To Be Fat Like Me

I didn't expect to like this movie - it seemed like the topic was too easily made into a simplistic 'hurt-emotion' and 'stand-up for yourself' type movie. After all, it was on the Lifetime channel and that is an often-used theme. However, the movie was much better than that and this surprised me.

Basically, the story is about an attractive, popular high-school girl that undertakes a project to document what it's like to be fat. Of course, it's easy to predict the basics of the story, but there's more to the movie than just the basic plot element.

The real value of this movie is that it doesn't try to be too preachy and shame everybody about having a reaction to 'fatness'. Instead, it explores many different angles and leaves you thinking about the many complex issues involved.

The lead character is intelligent and grounded, so it's easy to become interested in her character and follow her as she is confronted with many different situations involving weight. These situations don't just involve her and various high-school cliques, but also her weight-recovering mother and chubby brother.

The movie even acknowledges issues that relate to her judgments being affected by the fact that she can step out of the 'fat-suit' life at the end of the day. Because it's able to visit many such angles, the movie keeps a brisk pace and something is happening all the time.

While the movie does have its flaws, it remains interesting. Sometimes there are no easy answers, but there's lots to think about. If you want to watch a movie that will leave you with a few interesting, self-reflecting ideas to ponder, this movie is a good choice.

This movie reminded me quite a lot about a book I own and read occasionally. The book was about a homecoming and pageant queen who was pretty, popular, and seemed to live the perfect life. That is until she got fat. In contrast, Kaley Cuoco portrays a pretty thin girl who documents life as a fat person by altering her appearance by wearing a fat suit, and not changing her true self. Life as an overweight individual opened up the true souls of her so called friends. They shunned her, harassed her, and treated her like low life scum. No one paid any attention to her personality, and the fat people at her school thought she was a walking joke. Yet, I really think that the film really makes us realize that who shouldn't judge one by looks, but the sad fact about that is true. We seem to make rude comments about to those who are physically different just because people have low self esteem and zero confidence that they take it on those who appear weaker then they. I'm more on the slender side with blond hair and bluish green eyes. However, I'm physically different that I will not post, but I had my share of experiences with the cruel comments, jokes, and harassment. However, I paid no attention to that because I lived my own life, and true people accepted for who I was, and not my appearance. We cannot help what we look like, unless you want to live a healthy lifestyle, you can make a few changes with diet and exercise. Physical deformities we can't really change, unless you go under dangerous surgeries. I think that 99% of women have image issues and they're unhappy with themselves because they think they can't do better. They fall into depression which can lead to dangerous eating disorders and cosmetic surgeries simply because of what society portrays. I believe that everyone has a "best" about them, whether it's talent, looks, or personality, and the key is to be yourself, and not what others want you to be. You'll be a total lie to yourself.

In the film To Be Fat like Me, directed by Douglas Barr, high school student Alyson Schimdt (Kaley Cuoco) is injured while competing for a college scholarship in a girls' softball game. She is injured so badly she cannot play for the rest of the season. Instead, she enters into a film contest with her classmate Jamie. In this exposé she tries to find out what it is like to be "fat." She goes to summer school at a different school, wears a fat suit, and does not change her personality or behavior. She also goes into certain social settings like a party, the coffee shop, and a ladies clothing store. Each social outing shows a different side of what it is like to be "fat." After almost all is said and done, she must create an ending for the exposé so she may finally reveal it to everyone and enter it into the competition.

There are many messages in the film. Have you ever heard "don't judge a book by its cover"? Well that message is the main theme in this film. It says just because people look different from you that does not give you the right to judge them by what is on the outside. Another message in this film is stereotypes. Alyson (Kaley Cuoco) is a pretty, skinny, and athletic girl; but she is also a very good person. This movie shows that stereotypes are not always right in many cases. This movie also shows that stereotypes can be right. Some of the popular people make fun of her almost to the point of ridiculous. They could have been polite to her. Instead, they decided to live up to the stereotype. They "moo'ed" and called her names instead.

The one thing that caught my eye about this film was the fact that she could be skinny one second and "fat" the next. I liked that the exposé was looked at from both views without varying opinion. I was pretty much interested the whole time. The responses she got from people were ridiculous; but very authentic. It's true that people are treated different just by the way they look. That should never be the case. I only disliked one thing about this film: the ending could have been a little better. I won't ruin it though. She just should have revealed herself to a certain group of people in a different way. All in all this was a pretty satisfying movie. I would definitely watch it again.

I married a fat woman (over 300 pounds), being only 145 pounds myself at the time, adopted her three children, and had three more by her; all of them very good looking but some struggling somewhat with weight. She was a wonderful woman, who died from complications to stomach stapling surgery, after we'd been married almost 24 years. She had many physical problems in her last years: fibromyalgia, diabetes, etc. and had the surgery only as a last resort because she'd gotten to the point where we took her places in a wheelchair and she slept in an electric recliner. I never noticed her enduring any particular slurs in public on account of her weight (I am kind of a space case anyway) but she did get anonymous notes from time to time from people who were trying to tell her how she ought to take care of herself.

Anyway, I found the movie very interesting and honest. Even the fact that the Aly character could be mean to her mother while trying to be sensitive to Ramona seemed real to me because kids and parents do lock horns at times in ways that are truly baffling.

Tonight I watched the premiere of "To Be Fat Like Me" in hopes that someone had finally gotten it right. With the idea that someone had at last made a film to empower the larger women of the world, I happily set my night aside in preparation of being touched by a film that would show the world how I feel. How disappointed I was when I learned what the movie was really about. This wasn't a movie for fat women at all, contrary to the commercials that were run for weeks before the premiere of this pathetic lesson in moral fiber for skinny women the world over. I had such hopes that someone had come to the slow conclusion that we aren't fat because we can't stop eating. At least, I'm not. I'm fat for many reasons. The first being, I don't believe that skinny is pretty. The second, and most important, is that I would rather live my life as happy and wonderful and comfortable with myself as I am and die at 50 than live until 108 always fighting to be someone I'm not. Never before in this world has there been such an obsession with fat. Never have our body standards been so small that I at 230lbs (and 5'6") could not go into any store and find clothes. Five years ago, I could walk into any store I passed by and buy jeans. Now I walk into every store I pass by simply to ask them what the biggest size of jeans they carry is. And the ever ecstatic response? "Oh, don't you worry ma'am! We have very big sizes here. We go all the way up to a 14! We definitely have clothes for you!" And I say in response, "Perhaps you haven't noticed, but I'm an 18." The idea that we are so morally inculpable that we allow the magazines and television shows and retail stores to govern our size is absolutely beyond me. I am my own woman. I am big, and I am beautiful. I am not unhealthy. There is a very big difference between big and unhealthy. I have known so many skinny women in my life that were absolutely revolting in a bikini for one simple fact. They may be a size two, but they have cellulite. We think that skinny equals pretty. But, let me tell you. It's your soul, your smile, and your eyes that make you beautiful. And this movie will never ever be a good movie to me. The moral of this film is that you skinny people should understand our fat plight and not make fun of us, but try your best to sympathize and gently push us to our thin potential. Well, that's a crock. I promise you that, no matter how sweet and gentle, the first person that befriends me to attempt to save me from my food will have a very rude awakening.