Thursday, January 17, 2008

Queen Sized

I had wanted to write about this movie for almost a week now but have been busy with work and with posting for the various challenges I am participating in. But today is the day!

Normally I dont get sucked into those Lifetime movies, but I saw that this one was about weight and because that obviously is something that is a major factor in my life, I taped it and watched it a few nights later.

Basically, the premise of the movie was about a high schooler (the girl from Hairspray) who is very overweight, lives with her single mother who makes her watch her brother while she goes out and has fun as well as is hard on her about her weight, and is teased at school. The kids at the school decide to play a prank on her and nominate her for homecoming queen. To all the "popular" kids surprise, she actually gets the majority vote and the rest of the movie is about this girls inner struggle in accepting who she is and how her weight is not an excuse to hold her back, as well as paralleling a popular girls struggle to find any identity other than being "pretty".

I had several issues with the movie. First though, I think it did portray emotional eating as it really is. This girl would eat whenever she was upset, lonely, or even to spite her mother. I also thought it showed the relationship between a mother and daughter very well. I could see a lot of similarities between my mother and myself in this movie. Especially how I would have to sneak food at night so my mom wouldnt know what I was eating. Also how I would eat to spite her sometimes as if saying, yeah Im fat, so what?

However I thought this movie portrayed fat people in a horrible way. Perhaps not the movie itself, but the leading character. She was grumpy to everyone, especially those that cared for her and tried to help her. She even pushed her best friend at one point in the movie! It also made it seem like all overweight people are frumpy and dont care about their appearance. This girl walked around wearing hideous baggy clothes and her hair pulled back in a ponytail.

I can understand why fat people get stereotyped as people who just eat and eat and thats why they are fat. Because they have no self control. Thats how they were portrayed in this movie anyways. The main character would run home crying and just start shoveling ice cream into her mouth. She would order a pizza instead of eating a healthy meal.

The worst part of the movie was in a scene where the lead character is being asked if the experience made her want to lose weight. She says no! She didnt feel she had to be accepted by society or the "popular" kids. She said her mom was worried about her dying of diabetes like her dad, but yet that didnt seem to phase her. What kind of message is this movie portraying? It seems to convey the message that you should hate yourself and just live with it. Perhaps find a way to cope, but thats who you are and you shouldnt try to change it. Well in my mind you dont have to lose weight to fit into society..you should lose weight to be healthy! So you dont feel miserable about yourself. So you can find ways of coping with the world around you without using food as the vehicle to do that!

Overall, this was an awful movie in more ways than one. If it inspired any overweight person, I would be shocked. All it made me feel is contempt for the main character and very very sad that this is how fat people are being portrayed.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

It is a shame that overweight people are portrayed in that fashion. It always kills me when I hear someone (that is thin and has never had a weight problem) say we are overweight because we don't have any self control. The majority, I would say that's probably not the case. Most of us don't eat any more than our thin counterparts. Some of us are just luckier than others to have fast metabolisms. It would be nice to see a movie that puts overweight men and women in a positive light, just because we happen to be bigger that doesn't make us worth less than our thinner counterparts.

Anonymous said...

I agree that there are better reasons for losing weight than to fit in with society. If I had been paying attention at that point in the movie, I think I would have hated it too. Unfortunately, about half an hour in I started cleaning (yeah, that's how little it actually held my attention.)

Diana Swallow said...

I didn't watch the movie but I saw previews and would have watched it had I realized when it was on. I think the media likes the ugly duck turning into a swan story and of course they can't portray an overweight woman as well dressed and confident, that wouldn't fit with the stereotype at all.

Susie said...

Yea--isn't it a bummer--the chubby girl is always the best friend--the funny one--the offbeat one..It was nice when ,in Hairspray, the chubby gal got the guy! Well..that's just society for us...and the superskinny models are the ones who are admired...Hope you had a good day!

Hanlie said...

Hollywood just doesn't get "fat" right, although there was one movie starring Camryn Mannheim, Kiss My Act, that actually rang quite true.

I'll give this one a miss!

Unknown said...

I know this post is old, but I just had to let you know I agree with you 100%! When I saw the ad I DVRed it and was pretty excited about watching it.

But I too was shocked and horrified when I watched it. It was kinda sad cause I guess that's how people really do view fat people. I forced myself to finish it hoping their would be some redeeming quality, but couldn't find it!

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at PhotobucketPhoto Sharing and Video Hosting at PhotobucketPhoto Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket