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Mar 22

Jodie’s weight-loss storyline in ‘Pivoting’ is careless and harmful – Mashable

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Three minutes into Pivoting, Ginnifer Goodwin's character, Jodie, announces she's "getting back in shape and seeing a trainer." Her friend just died, so she wants to start living her "best life." But she's paying cash for said trainer so her painfully dull husband, Dan (Robert Baker), doesn't find out.

It was my first time seeing Goodwin on screen since she starred in the 2011 rom-com Something Borrowed (which I admit, I've seen many times since then), and I must say, she looked great. So great that upon hearing her character say she wanted to get back in shape I thought, "EXCUSE ME?" and feared her words might lay the groundwork for a larger weight-related storyline. When Jodie's friend Sarah (Maggie Q) supportively chimed in to say, "You know the only weight you have to lose is Dan?" I breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, my relief was short-lived.

The Fox single-camera comedy follows three longtime pals Jodie, Sarah, and Amy (Eliza Coupe) as they struggle to cope with the death of their best friend, Coleen. Each mourning her loss in different ways, they all set out to become new versions of themselves. Sarah abandons her career in medicine and starts working at a local grocery store. Amy tries to spend more time at home with her kids. And Jodie decides she wants to lose weight and have an affair with her hot trainer, Matt (JT Neal).

I had high hopes that Pivoting could help fill the Good Girls void in my life, especially since the cast including Amy's husband, Henry (Tommy Dewey), and Coleen's husband, Brian (Colton Dunn) are charming as hell. But its first season left me conflicted. The majority of Pivoting's antics are amusing, and its characters have a ton of potential. But the show is undermined by a careless and harmful weight-loss storyline.

Jodie's weight-loss storyline is primarily used as a means to explore her conflicted feelings about her marriage, but writers could have achieved their desired result an affair without establishing her unhealthy obsession with slimming down. If they felt the weight-loss storyline was necessary for Jodie's arc, they should have set out to better understand and portray the complexities of diet culture and eating disorders on screen. Rather than rise to the challenge, writers crafted a storyline ripe with offensive, over-the-top weight jokes that perpetuate fat-shaming.

The fact that weight loss came up three minutes into the series wasn't the only red flag in Pivoting's pilot. Later in the episode, Hot Trainer Matt asks Jodie if she's shed any pounds recently. She explains she's down a couple and is doing the intermittent fasting he recommended, to which he replies, "You're gonna be back in your skinny jeans before you know it. You're gonna look so freaking hot!"

His comment rudely implies that Jodie isn't already "so freaking hot" at her current weight, which she is, and it promotes a ridiculous, tired correlation between attractiveness and slim physiques.

Three episodes later, the flirty fitness sessions between Jodie and Matt culminate with a spontaneous kiss in his car. There's a clear spark between the two, but before you can fully appreciate it, Jodie frantically asks, "Can I lose eight more pounds first before we do more?" The two move in for another smooch, and Matt pulls away to utter one of the most egregious lines of the series: "Can we make it six pounds?"

Not only is this joke outrageously unfunny, it's also straight-up insulting and reduces a serious issue to a punchline. No matter how it's packaged, commentary related to eating disorders can be triggering and harmful to people. It can also perpetuate unhealthy ideas about weight loss and unhealthy relationships with food. A June 2020 report cited by the ANAD (National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders) predicts that 28.8 million Americans, or nine percent of the U.S. population, will have an eating disorder in their lifetime. It also notes that eating disorders are the cause of 10,200 deaths per year. If writers are going to craft characters who have fitness goals or set out to tell stories related to body image and disordered eating, it's crucial that they do so responsibly especially on a show with as much reach as Pivoting, which airs in a primetime slot on a major cable network and streams episodes on Hulu the following day.

It's clear that Pivoting's writers need to pay closer attention to, and in some cases change, the way the people in Jodie's life respond to her self-deprecating comments and obsession with weight. Not just Matt, but also her friends.

