Fat women in the movies?
A friend of mine recently asked me if I could recommend some movies with positive fat women, and I realized I could only come up with 4-5 that I could reasonably recommend. The obvious ones are Hairspray, Real Women Have Curves, and Phat Girlz.
Here’s the thing: there are plenty of movies with fat women (or “fat” women, or fat “women” - see Norbit, Shallow Hal, etc.), but not many that have fat women leads, or fat women being portrayed in a positive way. Am I missing something entirely? Has there been a crop of great films made lately that don’t totally dehumanize fat women, or are there really only a handful?
What are some movies with fat women you’ve seen lately?
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The criticisms of my students would serve as a good warning to visitors of Seeworthy: she talks too fast, she's too hard on us, she assigns too much work, and you have to be a dyke to get a good grade.
In other words, I'm a big, fat, queer, feminist meanie, and I am totally out to get you. Graaagh!
I loved “Last Holiday” with Queen Latifah: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0408985/
i just rented “real women” from netflix! i’m excited! my mom loves this movie. “the sisterhood of the traveling pants” has america ferrara in it, too. (and she can wear the same pants as amber tamlyn and blake lively!)
“road to wellville” (with camryn manheim)?
i know this is going to sound dumb, but “high school musical 2.”
If you don’t mind your movies a little soapy, you can add in Waiting to Exhale. At the end, Loretta Devine hooks up with Gregory Hines, who tells Devine she reminds him of his late (big) wife and that he likes that. I’m not sure if you count Jennifer Hudson as “fat” but I would suppose she’s about the same size in Dreamgirls that America Ferreira was in RWHC.
But movies are not friendly to women in general. I forget which blog it was, but there was one (later reported on in Pandagon) that talked about a basic standard they set for women in films: Movies in which 2 female characters talk to each other about something other than a man. And geez, you really have to strain your brain to come up with them!
I’d suggest the movie Circle of Friends with Minnie Driver at her most fat (and beautiful, in my opinion) but the message isn’t entirely positive. She’s made to feel bad about her fat pretty much the whole time. What I love, though, is that she doesn’t give in. SHE’S not the one who has to change.
The nice thing about “black” films and TV shows is that there is much less insistence that every characer be played by a stick figure. So we get Loretta Devine (aka the chief’s wife on Grey’s Anatomy/Eli’s AA on Eli Stone) and Alaina Reed and Jill Scott (triple threat!), Cassi Davis, Judy Peterson, Tamela Mann and so on. He gets a lot of stick but you cannot say that Tyler Perry rejects actresses for being too large. Not that he’s the only one, but there are positive depictions of fat women who have good relationships and aren’t the comic foil/sexless best friend in just about all of his works.
I love movies with Marianne Sagebrecht; Bagdad Cafe is a GREAT one! Sagebrecht is so beautiful and sexy in it.
I sometimes think I’m the only FA person who loved Shallow Hal. Oh of course there were the idiotic juvenile jokes interspersed throughout - the furniture breaking, downing the giant milkshake in one go, the tipped canoe - but the movie was far deeper than that. Hal himself was *a fat kid* and he certainly was a *fat adult.* (No, not that fat, but fat.) Before I ever discovered this movement I loved Shallow Hal, and cried at the end over and over, and still do. Overall I DO think it was a fat-positive movie - it challenged the stereotypes, it involved a man who was seeking women far out of his own fat league, and Jack Black went on to promote fat acceptance in School of Rock. (Er - he’s gone on a diet now and lost weight - I could skin him for that. But whatever.)
But the movie was not about those stupid jokes; it was about loving someone for who they are and seeing through the stupid prejudices that have been drilled into us. Plus, there are plenty of really beautiful women to look at (yes, as a woman I do enjoy looking at a beautiful woman) - beautiful beyond what you normally see.
My only regret is that the body double for Fat Rosemary never got a face shot, because she was truly beautiful too.
I still mean to make a post about Shallow Hal soon, so I’ll save it. But I most certainly loved it.
I just realized recently that “Soul Food” was a very fat-negative movie - thin black women getting the men and fat big-mama who they continually lambasted for not treating her obviously diet-caused ill health. I don’t care to watch it again, but I can see that fat hate has infiltrated even the black community, which has traditionally not been fat-hating. (I do know that when I get hit on, it’s mostly by black or hispanic guys who either don’t care or like the fact that I’m fat.)
The latest fat-positive movie I saw was “Queen Sized” but honestly it sucked. All around. Sorry, but it did. I can’t wait for “Disfigured” to come out.
I actually really liked “Shallow Hal”. I was all prepared to hate it and was completely taken with it.
As other’s mentioned, “Last Holiday” and “Circle of Friends” (Benny is much more preoccupied with her weight in the book but the book also shows how hard it was for her to be a plus-sized girl).
I haven’t seen it, but someone left a comment on my blog about “The Nines” because Melissa McCarthy (from the Gilmore Girls) plays the wife of Ryan Reynolds.
Pizza was a good movie, although the film still focused on her weight. I can’t really think of a mainstream movie featuring a real fat woman where the focus hasn’t been on her weight, actually.
There is a new indie film coming out this summer called Disfigured that shows not only a fat woman, but the fat acceptance movement.
My Big Fat Greek wedding has a ‘fat’ woman in it as the leading lady. That movie is full of larger women who in fact are probably right about average. ^^
It occurred to me that “The Truth about Cats and Dogs” might be worth mentioning, though it’s not about a woman I would call “fat,” really (she’s short–like me! yay!–but only “hollywood fat” at best). Janeane Garofolo plays a vet who has a radio show and a great personality. She also thinks she’s “ugly” and gets her tall blonde friend (Uma Thurman) to impersonate her with a guy. So the movie is all about stereotypes and what constitutes “attractive” and why it’s better to be yourself. Plus, hot phone sex scene–woo hoo!
