Content warning: eating disorders, body image, fatphobia.

You know that scene in Mean Girls where Regina George is wearing sweatpants on a day she’s not allowed to by her clique? The one in which she’s not wearing them because she wants to, but­­ because they’re ‘all that fit right now’? Privy to the dramatic irony of the scene, we know that her bodily incongruence is due to sabotage by the flawed heroine of the film, Cady Heron. Cady is feeding Regina Swedish protein bars to make her gain weight so rapidly she loses her hot bod/social position (which are one and the same, of course). Remember when Regina storms off and another girl who is actually fat walks past, slams into her velour-clad hips and quips, Watch where you’re going fat ass, and the whole canteen laughs? Like the ultimate punishment one can face is getting called a fatass by a fully objective fatass. Like the worst thing one can be in the world is the fattest person in the room.