Fat people in movies

[Gone4Now 4]

Do you laugh when the movies make fun of fat people?

I was watching Dodgeball over the weekend, and I LOVE that movie. But, every time I see the fat cheerleader who falls on the skinny guy I close my eyes out of embarassment for her. The movie adds in blubbery sound effects, and I just cringe. I HATE it when movies do that kind of stuff, and I was wondering if I'm alone, or too sensitive?

[MacMadame 81]

I was watching Good Luck Chuck and it really annoyed me how Chuck took the fat woman on a date and she ate something like 3 lobsters and was just pigging out, food spewing every where. That is just not realistic. Most of the time, when I go out to eat, I don't eat more than everyone else. I eat about as much as the woman and less than guys. Of course, two hours later I'm hungry and eat something else while they aren't hungry for hours, but they don't see that part.

[Ariel 1]

I hate fat humor and I hate when skinny people laugh at it. It really makes me re-evaluate them on a personal level.

[ReadySteadyGo 8]

Do you remember the movie with jack black? The one where he saw the big girl as gwenneth paltrow. She said everyday she wore the fat suit she wanted to cry because of the way people looked at her.

Anyway, in that movie every chair she sat in she broke and she would just get right back up, get a bigger chair and keep eating. Like THAT would ever happen. That movie actually sickened me.

Fat prejudice and jokes are one of the last form of accepted prejudice. Hopefully one day it will be elimanated too.

[Daisalana 33]

We had a thread about this like a year ago.

My biggest issue was like ReadySteadyGo.. the ShallowHal movie, when the end, they're 'running off' and getting married or whatever the reason.. he can't carry her, so she picks him up without batting an eye. It really bugged me that fat chicks= can pick up men.

[Gone4Now 4]

I wasn't here a year ago...I was still licking my fingers, snarling at people over my food and breaking all the chairs in the restaurant. :rolleyes2:

I hate Shallow Hal. It was just stupid beyond stupid.

And, I also hate it when they put thin actresses in a fat suit. Why not get a fat actress?

Bah! Hate it all!!!

[Wheetsin 714]

Some of it bothers me, some does not. The Playtex commercial where the fat lady pulls a Gummy bear out of her bra and eats it - that bothers me as much as anything I've seen in a movie.

Sometimes I think it's funny. Sometimes I think it's tasteless. It just kind of depends on different factors. Whatever the Luke Wilson movie was where he started a fraternity - the fat kid with the brick tied to his penis, that was funny. It would have been funny if the kid was skinny. Shallow Hal - didn't find that funny, maybe because I've yet to like a Jack Black movie. The Replacements, the fat cheerleader tryout girl - thought she was funny, but it's the humor that comes from something being the antithesis of what we expect more so than her being fat. Old, uncoordinated, etc. all could have equal entertainment value for me.

Honestly, take the most offensive fat moment thing, and what bothers me more is like -- Mo'Nique's movie where her and her fat friends meet the hot guys in Jamaica or whatever. It's one of those "learn to love yourself" movies. And I don't know if it's more offensive to me to watch a fat person be made fun of, or to watch someone advocating it as an OK way of life, because I don't think anyone should advocate for obese lifestyle.

[Gone4Now 4]

I am glad I've never seen that bra commercial.

I don't know about the "love yourself" thing. I think on one hand it's not good to promote it. But, on the other hand, I know I went through a very low period in my life and the fatter I thought I was, the fatter I got. It was a downward spiral. I think if I'd believed I was pretty, even though I was large, I think I could have gotten to where I am now much faster.

[MerryHearted 20]

Most of the time I cringe.

I did like Hairspray. :tongue_smilie:

[luluc 6]

Mo'Nique's movie where her and her fat friends meet the hot guys in Jamaica or whatever. It's one of those "learn to love yourself" movies. And I don't know if it's more offensive to me to watch a fat person be made fun of, or to watch someone advocating it as an OK way of life, because I don't think anyone should advocate for obese lifestyle.

Phatt Girlz -

Real Woman Have Curves - one of my favorite movies on the subject. I think to embrace a realistic body VS "fat humor" is more my taste.

I always felt the "cringe" while watching Chris Farley / John candy in their SNL / Second City skits...They always pushed the physcial comedy at their expense. Just left me sad.

[brandyII 9]

luluc, like your golden, is it yours? I have to ask because my avatar dog is just a cute pic.

Anyway, here I go again, but I loved that movie Real Women Have Curves. It made me feel good about myself. I know we're all trying to lose weight and be thin/heathy, added that later. I am fat and would like to be thin, no one wants to be fat, well maybe some people do but still, I am fat, I've been thin, and fat and thin and now I'm fat. Who knows what tomorrow will bring but as a fat person and as someone who had a thin mother and was the only fat child out of five kids it's comforting to see people in those rolls to me, no pun intended.

I loved Phatt Girlz too, I found it to be real and it's nice to know there is a culture out there that can appreciate our bodies as they are. It did have some good messages in it.

There is also an actress from a British sitcom and other shows/movies named Dawn French. She had a show where she played a female vicar called "The Vicar Of Dibley". Very funny show and it's on PBS here. She is a full figured woman and her size really never played a part of the show, and she played a sexy character on the show. This character was based on a real female vicar.

She also did some special once that I saw on A&E or something similar where she discussed fat women and their bodies over the years and in the end she posed nude. She discussed the famous artists who only painted large size women, can't remember the time period etc... and my daughter can't hear me to ask but I think you all know what I'm talking about.

Anyway I know one of the hardest things is to love our bodies but when we have large size people, women in general because I think we can agree large women have it tougher in our world than large size men as serious roll models it can only be a good thing. Can we only love ourselves when we are thin, it's a hard thing to deal with.

It also bothers me that I look at a plus size woman catalog and all the models are swimming in the clothes because they're probably a size 10 at the most! I think Juno is one of the only catalogs I've seen that actually has plus size woman wearing their clothes, bravo to them!

Anyway I'm sure this is a topic that is fairly combustable (sp) but it's truly how I feel and am curious if anyone else feels this way too, thanks brandyII. Don't hate because I'm fatttt!

[OH Juli 15]

I think there's a line we tread as women, as American woman (pardon me other women, but speaking from my own experience here to my yankee sisters) who are or have been of size, between fat acceptance and a desire to not be fat.

Certainly there's a place for advocacy for fat people. We/they are not any less human because of our/their size. Treating someone as less than because they are different isn't okay on any level. But it's still considered reasonable to treat fat folk badly.

We question fat folk advocating for themselves and we question them laughing at their own pain. It's institutionalized to the point that a self loathing fat person thinks they deserve to hate themself and they deserve the scorn of others.

I don't have the answer...but talking about bad media, pizza Hut had a commercial where the baby sitter was ordering pizzas on the phone and the chubby boy walked in and she said, "Better add to the order."

Because he obviously was going to eat vastly more than what she had ordered.

I called the company and complained. Didn't get very far, but I feel better for it.

[brandyII 9]

Oh Juli, I think that deserves an addition to your rep power!!!!!!

[brandyII 9]

I have one more thing to say about large size people in movies and TV. Don't you hate the fact that there can be an ugly guy of size or not of size in TV or a movie and he always has the "hot thin chick". You never see the reverse, that's why movies like Phatt Girlz give us power and are important. Even if it was a somewhat goofy kind of movie it still had something in it that spoke to me on that level.

[MacMadame 81]

Aw, I liked Shallow Hal. I agree that there were Hollywood Fat (i.e., not true to life) moments but I thought it was sweet underneath.

Hairspray is probably the best "fat acceptance" movie out there and it really isn't even about that. (Which is probably why it succeeds.)