{"id":12089,"date":"2018-05-09T19:19:18","date_gmt":"2018-05-09T19:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=12089"},"modified":"2018-05-09T19:19:18","modified_gmt":"2018-05-09T19:19:18","slug":"how-one-early-20th-century-performer-defanged-her-fat-shamers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/how-one-early-20th-century-performer-defanged-her-fat-shamers\/","title":{"rendered":"How one early 20th-century performer defanged her fat-shamers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lauren Rebecca Sklaroff<\/a>, University of South Carolina<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s all-too-common for women \u2013 especially those in the public spotlight \u2013 to be criticized for their weight. Sarah Huckabee Sanders<\/a>, Lena Dunham<\/a> and Rihanna<\/a> have borne the brunt of fat-shamers. <\/p>\n

Amy Schumer\u2019s recent film \u201cI Feel Pretty<\/a>\u201d takes on the outsize role body weight and physical attractiveness play in self-esteem. The only way for a woman to feel comfortable above a size zero, the film seems to be saying, is to be knocked unconscious and magically wake up with a newfound sense of confidence. <\/p>\n

This dynamic, unfortunately, has been playing out for decades. But as I explain in my new biography, \u201cRed Hot Mama<\/a>,\u201d one overweight woman who rose to fame in the 1920s \u2013 singer and comedienne Sophie Tucker \u2013 was at the forefront of pushing back against her critics and championing her fuller figure. <\/p>\n

Dreams of the big stage<\/h2>\n

Tucker was born Sonya Kalish in 1886 to Jewish parents in what is present-day Ukraine. Persecution of Jews in the late 19th Century led her family to flee for the U.S., where they settled in Hartford, Connecticut, and operated a kosher restaurant. <\/p>\n

As a child, Tucker would entertain patrons by singing. Popular vaudevillians and Yiddish performers, from Bertha Kalich<\/a> to Jacob Adler<\/a>, dined at the restaurant and would critique Tucker\u2019s performances and dispense advice.<\/p>\n

While honing her craft, Tucker decided she wanted to be a star and was determined to move to New York. But Tucker wasn\u2019t like most young starlets of the time. By the time she was 13, she weighed 145 pounds. And conforming to the pressures most Jewish daughters faced at the turn of the century, she ended up getting married and having a baby boy in her late teens. <\/p>\n

Still, she craved a career as a headliner. <\/p>\n

When she was around the age of 20, Tucker left her husband and child, moved to New York and slowly worked her way up. Told by one manager that she was too \u201cfat and ugly\u201d to perform as herself, she, like many of the era\u2019s Jewish entertainers<\/a>, began her career in blackface<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But audiences loved her, and over time impresarios such as Florenz Ziegfeld<\/a> noticed her. She shed her blackface and started performing the latest hits of famous songwriter Irving Berlin<\/a>, getting gigs at vaudeville\u2019s leading theaters under the guidance of her agent, William Morris<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018I don\u2019t want to lose weight\u2019<\/h2>\n

Tucker was initially insecure about her looks. Noticing audiences lavishing praise on slender starlets like Lillian Lorraine<\/a>, Tucker wondered if she was simply \u201ca big gal with a big voice \u2026 miles away from making any impression.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet she realized that because she was not traditionally beautiful, she could get away with a candor that other women could not. While her routines contained bawdy tales of sex and romance, she also incorporated material about her weight. As she proclaimed in her 1929 recording, \u201cI Don\u2019t Want to Get Thin,\u201d <\/p>\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t want to lose weight \/ The boys tell me I\u2019m great \/ And my sweetheart loves me just the way I am.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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