In the pilot, Jodie forces her legs into a pair of skinny jeans to impress Matt. When she can't get them off, she calls Amy and Sarah for backup, and they wind up taking her to the ER after accidentally puncturing her leg with a pair of scissors. It's meant to be a comical low point, but it's also a perfect opportunity for Jodie's friends to intervene and remind her that she doesn't need to lose weight or fit into a certain pair of pants for anyone that her worth, in fact, isn't related to what she weighs at all. They don't.

The lack of concern about Jodie's well-being especially from Sarah, who's dedicated her life to medicine is disappointing to say the least, though it's worth noting that Matt, Amy, and Sarah don't always reinforce Jodie's negative body image comments. Several episodes show them responding with positive, supportive affirmations, such as, "You're not bulky, you're beautiful" and "I think your body is amazing as is," but their support is inconsistent and their messages are mixed.

Amy, say something!Credit: Michael Becker / FOX

The way Pivoting's writers craft Jodie's behavior and mindset as it relates to weight loss is also of concern. In Episode 6, Jodie tries to speed-lose a pound to meet her goal weight so she can feel confident enough in her body to sleep with Matt. After her husband shows her a modicum of kindness, she feels guilty and wonders if cheating on him would be a mistake. Rather than have a mature conversation with her trainer (or anyone!) about those feelings, the writers chose to give her an exaggerated reaction. Jodie dumps a bunch of bread and chocolate into a large bowl and starts ravenously shoveling carbs into her mouth in hopes of quickly gaining weight back, so she won't have to sleep with her trainer just yet. We later see her eating a pizza by herself, and telling Amy, "I'm binging. Don't judge me." Amy ignores the comment and starts talking about herself.

In the cold open of the following episode, Jodie reveals she's gained four pounds in a week. Amy tells Jodie she's gorgeous, and Jodie replies, "Ugh, I was so close to my goal weight, I had a thigh gap and everything. And now my affair with Matt is put off till TBD. I can't even fit into the leggings I want him to rip off of me and throw across the room in reckless abandon."

Just when you thought the scene couldn't get any worse, Jodie says, "Ugh! I've gotta go. I wrote 'thigh gap' on my calendar."

Jodie, nooooooo!Credit: SCREENSHOT: PIVOTING / FOX

Perhaps the writers are trying to be edgy by striking a particular style of humor that gives off majorly fed-up Bad Moms vibes, but it comes across as more lazy than funny in regard to Jodie's storyline. The tone doesn't sit right with the conversations we're currently having about diet culture, which have moved far beyond what we see in this show. There's been such a promising push for body positivity and representation over the past few decades online, onscreen, and in the media and it's troubling to see an otherwise delightful show be dragged down by a reliance on offensive, outdated weight-related plot points.

It's understandable to react in uncharacteristic ways after a loss. But using a topic as delicate as diet culture and repeatedly enforcing the view that a thin woman needs to lose weight or, frankly, that any woman needs to lose weight! to get that message across is just wrong. If Jodie's desire to "get back in shape" does exist to emphasize a larger struggle with self-love or disordered eating, I hope writers stop brushing her struggles off with humor and ensure she gets the help and support she needs. If this storyline is truly nothing more than a byproduct of misguided writing, however, I'd urge the team to start giving Jodie more substantial storylines that focus on her crumbling marriage, her affair, motherhood, her desire for independence, or her unfulfilled career ambitions, rather than her weight.

Viewers got a glimpse of Jodie's storyline potential in the refreshing, genuinely enjoyable Season 1 finale. The episode showed Jodie and her husband finally having an honest conversation about their marital issues, and her and Matt hanging out without placing focus on her weight. I hope writers continue to strive for that sort of depth should Pivoting be renewed for a second season.

Jodie deserves better, and so do viewers.

The first season of Pivoting is currently streaming on Hulu.

If you feel like you'd like to talk to someone about your eating behavior, call the National Eating Disorder Association's helpline at 800-931-2237. You can also text "NEDA" to 741-741 to be connected with a trained volunteer at the Crisis Text Line or visit the nonprofit's website for more information.

Originally posted here:
Jodie's weight-loss storyline in 'Pivoting' is careless and harmful - Mashable

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