We've all heard the slurs, the slang, and the taunts coming from "anti-fat" people, or even little kids. Words like "porker", "fat ass", "tubby" and "lard ass" sting to the bone. Then there are the little noises that emerge from people when we fat people are around, the "boom, boom, boom" when you walk by them, or even the stares and giggles. No matter how much we don't want it to effect us, it always will. Fat is one of the last "acceptable" forms of discrimination. We have seen adults on talk shows delve into the situation, such as Tyra Banks. We have also seen articles, by Leslie Lampert, but this movie, To Be Fat Like Me, looked into a teenager's perspective.
To Be Fat Like Me stars Kaley Cuoco and Caroline Rhea (who has been known to struggle with weight herself). Kaley's character, Ali (based on an actual person), is a pretty, popular, "jock", who needs a scholarship to be able to go to college, due to her mother getting ill six years earlier. Her mother, played by Caroline Rhea, was fat, and when diagnosed with diabetes, did nothing to improve her eating, and ended up in the hospital. Her medical bills wiped out the college fund, so Ali has a huge resentment that she must work double shifts and rely on a softball scholarship to be able to go to "State".
During the game in which a college scout comes to see her, Ali's leg is injured, while sliding to a base. Her scholarship is blown, or so it seems. An opportunity to make a documentary to win a scholarship is presented to her, and while watching her brother get bullied because of his weight, she decides that she will go undercover as a fat girl to prove that weight has nothing to do with popularity. Her neighbor is a makeup artist and agrees to help her with her fat suit, which she hides from her family.
Ali goes to summer school, at a different school as not to be recognized, and is quickly greeted by "moos" and "booms" as she walks to her seat. She befriends another fat girl, and her friend a "geek", and a friendship blossoms, all the while, she hides that she is doing the documentary and that she is really a thin, popular, pretty girl.
Ali learns that being fat is not easy, and has everything to do with popularity in high school. She also learns that lying to her friends and family is not acceptable, and that the people she could truly rely on won't stand by her if she lies to them.
Although many people saw this as an "anti-fat" movie, I think it showed a good perspective as to what it's like to be fat in high school. I could feel all of the negative feelings I felt in high school coming back as I watched. This movie really touched on what us fat people feel when we look in the mirror, what our diminished self esteem can be like when people continually taunt us, and what its like to shop in a store where we don't get the service we deserve because of our weight.
To Be Fat Like Me stars Kaley Cuoco and Caroline Rhea (who has been known to struggle with weight herself). Kaley's character, Ali (based on an actual person), is a pretty, popular, "jock", who needs a scholarship to be able to go to college, due to her mother getting ill six years earlier. Her mother, played by Caroline Rhea, was fat, and when diagnosed with diabetes, did nothing to improve her eating, and ended up in the hospital. Her medical bills wiped out the college fund, so Ali has a huge resentment that she must work double shifts and rely on a softball scholarship to be able to go to "State".
During the game in which a college scout comes to see her, Ali's leg is injured, while sliding to a base. Her scholarship is blown, or so it seems. An opportunity to make a documentary to win a scholarship is presented to her, and while watching her brother get bullied because of his weight, she decides that she will go undercover as a fat girl to prove that weight has nothing to do with popularity. Her neighbor is a makeup artist and agrees to help her with her fat suit, which she hides from her family.
Ali goes to summer school, at a different school as not to be recognized, and is quickly greeted by "moos" and "booms" as she walks to her seat. She befriends another fat girl, and her friend a "geek", and a friendship blossoms, all the while, she hides that she is doing the documentary and that she is really a thin, popular, pretty girl.
Ali learns that being fat is not easy, and has everything to do with popularity in high school. She also learns that lying to her friends and family is not acceptable, and that the people she could truly rely on won't stand by her if she lies to them.
Although many people saw this as an "anti-fat" movie, I think it showed a good perspective as to what it's like to be fat in high school. I could feel all of the negative feelings I felt in high school coming back as I watched. This movie really touched on what us fat people feel when we look in the mirror, what our diminished self esteem can be like when people continually taunt us, and what its like to shop in a store where we don't get the service we deserve because of our weight.