I wrote this up in my journal earlier today, but I decided that my ire was high enough to merit a public rant.
I went to see Planet Of The Apes over the weekend, and one of the previews was for a movie called Shallow Hal, starring Jack Black and Gwyneth Paltrow. The premise of the movie is that Hal (Jack Black) is a very shallow person, and all he cares about is scoping out good looking women. How someone looks is all that matters to him. Somehow (this is not made clear in the preview) he gets some sort of spell cast on him so that he can only see a person’s “inner beauty”, not their real physical self. Sounds innocuous enough, right?
Here’s the offensive part. The interpretation of this ability to see only “inner beauty” also extends to being able to see “inner ugliness”…and to illustrate this newfound skill, we’re treated to a scene of the camera panning across a group of beautiful women in a bar…except the camera cuts away, and when it cuts back, these “beautiful” women are now “ugly”. Exactly how are they ugly, you might ask? I’m glad you asked. Unilaterally and without exception, all of the “ugly” women are portrayed as fat. Because, as you know, there’s nothing uglier than a fat person.
<pause while steam shoots out of Jadis’ ears>
This theme is carried over and over and over throughout the preview…and every time they show a woman who the audience previously thought was attractive, but upon discovering that woman’s “inner self” to be fat, the audience groaned in dismay. I’ve never been so humiliated to be associated with this culture in my life.
The preview goes on to show how Hal falls in love with this woman (whose character name I don’t recall, but she’s being played by Ms. Paltrow), and all he can see is her beauty…but everyone else sees a 300 lb woman. Horrors!! The implication is that everyone in Jack’s life cannot comprehend how he could possibly love this hideous, deformed, OVERWEIGHT!! beast.
I was physically ill, not only from the concept of the movie itself, but from the reaction of the people around me. Every time they showed snippets of scenes where the physical aspect of Hal’s beloved was apparent, there were constant snickers, noises of disgust, outright laughter. I honestly think that I might have been the only one in the theatre that didn’t laugh.
I can sort of see the underlying intent (that we should be looking beyond the physical), but it was executed very poorly, especially the way the preview was constructed in order to get laughs. I assume the film in its entirety will be the same…shots back and forth between the “attractive” and the “unattractive (i.e. fat)” in such a way as to deliberately provoke a laugh when the “unattractive” is shown.
If any attempt had been made to show people’s ugly side in any way other than merely being overweight, I might not have had such a problem with it…a single person with unkempt/greasy hair, someone generally geeky looking (hornrimmed glasses with tape on the corner), someone whose expression conveyed downright meanness underneath the pretty exterior, anything else. They did none of that…every example they showed made “ugly” synonymous with “fat”. That troubled me, as well as the reaction of the audience.
I can’t recall the last time I saw something so unfunny. I know that this attitude is pervasive in our society, but I was sickened to see it up on the big screen to be mocked openly and repeatedly. The message was there, over and over…overweight people are worthless and deserve our scorn, or disdain. It made me very sad. 
