Saturday night, in the Collapse, Ricard Ustrell had Rumeysa Gelgy, the tallest woman in the world, as a guest. She is two metres and fifteen centimetres tall due to Weaver syndrome, which causes the body to grow too large. Gelgy lives in Turkey, and the programme showed the complexities of her plane trip to Barcelona. The 28-year-old must travel lying down, under the conditions of a medicalised flight. The sequence served as bait to announce the interview that Ustrell would do with her in a few minutes.
The long and enthusiastic clap of the public to welcome Rumeysa Gelgy tried to make the show more romantic. They applauded as if what we were about to see was an emotional feat, as if they had to compensate her for her fortune. The guest was sitting in a wheelchair next to the presenter's table. The contrast in proportions with Ustrell caused a visual impact. A general plan was enough for the viewer to take charge without the programme having to underline it. It was trying to naturalise. But what we saw was what has always been done in these cases. Last year Ana Rosa invited the world's smallest woman, 62 centimetres tall. And now Ustrell has the tallest. It is the legacy of the old fairground shows, where tickets were sold to show the elephant man, the bearded woman or the Siamese twins attached at the chest. It is the morbid way of showing who is radically different.
Nowadays, to normalise it, it is enough to dress up the conversation with an apparent sensitivity and interest in her life. Ustrell asked her about her childhood with photographs of when she was little and images of her entering the operating room. In the promotion that TV3 has carried out during the week, they justified the interview by announcing that we would discover what the life of a person who does not conform to the hegemonic canons is like, as if it were a matter of public service.
The script was built on a supposed interest in the spirit of overcoming and how it has turned misfortune into a motivation. However, they did not spare us the topical question: Ustrell asked her if she had trouble finding clothes or shoes in her size. Very original. During the program, the woman made the ad praising the excellence of the airline that makes the process of traveling easier for her.
Television has taken over from the fairs thanks to the database of the Guinness Book of Records and the disguise of the epic of those who suffer from difference. Now it is financed by public television. It is only a matter of selling it with positivism and a spirit of information, sending a message to people who feel identified with his case. Ustrell asked him about the other world records he held, all linked to the overgrowth of his body. Gelgy listed them one after the other with pride: the biggest ears, the widest hand, the longest fingers... When he finished, the public applauded the list of winners with enthusiasm. "Wow! Not everyone has this!" Ricard Ustrell flattered him. A Guinness record-breaking cynicism to top off his work.
