Fox News' idea for a debate on whether Disney should create a plus-size princess centered around the notion that such a princess might encourage obesity.  

On February 6, Fox News' Fox & Friends discussed a Change.org petition for Disney to create a plus-size Disney princess. High school student Jewel Moore, who started the petition, envisions that such a princess would be a role model for “women who struggle with confidence and need a positivie [sic] plus-size character in the media.”

Fox took the story and used it to entertain the notion that a plus-size Disney princess might encourage obesity and diabetes.

Co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck asked, “Move over Cinderella. Disney under pressure to create a plus-size princess. Should they? We're going to debate that,” before inviting on Emme, a plus-size supermodel, and Meme Roth, a self-described obesity expert. Roth declared that such a Disney princess would “glorify obesity.” She speculated as to whether the teen petitioning Disney is obese and argued that “If you're going to do a storyline with obesity, then you need to do Princess Diabetes, Princess Cancer, Princess Fertility Problems.” To Roth, the petition was “like mob mentality.” When Hasselbeck asked, “Is plus-size fat?” Roth responded, “It's unhealthy. If you like cancer and diabetes, if you want fertility problems, then plus-size is beautiful.”   

Fox treated Roth's invective as credible. As she ranted against Emme, a proponent of the petition, an on-screen graphic wondered, “Who's right?”  

Presenting Roth as an expert on body-image issues and entertaining her vitriolic remarks is merely a continuation of Fox & Friends' complicity with body-shaming.

The program has previously given a fitness model and mother who shamed other mothers about their bodies a platform to unapologetically defend her position.

 It is unclear why Fox presented Roth as qualified to speak on the plus-size Disney princess issue -- she does not appear to have degrees in the nutrition or medical field, but instead is known for body-shaming through her National Action Against Obesity website and personal blog which carries the tag-line "MeMe Roth: Reporting From FATOPOLIS." She has compared obese people to sex criminals and advocated for nutrition plans that sound a lot like anorexia.  

It is important to note that obesity is not the equivalent of plus-size. PLUS Model magazine reports that plus-size models are on average between the sizes of 6-14.