To Be Fat Like Me

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.

To tell the truth I would actually recommend this movie to people, It might stereotype fat people or high school (whichever one you choose) and it may not be the total truth but it's part of what happens to fat people ( chubby people if you prefer) even skinny (slim people if you favour) This Is just another one of those movies you can sit down to watch with your friends, it's interesting and something different for different types of people. This story is about a young girl who gets out of her comfort zone to see what it's like to be a fat person for a documentary which is for money which she needs to be able to afford to go to a college due to the fact that most the money her family had saved was needed to cover her mothers hospital bills, and that leads to the way she starts despising her mother, she the falls deep into her "spying" without realising and meets friends and she soon doesn't know whether to tell them that for the past weeks she has been secretly videoing them for a project and risk loosing them or will she keep it to herself and forever be with guilt

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 came across as good. After an injury costs her a chance at an athletic scholarship to college (which she desperately needed), a girl decides to enter a contest to help raise the money and films a documentary on fat students high school;inspired by the book Black Like Me, she disguises herself as a fat girl and goes to summer school and experiences firsthand what it is like to be rejected as a severely overweight person. She thinks that a charming personality will help people look past it, but she is mistaken, as she learns that he previous popularity has spoiled her. Her family's weight problems inspired the project. Despite some flaws, the movie was good, and the girl matures throughout the movie. I recommend it.

*** out of ****

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.