Chicks in Control - Ruby- tv show about a "chick in control"

Has anyone seen the tv show (American tv) on Style Network (cable channel) about a lady named Ruby Gettinger? It's called "Ruby".

It's about her weight loss journey. Ruby was originally about 700+ pounds. At the beginning of the debut episode (two seasons have been completed/filmed) she weighed 477 (which made me wonder about her first part of the journey because that right there is a big difference but they didn't say much about it). So she went on a diet, got this reality show thingie, and has meals delivered. Don't know if they're Zone but they're something like it. She has trainers and a psychologist and her own physician. Occasionally the show kind of contrives something so they can have an interesting epiisode, IMO- common w/ reality shows. But Ruby does lose weight. By the end of Season 1 she was down to about 354. Something like that. Then during Season 2 she hit a plateau and they ended it with a sort of cliffhanger.

A nice thing about the show is that you can see Ruby getting more confident as she loses weight, getting to do things that she couldn't do before because of her size. Very sweet lady.

Anyway, I think the show is fun escapism and could even serve as a nice bit of encouragement for dieters. Wondered if anyone else here had seen it and what you thought.

Yeah, I do watch it, it's great! I was sad when my DVR stopped recording it, I figured that the season was ove.r Do you know when the next one starts again!?

Also, I wish they would show her struggling with her eating more--they very rarey show her in moments of weakness. I think it would be helpful and encouraging to see it, know that I'm not alone (kinda like this board does!)

I get irritated with her accent which is only exacerbated by how whiny she is. I also dislike the way her friends fawn over her all the time. Nobody in real life has THAT much support! Physicians, psychologists, TWO trainers, meal delivery service AND friends who do everything for you? I can't find inspiration in that since it's just me vs. scale in my real life.

What I especially dislike is her constant weakness towards food, and how she gets upset when other people eat things she can't eat. She says things like "I KNOW you're not eating that pizza in front of me!"

I wish her well and I admire her for journeying into weight loss but there is no reality about the support system she has that I can identify with.

i love ruby

In once sense I don't mind Ruby's complaining. It reminds me of the song Life's been good to me, where the singer lists all the great things about his life - the mansion, the cars, the fans, the gold records, the parties but sings

"I can't complain but sometimes I still do"

No matter how much a person has it can be easy to complain, and most people don't realise how much THEY complain, but sure notice when other people do. My mom is on one extreme of that equation - everything is horrible, but when anyone else gets whiney she'll point it out in an instant. I never realized how much rubbed off on me. Hubby says most days, even when I'm feeling lousy I usually don't complain all that much (he may be being sweet), but every once in a while he says that I sound just like my mother (that usually starts a nasty argument if it's TOM, but usually snaps me out of it otherwise).

But anyway, it's not the complaining and whining themselves, it's the tone of the whining. The "baby talk" and high pitched tone she uses when she's whining, or annoyed, or asking for a favor, it's like chalk on a chalkboard to me.

From what I've been told, it's really common for women to talk like this in the south, it's just part of the dialect and the way women are taught to speak/act (never act strong, independant, or most of all angry), to do so would be "rude." (I'd prefer rude myself, I think).

It just really rubs me the wrong way when an adult woman speaks in a child's voice, even baby talk to a pet or baby drives me insane if it goes on for more than about 4 or 5 seconds.

As a result, I like Ruby and want to like her show. I can watch only about 10 minutes and then the tone of her voice gets on my nerves to the point I turn it off. I watch it every time I catch it on, even the reruns, because while I can't watch an episode in one sitting, I can catch a different segment.

As a result, I do get mixed up about the order in which things have happened on the show.

I think on the outside it can look like she's ungrateful for all the help she receives, and I think we all would like to believe that if we had all those advantages we'd be so much more grateful than she appears to be, but for most of us, I kind of doubt it. I think we'd be really grateful, excited and committed at first, and then when it was just normal, it would feel just as tough as it had been before the advantages (she has to have some pretty amazing commitment to have lost about 200 lbs before the show even started).

I also suspect that the producers encourage her to complain. What kind of reality show would it be if she was happy and grateful all the time, and never made any mistakes and poor choices? Not really much drama in that.

I agree with everything that's been said- even the disagreements. The show certainly isn't perfect, it's a reality show and by its very nature is contrived.

And Ruby does have that kind of uplilt in her accent that can sound whiney.
And I do know that most people don't get that kind of support staff. Good point.

I can empathize with her about the complaining!

