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SUPER WEIGHT
by Dr. Deah on Jun.25, 2011, under Tasty Morsels: by Dr. Deah Schwartz
Sometimes I wish I was not so aware. Some of my friends are getting a bit tired of my hyper awareness; because it makes them hyper aware; which sometimes can be a bit of a “buzz kill.” But I yam who I yam
and until I find a mellower middle ground, I am doomed to notice things that may not be as big of a deal as I think they are.
Or are they?
Case in point: I don’t go to the movies very often but my son is home from college for the summer and we went to see the movie, Super 8. In an otherwise adorable perfect summer film filled with fluffy fodder, this moment stuck out like a sore thumb.
SPOILER ALERT (NOT A BIG GIVE AWAY BUT IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE MOVIE STOP READING).
In the film, there is a bit of a Junior High School crush triangle going on involving two boys enamored with the same girl. The girl (Alice, played by Elle Fanning) is, not surprisingly, long legged, blonde, rail thin, and drop dead gorgeous. She is also smart and a wonderful young actor!
One of the boys is fat (Charles, played by Riley Griffiths) and the other boy (Joe, played by Joel Courtney) is not.
Zoom in on the fat boy confessing to the thin boy that he has a huge crush on the girl and how jealous he is that the girl likes the thinner boy. As Charles confides in Joe, he explains that the reason Alice must like Joe more is because Joe is not fat. Along with the blame Charles assigns to his body is the indication that his fatness is temporary. He says something like, “My doctor said I haven’t leaned out yet…but I will in a couple of years.”
PREACHING TO THE CHOIR ALERT
The entire scene must have taken about two minutes max; yet lingered in my mind for the duration of the film, and obviously long after or I wouldn’t be writing about it. I don’t want to belabor the point especially because most of the people reading this post already have some compassion about why this may have bothered me so much.
So I will be brief.
What irked me the most was the matter of fact way the assumption was presented. The assumption being that Alice liked Joe more because Charles was fat. There was no chance that it may have been about Alice having a preference for one personality over another.
And the mention of the soon to come leaning out by the doctor added insult to injury by reinforcing that a fat phase is just some horrible rite of passage to get through before you could live the good life of the thin person and get the girl.
This movie was, in many ways, a delightful spoof of old movies; a combination of The Goonies, Stand by Me, Close Encounters, E.T. and Aliens. And I know it was supposed to be taking place circa mid-1980. Still, it had an opportunity NOT to reiterate the assumption that ONLY thin kids are crush worthy.
With all of the focus these days on obese babies, obese children, obese teens, and obese adults, this scene hit home rather hard. Fat is presented as something that must be overcome if true happiness is to be achieved. Once again, stereotypes in contemporary movies are being reinforced instead of challenged and broken. Damn my hyper-awareness, but I feel that film makers have the rare opportunity to model and perhaps redefine what people are attracted to in another person. It is disappointing that they continue to make the same superficial predictable choices over and over again. 
How about if we do another take?
June 26th, 2011 on 10:19 am
I feel you made an excellent point in regards to the stereotypes in movies that are being reinforced and are not beneficial for true American society. It makes me very upset that media such as movies, advertising, etc. has been destroying people’s ideas and portrayal of how people really are. Especially the modeling and defining of what makes people truly attracted to one another. I know this is American film but this is a movie millions will see and I don’t feel comfortable with that. I feel I shouldn’t care either… but we need to say something or it’s never going to change.
June 26th, 2011 on 12:13 pm
Thanks Kacey, I appreciate your comments!
June 28th, 2011 on 10:20 am
Dr. D.-
I have also been aware of fat casting in TV and movies…in the 80′s everyone loved “Cosby”, but I was appalled in the few times I saw an episode that there was a little fat kid who it seemed always was the brunt of jokes, was always made aware of his size, and was generally made to be the object of derision. As a fat kid who has struggled with weight issues all his life, I am a bit sensitive to this kind of discrimination. I was very aware at the brink of adolescence that I would have to shop in the “husky” sizes, as a salesman told my father during one back-to-school shopping trip that “your kids ass is way too big!” In second grade, Danny Cuomo got the whole class laughing at me with the comment that I looked “pregnant”, and I laughed along so as to try to belong. I wasn’t humiliated until later that day when I got home and looked up the definition of “pregnant”. From that point on, when I looked in a mirror, I didn’t see me…I saw a fat kid who wasn’t worthy of love or acceptance. No one was there to tell me I was OK, that I was loveable, that I was even a human…and I have carried the shame and hurt with me for all these years.
As long as society continues to draw lines as to who is acceptable and who is not based on their physical size, damage to young (and older) psyches will infiltrate and take hold. Body size is still the only acceptable form of discrimination in our society, and I don’t believe society will change it any time soon. After all, without fat people, who will others feel comfortable demonizing? So, go Dr. D! For all of us walking wounded, help us fight this battle.
June 28th, 2011 on 5:06 pm
Thank you so much for your touching and eloquent comment!
January 26th, 2012 on 8:08 am
I prefer chubby over thin. Absolutely. I’m watching that movie now, and I wondered about what “lean out” meant. I thought he maybe meant that his wiener was incapable of standing. In fact, I don’t like thin at all.
January 26th, 2012 on 9:43 am
Well, that could be one interpretation, I hadn’t thought of. I just assumed that he meant with the typical puberty growth spurt (that isn’t typical for all kids b.t.w.) he would get taller and his body would lean out. As far as personal preferences go, I think that is so much of what I write about. We all are entitled to our opinions of what we find attractive and what we do not. The place where I get most surly is when anyone is telling another person that they are wrong to be fat, thin, or anywhere in between. In our culture, unfortunately, fat folks get the most flack for their body type, but there are many very thin kids and adults as well, who are teased and feel unloved or “not right” because of their shape. Not fair to use such a “one dimensional” measurement (in quotes because bodies are of course 3 dimensional) to define an entire person’s worth. Thanks for writing!