Alanna Masterson: why does a stranger’s weight gain bother us so much?

December 3, 2016 Ashley 0 Comments

So, we’ve all been praising Lauren Cohan for her awesome bod.

And now another Walking Dead actress walks unknowingly into the spotlight.

But, this time, the internet trolls are the ones aiming it at her.

(Alanna Masterson: slays zombies on screen; slays mommyhood – and haters – off screen.)

If you’re not that into the T.V. show Alanna and Lauren both play on, the premise isn’t that complicated. It’s about dead folk roaming the earth, and the still-alive people who are trying to survive sans being eaten by them. Simple. Less simple? The lives of the actors actually playing those characters. Take, for example, the aforementioned Alanna Masterson, who just had a baby not terribly long ago. In between shooting takes in the sweltering summer heat of Georgia (that probably left her feeling more like an IRL zombie than survivor), she was performing the all encompassing circus routine of nurturing her newborn. Unlike unattached actors who can use their flesh vessel solely for performance, hers became her baby’s buffet. That meant that caloric count might have been higher. And her mammaries may’ve been bit more massive than we remember ’em in previous episodes. And all the weight from playing human incubator and embryo oven for three months short of a year, didn’t magically melt away. But, most avid fans probably knew that.

So why the butt hurt and cascade of cruel commentary? Why the body shaming?

It’s simple, really.

I adore TWD. But I know where Rick ‘n Company’s land ends and mine begins. Most of us do. Unfortunately, for many others of us, however, we get too attached to a fantasy world T.V show because the reality we’ve created for ourselves is so dreadful. Thus, when a character chick’s a li’l bit thicker than an apocalyptic survivor would really be, it freaks us out. It freaks us out because it’s a reminder that TWD world isn’t real, after all. It freaks us about because that then means that the crappy reality we refuse to fine tune and make better for ourselves, is. (Ironic, seeing as we’re talking about a show featuring ambulating cannibal cadavers. Sad, too, because: how depressing does your life have to be that watching the good guy get de-brained with a baseball bat’s so much better?)

And, as sitting on the couch, getting fat, while watching zombies is probably part of that bad reality – it’s a double freakout. Not only is this a reminder that this alternate reality distraction isn’t real, but seeing someone gain weight is a reminder of our own personal defects. Have you maybe gained some weight over Thanksgiving? Was Alanna’s extra flesh a painful reflection of that for you? And, did it piss you off even more because yours was just a gluttony gain, while hers was ’cause’ve an actual legit reason to get temporarily tubby? It’s always easier to chastise someone else into changing than to change ourselves, isn’t it? Protip, though: the latter’s far more rewarding, because you get the good results! Every second’s an opportunity to improve our reality if we don’t love it. Every single second. And why wouldn’t we want to do that? I mean, how depressing does our actuality have to be that we rely on a depressing (albeit entertaining) show to make ourselves feel better? Alanna’s not doing that. She’s living a fulfilling life. And her weight gain is a temporary side effect of that which she’ll shed eventually. (For all I know, she probably has by now – seeing as that was recorded ages ago.)

So, don’t worry about Ms. (Mrs.?) Masterson.

She’s probably gonna get back to looking like this before long:

(But will *you*?)

And it if that didn’t happen quickly enough for any of the viewers, first of all: ask yourselves why. And, second’ve all, her gradual return to a burning-hot body is likely because she understands that fitness isn’t about rapid, but lasting weight loss. So, she’s been doing all the right things to get herself there, while holding down a demanding job and playing mom. And, while we’re all waiting for that to happen, we can do one of two things. We can either sit back and enjoy the show… or go make our own lives show-worthy, by becoming the fittest stars of them. Want Alanna to lose alotta weight? Mkay. That’s fine. But maybe try losing yours while you wait for that to happen – and improving your life. You’re welcome to try Lauren’s method of meditating the weight away. You can also couple that with the DASH diet. There’s a plethora of options. But, please, just don’t let a fantasy show of walking dead folk run your life.

’cause, once love yours, you won’t have to hate on anyone anymore.