I think it’s good to see progress being made but it would be nice if fatness and class status weren’t used as symbols for advancement in life. In shows like Ugly Betty, Girls, Mad Men, and others, lead women characters are fat and dress badly when they are in pain or lost in life, but become thinner, buy nicer clothes, and gain higher class status when their self-esteem increases. This teaches us that the American Dream includes thinness and sexy clothes and that it is accessible to any woman who works hard for it and suffers enough to deserve it.
I prefer shows like Fleabag or Succession, which teach that women of any class and beauty status can suffer and be lost in life. I think it’s equally important to show their counterpart, which does not really exist—women of color, fat women, queer women, and disabled women who do have their lives together, whose marginalization is not a symbol for their lack of objective value.