What I think

The general consensus about "Fat Chance" seems to be something like "Well, it's nice to see real women on TV in an ultra glam situation but... it's still a beauty pageant."

This is exactly how I feel. I'm not sure if I, personally, could get up on stage like that so I do admire the contestants' bravery. However, I'm not sure if it's ever okay to get up on stage and be judged like that. Yes, it's true that they're "all winners" but they were still being judged formally and by everyone watching.

Maybe it did change the way that some people feel about fat women. But, in all honesty, do you think that people who hate fat women were watching? Anyone who is truly disgusted by fat people would flip to the station, say "oh my god ew!" and keep right on flipping.

But maybe that's not the point. Maybe the goal was to make the people who were watching feel a little better about themselves as "real people."

I guess every little bit helps so I'm not going to say "This was sexist and wrong and degrading!" because it really wasn't. It wasn't even a little embarrassing, which is what I was expecting.

So, "Fat Chance" gets an A for effort and execution. Society gets an "F" because we need stuff like fat girl beauty pageants to justify our existence.