Brief 2: Post II

Throughout visual media, “fat” actors and characters are consistently known as the funny man, the sidekick. Never able to step out of their funny boxes. They’re here for Hollywood’s entertainment, for no more than a cheap laugh. There are some that work within their square because they have the courage to step out while also still being comedic, but others trip in the attempt or in the blatant disregard. Here are ten films and tv shows I’ve watched that stuck out to me for these very reasons.

10. Red Shoes & the Seven Dwarves 2018

It may be unfair to judge a film that hasn’t even released yet, and maybe this will surprise me and turn out to be an extremely body positive film for kids. But if this advertisement is anything to go off on, they’ve probably got the wrong people working on it.

I don’t think I even need to explain why this poster would leave such a bitter taste in my mouth. It takes some real ignorance and hate to produce something like this, something that promotes such a blatantly toxic message to impressionable children, especially to young girls.

9. Bachelorette 2012

This jist of this movie is that three friends are jealous that their friend is getting married and they can’t believe it because she’s fat and therefore should be utterly undesirable. It starts off as insulting as you’d expect, with Kirsten Dunst’s character, Regan, constantly interrupting her friend Becky, played by Rebel Wilson, who just wants to tell her she’s getting married. Lizzy Caplan's character outed Becky as being bulimic in high school, while simultaneously making a big joke out of it. They make fun of how two people can fit in her wedding dress, and then rip it. These three women are the most disgusting characters I've ever had the displeasure of watching.

8. Shallow Hal 2001

I’ve never wanted a drink more than from watching this film. While it’s cute seeing Gwyneth Paltrow’s character become so confident because this film is about a plus size woman becoming confident in her own skin in disguise but then you receive the unrelenting, disgusting fat humour. It goes terribly hard in portraying obesity as something abominable with all its visuals, the breaking furniture, the tipped canoe and that’s not even taking into account everyone’s reaction to Rosemary herself. Mauricio is the most vocal about how unattractive Rosemary is, he even likens her to a “rhino” at one stage. If this story had been from Rosemary’s perspective just learning to be happy with herself as Hal vies for her affections, this could’ve such been an adorable and body positive film, but instead, it’s one big, fat insult.

7. Love Actually 2003

So much for the “feel good movie” of 2003, the fatphobia creeps in pretty inconspicuously; we learn about Natalie’s ex and how he told her, “No one’s going to fancy a girl with thighs the size of big tree trunks.” Now that’s an asshole move and they make sure you, the audience, knows it; then they start to play it for a laugh. When character David calls in his assistant Annie, he asks her about Natalie and she replies, “The chubby one, sir?”

Maybe I should say right here, Martine McCutcheon is not fat. Not then, and certainly not now. It’s frankly insulting because Annie knows who she is, she was the one who introduced Natalie to David when they first met so the fact that she had to double check who he was talking about was for nothing more than a damn cheap laugh.

6. Pitch Perfect 2012

As funny as this film can be, and as funny Rebel Wilson herself can be I have mixed emotions about Rebel Wilson’s character, Fat Amy. On one hand, she owns her body.

“Fat Amy.”

“You call yourself Fat Amy?”

“Yep. So you twig bitches don’t do it behind my back.”

She’s an incredible singer and an incredibly funny, candid girl but on the other hand, that’s all she is. We never delve into her character, apart from learning her real name is Patricia, this could be said for the other minor characters as well; they all have a single label, a part to play, and Amy’s is being “fat.”

5. Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life 2016

I think people have just about beaten this dead horse enough but hand me a stick. It was such little scene, it didn’t need to be in the show at all and yet, it made somehow it through. Lorelai and Rory, the two mains, are sunbathing next to a public pool when “Back Fat Pat” arrives and greets the girls. “Belly Alert!” says Lorelai, “Holy moly,” says Rory, Pat walks up to the screen and you never see his face. He walks into the middle of the shot so you can see him, his thighs, his speedo, and his back, he’s not a man here, he’s a joke. “It’s so stressful here,” Rory says in distress of seeing a half-naked man by the poolside, what a kooky world we live in.

4. Gilmore Girls 2000-2007

However, I can’t just diss the new release and ignore the magnificence that was Sookie St. James. While Sookie does fit into another funny, fat character, she’s more than that. She cooks, she’s quirky, she has her own story that’s apart from being fat and from being Lorelai's best friend. She falls in love with her produce supplier and never questions her looks, she doesn’t ever intend to change for him. She gets married, she had kids, she advances in her career; she doesn't just stay in one spot for the entire series, she grows, like you'd expect a character too.

3. Moana 2017

I think to myself now, “I wonder what it would’ve been like if Disney had made themselves a Princess with a body like mine? I wonder if child me would’ve been ecstatic?” I guess I’ll have to wait a little longer for a Princess with a body like mine but Moana is a good step in the right direction.

Moana has muscles, thick legs, and arm fat that actually moves; something that is so difficult for me to believe, someone in Disney put painstaking effort into animating moving fat, I’m frankly shellshocked still. It’s not the revolutionary Princess a lot of us are hoping for but it could be a good sign for the future.

2. Hairspray 2007

Tracey is everything most plus-sized characters aren’t; she’s the hero, she gets the boy, she receives her happy ending through her perseverance. Usually, when you have a plus-sized protagonist instead of as a side character, their story is about their weight, about their makeover into happiness, but not for Tracey. She was already happy, if the story had never taken place she would’ve lived a perfectly happy life; this story is about achieving her dream of dancing on TV. She falls in love with a boy along the way and he doesn’t rebuff her for being fat, he actually returns her feelings. This is practically unheard of for plus-sized characters and that’s why it gets the number two spot.

1.  Kung Fu Panda 2008

Although an animated film, this is, by far, the most body-positive film I have ever seen in my life. Starring Jack Black as Po, a panda, who idolises five Kung Fu warriors and is chosen by their masters master to be the Dragon Warrior. While it’s a typical fish out of water, underdog story, they bring his self-worth and his weight into question and not in a demeaning way or just in singular scenes, it’s apart of the film as a whole. It's apart of Po as a character. And in the end, his weight is used to his advantage, it wasn’t about him getting fit to become someone better or becoming skinny to please others, it was about him realising his own damn self-worth; not dependant on anyone but himself.