Kirstie Alley’s “got back”
JC
But is she back? The show looks horrible! Check out this wonderfully sarcastic opinion piece (thanks for the tip, George!) from the New York Post about Kirstie Alley’s new sitcom (in which she plays herself), Fat Actress. This show sounds offensive on so many different levels…but I’m here to focus on one. 
The character who plays Kirstie Alley’s assistant is charged with helping her to find a suitable mate. After various failed attempts to interest other men, they turn to black men, completely playing off of the stereotype that all black men are attracted to larger women. Even better is the fact that they go to a *soul food* restaurant to find a potential black bachelor for her. 
Alley plays a depressed, out-of-work, overweight actress who is having a difficult time getting back on television because of her excess pounds. Compounding her depression is her desire for sex, and the belief that no man wants to be with her because of her weight. Alley’s assistants decide all she needs to wash away her blues is a black man - since, of course, they all love “ample rump.” They don’t reach that conclusion until they rule out Alley’s other sexual possibilities, which include (in order) Alley’s effeminate male assistant, other women and women with guys’ names. Given the company, that’s not quite a ringing endorsement for the African-American sex pool.
Alas, her quest for an interracial romp will have to wait because the network execs are calling about a possible show deal. It is there, during the meeting, that she meets the black man [Mark Curry] who is impressed that, in the immortal words of Sir Mix A Lot, “Baby Got Back.” “Look at you, with your L.A. face and your Oakland booty,” he tells her later in bed.
They hit it off right away, but of course they would: she’s white and fat, he’s black and horny. And, of course, she is predictably impressed with his equipment, even if she didn’t actually get to sample it. “He didn’t put out the fire,” Alley tells her friends the next day. “Not that he didn’t have the hose to do it.” Just another hilarious line from a show bursting with good humor.
Oh, did we mention that Curry plays an African-American executive with the power to shape network programming? Now that’s funny.
Lyonside wrote:
>Oh, did we mention that Curry plays an African-American executive with the power to shape network programming? Now that’s funny.
‘Cause if this were even close to true, the show wouldn’t make it on the air.
Posted 10 Mar 2005 at 4:05 pm ¶
CVK wrote:
I got around to seeing this show this weekend, and it was sooooooooooooo awful. I think that the writers were trying to poke fun at white people’s attitudes towards blacks in the soul food restaurant scene, but it really just ended up falling flat and seeming like they approved of those attitudes. But apart from all the racial stuff, what really got to me about this show was the complete humiliation and indignation of the main character. I mean, it’s hard to explain how difficult and painful it is to watch, but I think JC said it best when she compared the show’s premise to the fictional show in Spike Lee’s “Bamboozled” - except that it’s weight that’s the basis of the buffoonery, rather than blackness.
Posted 14 Mar 2005 at 2:42 pm ¶
Sara Polk wrote:
This is messed up that black men is their last resort. I hate that
stereotype that black men are attracted to larger women. I’m a tiny
women that married a black guy.
Posted 15 Apr 2005 at 1:19 pm ¶
Dennis Hartman wrote:
The stereotype that black men are attracted to big women is bullshit. There are black men who like all types of women: big, slender, curvy, etc. After all, I’m black and my wife is a red-head, but she’s slim……
Posted 25 Apr 2005 at 10:25 pm ¶