Yes, Season 2 just ended. Of course they ended it on a cliffhanger. Or at least one that was set up like that...

My bottom line is take it with a grain of salt but still fun to watch and I am certainly rooting for Ruby.

From what I've been told, it's really common for women to talk like this in the south, it's just part of the dialect and the way women are taught to speak/act (never act strong, independant, or most of all angry), to do so would be "rude." (I'd prefer rude myself, I think).




Just a side note about your comment about women in the south, it just isn't true. I was born and raised in Alabama, I know lots of women from Ga, Fl, Ms, Tn and I can assure we are taught to be strong, independent and NOT whiny. Maybe the opposite was true back in the days of Southern Bells, but not today.

True. But I did notice that some Southerners kind of lilt and go up at the end of the sentence which is not dissimilar to the lilt one can hear in a "whine".

Ruby kinda sounds like this: "It's so freakin' gorGEOUS..." with the "gorgeous" really drawn out.

Sometimes I think when people talk in a syrupy voice, it's to keep others from talking harshly to them. It kinda works.

Just a side note about your comment about women in the south, it just isn't true. I was born and raised in Alabama, I know lots of women from Ga, Fl, Ms, Tn and I can assure we are taught to be strong, independent and NOT whiny. Maybe the opposite was true back in the days of Southern Bells, but not today.


Agreed. I was southern born and raised and I am not whiny, dependent or weak...well, of course I do have my moments but my point is I was not raised to be that way and I don't live my life that way.

I watched a couple of times and the only thing that really irritated me was her nicknames for body parts. Especially about going to the gyno.

I watched a couple of times and the only thing that really irritated me was her nicknames for body parts. Especially about going to the gyno.

LOL -- she went to the Christmas doctor... because who doesn't love Christmas? ;)


I dunno. I love Ruby. She *is* pretty over-the-top and her accent *does* get annoying, but how can you not like her? She's so likeable.

From what I've been told, it's really common for women to talk like this in the south, it's just part of the dialect and the way women are taught to speak/act (never act strong, independant, or most of all angry), to do so would be "rude." (I'd prefer rude myself, I think).


I'll be the 3rd to object to this statement. True, I've been called a yankee-southerner on more than one occasion (fyi- that's someone who is raised in the South but doesn't fit stereotypical southern ideals, and is often raised by one or more northerner). But I do know plenty of true blue southern girls and believe me, they're quite strong and independant. As far as using the whiney tone when complaining, I only do that when I'm joking or exaggerting. I don't know anyone who seriously uses that tone. Sometimes I feel that Southern stereotypes are severely antiquated. This isn't Gone With the Wind people.

I think I made a real mess of my inital comment. I didn't mean that I thought that ANY southern women fit the "southern belle" stereotype of BEING ultra and archaeically feiminine, just that I've been told that it (the appearance, not the reality) wasn't rare. I didn't even mean that within the stereotype, that women weren't raised to BE strong and independent, they just in many cases and eras taught not to APPEAR to be strong and independent. I think women have always been (and even to this day in many places) are taught to be much stronger and more independent than they are encouraged to appear. You still find articles in women's magazines giving advice on how to be strong and independent without being *****y (the implication, and sometimes not just implication byt directly stated that wome must to a degree, conceal just how strong and independent they REALLY are in order to get ahead and be taken seriously).

I've read a couple books by southern women authors and commedians (can't remember the titles or names, darn it) and that write or talk about (and communicate better than I tried to) the southern woman stereotype.

For example, one southern comedian has a schtick about southern women having a talent for always appearing sweet, even when making the most harsh of insults/gossip. That you knew that if a southern woman started a sentence with "Bless his/her heart" something really nasty was going to follow. Stereotype? OMG, yes but stereotypes to be funny have to have a grain of truth.

Even in much earlier eras, I think that women have always been much stronger than may at the time have been socially acceptable to portray in public. North or South, East or West, when etiquette books told women to be demure, polite, femine.... it was mostly an "act." When it came to running households and daily lives, they were at least as strong and independent as any women today.



Even Ruby, I don't think she IS weak. Her ever "syrupy sweet" tone of voice and high-pitched "baby talk" tones can seem whiny and weak, but I don't think it IS true.

A lot of the threads here and elsewhere about the show, often criticise her as someone who probably won't be able to keep the weight off if the cameras and all of the extra help isn't available. I don't believe that's true at all. I think she is strong and independent and has amazing courage to allow the world to see her "exposed" emotionally and physically. Her voice just doesn't seem (at least to my midwestern ears) to convey strength and decisiveness.

