorgeous men, and she deserves it. And again, she's so secure in that. She's so confident in it because she knows herself. And so I think that's the exact tone that Michelle takes in her comedy. It translated perfectly. Sometimes that can be scary as a comic; you don't know if the studio is going to give you too many notes, [or] they're going to change your whole life. We saw it all happen with Che Diaz, so.

Amil: I know, you're talking about And Just Like That.

Ashley: A little Sex and the City humour for the fans. You know, they come in and they want to put you in a box. And especially with someone like Michelle when she has so many intersections in her personality, it probably would have been easy for them to say, "Let's just go the stereotypical sitcom route and have you fall in love with your friend. Let's have you do this, and feel insecure about a dress that doesn't fit" — but it never does that. It always does something unexpected.

Amil: I love it. Peter, what were your feelings on the series?

Peter: I mean, I love Michelle Buteau. I've loved her in all these sort of tiny parts she's had in all these things, so it's so wonderful to see her centered and getting this opportunity. I think the show is incredibly watchable. I did feel a little bad for her that this show sort of came out the same week as the strike, and she's not able to promote it. I really hope that people sort of find it and embrace it despite everything that's going on because it really deserves not just people's attention, but another season.

Amil: I would love to see another season, because I think there's a lot that the show can do. One thing that kind of intrigued me was how a show like this is landing in a time when, yes, artists like Lizzo have helped put the body positivity movement back into the cultural conversation. But we're also bombarded with pieces about Ozempic, the semaglutide that people say are going to lead to a post-fat world. And every celebrity from Mindy Kaling to a host of reality stars are rumoured to be on it, kind of seeming to do away with this conversation around body diversity. Sarah-Tai, do you think it hit the mark given the cultural context that we're in right now?

Sarah-Tai: It's a show I'm really rooting for. It has some shortcomings for me, and I felt like it fell a bit short of that mark. But it's because the mark is so beyond. As a fat film critic, going to Scotiabank Theatre [in Toronto] and seeing the multilevel Ozempic ad on the stairs — we're just bombarded from every direction with fatphobia and this refusal to let people live their lives with full autonomy and respect and care. How can anything meet that standard of critique? I think my biggest critique of the show would probably be that it seems a little bit confused in terms of its tone. I love that we have this kind of cringey elder millennial humor, which I say as a cringey elder millennial myself.

Amil: Thank you for clarifying that.

Sarah-Tai: I want to make sure everyone knows I'm not just a Gen-Z talking out of my neck…. But there's also moments where the sincerity doesn't really hit the mark in terms of authenticity. There's a moment with a "Karen," which is played very strangely … but I am excited to see where [the show] goes. I hope it gets another season because I think that it's needed.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Ty Callender.