I recently suffered through a few minutes of a summer replacement reality show, “More To Love” (on Fox! surprise). In this show, a bevy of non-petites willingly insert themselves into an implied fat joke, all for your viewing pleasure.

Sure, the women here are presented in a positive light, none more neurotic or desperate than those on “The Bachelor”. But it’s clear by the show’s title, More To Love, that the women are not supposed to be taken seriously (and neither is the guy they’re vying for). The audience is expected to get the joke and view these women as amusingly plump and lookin’ for love.

Is this how women wished to be perceived? Of course not but… what the hell?   “We are on this show because we are bigger than average. This is a show about love, hope and dreams. And we are… well, we’re fat. That’s why we’re here, to demonstrate what it would be like if a fat woman and a fat dude made a love connection. So laugh at us as we desperately try to get noticed by the guy with the fake smile who will sweep us off into a life of bliss, devoid of fat jokes.”

What does this say about the progress women have made? Or maybe I should ask, what does this say about the regression women are experiencing. I certainly don’t want to make too much out of a summer reality show, especially one as forgettable as this. It just struck me as odd, that’s all, that women are usually defined first by their looks, followed (in the distance) by their intellect, experience, etc. I realize that this isn’t news. But with the considerable recent progress being made regarding the image of women, I find it strange that a show like this made it on network television.

Well, Fox anyway.