Sometimes I think when people talk in a syrupy voice, it's to keep others from talking harshly to them. It kinda works.

That's why it it is so irritating - it's manipulative.

That's why it it is so irritating - it's manipulative.

My MIL is like that, she will phrase judgemental comments as a back-handed compliment with a sweet smile, in a sweet voice, so the reaction tends to be jaw-dropping, as you try to figure out how to respond. The thing is she expects the jaw drop, but doesn't know how to respond if that's not the result.

I finally learned to treat them as "real" compliments, acting as if I am truly flattered by the insult in frenemy-compliment clothing. It knocks her off-guard because she doesn't know what to do next (because if her life depended on it, she couldn't come right out and say anything mean) so she has to decide whether to give up or try another round -and if she does, I just pretend to take it as another wonderful compliment (I don't remember her ever going for a third round).

The "Christmas" gyno thing was kind of coy. But she did poke fun at herself when she appeared on "The Dish" about that. That was kinda cool.

I just started watching this show last night on Netflix and I'm already half way through season 2. She does have a TON of support that is sort of unrealistic, but it's fun to watch and inspiring to me to see someone who actually worked through those changes and is making it happen.

I think Ruby is inspiring--I love how she is trying to find what works for her.

Her voice is a bit irritating but i can get over that---I don't like that she uses her own words for sooooo many things. To the point of spelling it how she pronounces it on her facebook--or whatever else I have read of hers. (example--Frans= friends) THAT grates on my nerves...lol

Reviving this thread because I've seen a few episodes of this show on Sunday afternoons while cooking for the week.

I count myself as one of those who found Ruby's manner of speaking & acting sometimes irritatingly coy & syrupy. Even as I felt that I liked her, and wished her well, she wore on me sometimes.

But I've spent more time with her. And now that she's facing her past, and acknowledging some unpretty moments during her youth, I feel differently about her.

Seems to me that the upbeat, high-pitched, amuse-at-all-costs manner that bothered me so much is a defense mechanism on her part. She's very social; she is one of those people who need people. She started acting the opposite of how she really felt, so as not to be a drag to be around. And somehow it solidified into her habitual way of presenting herself.

And also, the disingenuous manner reminds me less of a stereotypical Southern girl than of a girl child. She is doing a baby voice much of the time. She is presenting herself like a very little girl who knows how to "be cute" & flirt with adults. (I mean flirt for attention; I definitely don't mean it in a sexual sense.) She drops into childishness, and I think it's unconscious. But if she can't remember her childhood, that means it's never ended for her; she has never really come out of it. Yes, I'm thinking it's like arrested development.

But she is also creative, and has a great sense of fun. And that's a saving grace, for me anyway.

So I think I finally "get" Ruby, and now I feel more compassion toward her. If she grates a bit, I remind myself that there's an adult woman down inside there who often finds it really hard to present herself in a mature way.

I bet she develops more of an adult voice as the series goes on, if she doesn't give up or shrink back & regress further in fear at what she's having to confront.

This current season has been showing more of her mental issues imo. I wish they'd just come out and say she was abused instead of hinting about it and dragging it out so long. I do find her friendships interesting. Seems like her friends lives revolve around her.

The last time I saw the show a few weeks ago she had regained about 60 pounds , I haven't seen the show since then. I wonder what has happened since .

I do find her friendships interesting. Seems like her friends lives revolve around her.

Yeah, I guess a consequence of taking refuge in childishness is that you are always expecting someone to be your parent. Her friends are always having to parent her.

You also just reminded me of something more practical: I want to know if any of these people have jobs, or if they quit them or took a leave of absence to be part of Ruby's entourage on the TV network payroll. Because if it were me, sometimes I'd be like: "Ruby, sorry -- I've got to get to work."

Everyone's fat in their own way, everyone works on it & recovers from it differently -- only her way is higher-maintenance than a lot of us.

Put it this way: If Ruby wrote on the board here that she is finding it hard because she feels she doesn't "get enough support," some posts responding might sound a mite bit skeptical

Her voice is a bit irritating but i can get over that---I don't like that she uses her own words for sooooo many things. To the point of spelling it how she pronounces it on her facebook--or whatever else I have read of hers. (example--Frans= friends) THAT grates on my nerves...lol[/QUOTE]

I noticed she says "Hacky" instead of "Happy". The baby talk is really weird.