Fat Bubble: Montserrat Caballe

Welcome back to the Fat Bubble, where we immerse ourselves in fat joy and fat respect, offering an antidote to an anti-fat world. Today, I thought it would be just really lovely to root myself back in an early fat memory - it's quite a niche addition to Fat Bubble, but bear with me, because I absolutely adore this performance and I’m going to tell you why! 

If you’re not familiar with Monserrat Cabelle, she was an opera singer and, in 1992, she duetted with Freddie Mercury on the song Barcelona, to open up the 1992 Olympics. I was ten, and I remember the opening ceremony was a SPECTACLE! And the official video that accompanied it? Absolutely glorious, soaring voices, two singers enjoying meeting their match in stage presence and talent. Take a look here - it still brings goosebumps and a smile to my face, and by the end I had tears in my eyes.

I watch this performance perhaps more than you would think - I LOVE the combination of both of their drama and their beautiful powerful voices, and one of the aspects I love about this video is how Freddie treats her with such reverence and respect. He holds her hand and looks at her as if she is a goddess. In this video, Cabelle’s body absolutely radiates statue and status to me. She looks like she is having fun, and I hope she felt absolutely treasured in that moment.

Whether we took that in implictly or explictly at the time, it still would have represented a contrast to other popular representations of bigger bodies in media at the time – Ursula (although now reclaimed by our dear fat community), representing greed and cruelty in The Little Mermaid in 1989, Rose and Onslow representing sloth and laziness in Keeping Up Appearances in 1990 onwards, and Wayne and Waynetta representing coarseness and fecklessness in Harry Enfield and Chums from the same year onwards (not to mention the classism and anti-poverty rhetoric from the last two sources). 

Representation isn’t the be all and end all of positive and inclusive change, but it certainly helps to feed our worldview, and our image of ourselves. And if those negative stereotypes feed the assumptions we make about fat bodies, we can see how creating an affirmative bubble can be so healing, for all of us. I was grateful to Fierce Fatty for sharing this resource a couple of days ago. Seeing positive representations of fat bodies certainly supports not only the fat identity work I do, but also the broader canon of eating disorder and body respect work – as Dr Deb Burgard says:

“In order to prevent eating disorders, we have to make it safe to be fat"

So in a culture that consistently negatively stereotypes bigger bodies and continues to make them vulnerable to anti-fat harm, how refreshing and beautiful to see a fat woman in a shimmery gown, being adored by her co-star. I truly buy, even from this gay man, the love and assurance of her beauty that is present in him throughout the whole song. I still love to watch it now – it's definitely in my Fat Bubble. And it's a loving acknowledgment for the power of wonderful allies – Freddie Mercury and Monserrat Caballe, thank you for BOTH being in my Fat Bubble!