MTV's New "TJ" May Be The Network's Saving Grace

by Whitney Teal · 2010-08-10 06:00:00 UTC
Topics:

Back when I was in high school and the Music Television network wasn't synonymous with caricatured reality TV, I had dreams of being a video jockey (VJ) for the network. If I had achieved that dream, I would've been one of about two black women to have the position and the only non-thin person to have ever represented the network.

I've given up on my VJ goals (who even watches music videos anymore, anyway?), but I'm pretty jazzed to see that the network and fans have chosen Gabi Gregg to be their first and only "Twitter jock," or TJ. Gabi's not only one of the coolest people to be associated with MTV in ages, but she's also unabashedly plus-sized, to the point of naming her popular blog "Young, Fat and Fabulous."

Gregg may be the best thing to happen to MTV (and basic cable in general) in a really long time. Not only is her plus-sized status accepted, but she's a young woman who owns it and flaunts it. For proof, check out this recent post of a woman who looks to be about a size 14 modeling a bright red swimsuit. When was the last time anyone who weighed more than 100 pounds excitedly posted photos that exposed their thighs on the Internet? Gregg's the embodiment of what we talk about a lot of this blog: not letting society's messed up ideas screw up how women feel about themselves.

I hope that with more profile, Gregg's blog will grow and continue to inspire other plus-sized women to not allow themselves to feel marginalized by the dominant, thin-normative culture. I also can't help but think how much different I probably would have felt about myself as a teenager if someone like Gregg had been as prominently featured on a network like MTV as the women who more closely resembled Alexa Chung, MTV's last hot-ticket new-hire.

Hopefully, as a beautiful, confident plus-sized woman becomes less of a rare commodity on television and in media, it won't matter in the slightest what waist size a female media personality measures.

Photo credit: Matt From London

Whitney Teal Whitney is a freelance writer based in the suburbs of Washington, D.C and is a frequent contributor to a variety of national and regional publications and websites. She regularly writes about women's rights.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Bias Against Sex Workers Let Serial Killer Murder 21 Women
NEXT STORY:
Fox News' Trotta Still Doesn't Get It: I Want Her Rape Apologism Off the Air

COMMENTS (1)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.