Oh, and the first Shrek movie, too. In the end, the Princess decides to stay an ogre (which on screen translates to a voluptuous green-skinned plus size gal), because essentially she likes herself better that way. It’s another nice message about who people are, beyond the surface appearance.
It’s an old one, but The Rose Tattoo with Anna Magnani. Although she wasn’t an obese actress, she was a big curvy woman and Burt Lancaster was really attracted to her.
I haven’t seen it, but I know Road Trip has a subplot where one of the skinny guys falls for a big black girl and takes her home to meet his family.
Exit to Eden’s Rosie O’Donnell. She looks pretty fine in her dominatrix getup, and one of the hunky young sex slaves takes a liking to her.
I adore “Love Actually” because the girl who is portrayed as “fat” (of course, isn’t truly) is immediately a love interest. There’s also “Muriel’s Wedding”, which is more about excepting who you are. And “Fried Green Tomatoes”, with the inestimable Kathy Bates. And “Calendar Girls”, based on a true story about a women’s group in England that made a nude calendar.
Positive messages are hidden out there, but mostly they’re inside a story full of skinny women.
I also want to mention “The Nines”. There are two female leads, and the one that in my mind comes across as the nicer one is the overweight character played by Melissa McCarthy. In my eyes she was the most complex of the characters, and he weight was part of her appearance (and she looks lovely), but not part of the plot per se at all.
*Spoiler*, do not continue to read if you still want to watch the movie…
In the end, the male lead finds out he may be some sort of devine being that creates the world around him. And McCarthy’s character was “his favourite”. The one he always chose in all the possible circumstances. Not the thin blonde (also very lovely) Hope Davis, but the fat chick. Awsome. Well. Next time I want the same movie with a female lead as a divine being.
There this, maybe, but I haven’t seen it:
http://fatrantblog.wordpress.com/2007/11/14/a-fat-girl-myself/
I don’t know if you would consider Gypsy 83 a fat positive movie, but I would (in and of itself), despite Sara Rue’s weight loss.
I also happened liked Pizza, which was sort of an “o-kay” movie with Ethan Embry and Kylie Sparks, who is pretty much unknown. Even though it does focus on her weight and her awkwardness and the fact that she is desperate to be accepted, I think it ends up well.
Also haven’t seen Disfigured, but I really really want to.
And if we go for TV shows, the daughter in Weeds is fantastic…even if her mom is horrible to her about her weight. I also always liked the scene in Spanglish…after the mom buys her daughter clothes a size too small to “give her something to work toward”, Flor secretly lets them out so they will fit.
Oh and PS, I wish the girl from Pizza would get more gigs (and fat women in general, of course). I think she is so fabulous and adorable and nerdy. I love it.
I hate to say this, because most of the characters are impossibly thin (what were the animators thinking???) but the kids made me watch Disney’s Hercules, and I realized that the fat muse could move, and was rather awesome. Now, if only Meg could actually survive at the size they made her.
One that hasn’t been mentioned thus far is “Babycakes” with Ricki Lake and Craig Sheffer. And for a slightly different perspective (i.e. that of a fat male lead), “Angus” has always been one of my favorites. I love “RWHC” and “Hairspray” (although they, too, fall victim to typical fat-bashing in bits), and “Phat Girlz” had its good bits (but please cut the buffet fantasy scene!).
But what I really want is a movie with a strong, self-assured, fat female lead for whom the issue of her size NEVER arises. That her size is simply a characteristic like her eye color or the type of clothes she wears. Someday…
The mention of “babycakes” reminded me of “Mrs. Winterbourne”- also starring Ricki Lake. Tragic train wreck, mistaken identity, and Brendan Fraser- what’s not to love? OK- lots. Not a great movie, but fine for a rainy afternoon.
Ricki Lake’s character is presented as an opposite of the rich, thin, blonde, well-educated, sophisticate- but class differences feature far more than physical ones.
(Plus the obligatory happy-ending-with-wedding is filmed at a Cathedral I know well)
Well, recently, next to nothing. But I think Hollywood is in a really really low point right now. I can’t think of many movies recently that I’ve even liked all that much.
But if I went back to some of my older favorites from time gone by, I might come up with some things. It’d just take me time. I do better at remembering actresses and then exploring their roles. So I would start with say, Kathy Bates, and move on from there to look at what things she’s been in.
“But what I really want is a movie with a strong, self-assured, fat female lead for whom the issue of her size NEVER arises. That her size is simply a characteristic like her eye color or the type of clothes she wears. Someday…”
If I ever come up with a better plot for one of my potential screenplays and then actually film it…
Because I’ve been saying that for some time. It’s what always bothered me about Cameron Manheim. People (including her) were often saying that she deserved roles “despite” her fat or even “because” of it. Never just that she was a good actress and her fat shouldn’t matter or be the slightest issue.
Not a film American readers will be able to see soon, I imagine, but over Easter the BBC showed Anthony Minghella’s last film, based on the book “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency”. It’s set in Botswana, and the US singer/actress Jill Scott had the lead role as Precious Ramotswe, a lady of “traditional build”. The original book is excellent and the film is a faithful adaptation, very engaging and heart-warming. I believe there may be some sort of TV series coming up.
Mma Ramotswe’s size doesn’t come up very much in the film; it’s mostly not an issue. As in the books, once or twice it is mentioned by another character, but Mma Ramotswe is very comfortable with her shape and simply expresses her pride in being “of traditional build”, which I find refreshing
This news story has a nice picture of Jill Scott in character.
There aren’t movies with fat women as leads. Actually, as this blogger has noted, there aren’t movies with women as leads, period: http://blag.xkcd.com/2008/04/10/two-female-leads/
It’s a sad state of affairs.