Why is it that fit women who take care of themselves are portrayed in the media as bitchy?

Maybe people assume they are hungry from starving themselves?

I just read an article about how many women need to learn how to say NO! in general in their lives. Most of us with weight issues, don't do this enough and when we do begin to set healthy boundaries( and practice saying NO!), we find that we can lose weight.

Learning to say NO! can sometimes be seen by others as being 'bitchy'.
I see it as being healthy!!

Maybe because people who make the media only look at/ talk to skinny women who actually ARE bitchy?

I have this theory that the women who appear in the mass media are Cinderella's mean stepsisters. They are rich and beautiful and get to go to the ball while all the Cinderellas slave to pay their way by means of buying media products. Of course, the mean stepsisters will cut off their heels or toes to fit in the slippers, or otherwise maim and torture their bodies, but hey, they are invited to the ball.

My mother who is quite large now has told me how, when she was in her 20s and weighed 115 pounds she used to feel disgusted when she'd look into fat people's grocery carts and see that they had unhealthy fattening foods. She says it's payback that she's fat now. I think there is a subset of thin women who think that way and really feel that they are *better* than other people somehow. I don't think their bitchy attitudes are necessarily always related to weight, but of course that part of it bothers me.

A friend of mine was talking about her ex-husband's "skinny girlfriend" the other day and everyone in the conversation totally got what she meant by it. She was talking about a lot more than weight.

So, while I don't think any stereotypes are fair, and I think this stereotype is harmful and wrong, I can't help but feel there is some truth in it. Of course, the vast majority of thin people I've known have not had one iota of that bitchiness and I don't assume that all thin women are that way. And come to think of it, I have absolutely known men who had it, too. Actually the one IRL friend of mine who I would say is that way is married to a man who is that way, too.

Otoh, I feel like probably almost every lead woman character in a romantic comedy is portrayed as fit and taking care of herself, but very few of them are seen as bitchy. So, I understand the "type" you're talking about, but I don't see it as some universal thing. And I'm not more bothered by it than I am by the portrayals of fat women in movies and tv.

Excellent observation. I do see and experience the Thin Beotchs.

But I experience the prejudices against fat people way more. And from both men and women - and from people who are not necessarily thin. As long as they are 40-50 lbs lighter than me, they see me as inferior. As fat, I have no will power, I'm lazy, not very smart, have no determination, am not well read, and can be steam rolled into an unfavorable position career wise. And when I prove all these sterotypes false, then I’m the fat bitch.

In the older soap operas it seemed like brunettes were the bitches, but then again everyone was thin.

Yes, brunettes were evil. Blondes were semi dense or angels... Red heads were fired up - hot headed.

Basically, if a woman asserts herself, she's a bitch.

At one time there was a bunch of new sitcoms starring women standups, for a change. They could be chubby, like Roseanne. They could be slender, like Brett Butler. But if they spoke up about what they'd like their own show to be; well, they were bitches.

So there's only two choices. We either shut up; or we don't care what insecure people say.