August 6, 2001
-
Spielberg Can Bite My Big Behind
I'm mad as hell. I'm mad at Steven Spielberg, and as a friend says, "Well, that's not something that happens every day!"
I just saw Shrek. I know, I'm slow. But I'd heard glowing reports from trusted friends and associates that this film was a hoot. While there were funny bits (the gingerbread, bwahaha!), everyone seems to have missed a HUGE (so to speak) problem with this movie.
The princess. The BLATANT message (we're not talking subliminal in the least here) is that when she was tall and skinny, she was beautiful, and therefore worthy of being princess. When sunset came, though, she turned short and chubby, and therefore "ugly." Now, considering she was an ogre, she was actually darn cute, with her sparkly blue eyes and pretty smile. If she'd had oozing sores on her face, one eye in the middle of her forehead or a lump on her back, that'd be one thing. But nope, her only physical attribute difference was that she was "fat".
I'm short (5'1 1/2"), and since I'm over 30, I'm pretty sure this
is my peak height. I've never been thin, nosiree. But I've never been called ugly because, well, I'm not. That's me on the right here, in a band press picture (my husband is the guy, 6', 150 lbs).
What baffles me is that this movie has been out this long, and I haven't heard anyone else notice this. As we were leaving the movie, I said to my husband, "Did you get that message?" He said "Yeah. Apparently fat equals ugly, skinny equals pretty. Ugg."
Comments (24)
Have not seen the movie but am SURE I would have noted what you did - and you look grrrreat!
You tell 'em!
I haven't seen the movie frankly, because my 10 year old came home from seeing it with a friend and told me the same thing. I'm not thin either and personally, I don't think you have to be thin to be pretty. I think you look great hun. *hugz*
I noticed that too.. i thought she was a lot cuter as a ogre.. and the only difference was 20-30 lbs. (well that and those silly ears) I do remember someone writing in their blog that they thought she looked alot better as an ogre... of course it was before i had seen the movie.. kinda gave away the plot alittle...
but you're right. people constantly make that asessment.. that if you're fat you're ugly and if you're thin your pretty.. it really sucks.. there are some rather ugly things about really thin chicks.. for instance their legs (specifically knees) ewww all bony and chicken like!! it's not that i think all skinny women are ugly..
what im saying is that just because someone is thicker they should automatically be considered ugly.. or in need of some improvement (like they're a house or a car or something)
yeah that's what im trying to say!
---mittaka
Haven't seen it but I know what your saying
I agree with you about the weight, but what also bothered me were the sexual references and the bad language. I took my 6 yr old to see it and frankly i was blushing a few times. Now, im no puritan but i dont want my son exposed to that kind of stuff. I could go on a rant here about mass media, etc. but i think, nuff said.
Maybe there hasn't been a lot of talk about it because we are all so used to that message. We're jaded, because it's everywhere.
Uh, forgive me for being contrary (as if), but criticizing that one-dimensional view of beauty kinda *the point of the movie.* 'Pretty' and 'ugly' take on increasingly relative meanings as the movie progresses, ending with Shrek and the princess finally finding happiness when they understand who they actually *are,* instead of who they *look like.* Certainly that's a message you'd want little kids to learn, right?
Woops. I forgot to give a prop.
Some stupid add just blipped out my comment to you. I was saying that one of my best friends is quite rotund, but she is such a beautiful person. I love her to pieces. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
No, Homer, that wasn't the message at all. The point was that fat is ugly, and fat ugly people will get other fat ugly people as mates.
Yikes. I saw the same message as Homer. But if you want to attack the portrayal of women....what about the image of short men? Heck, that movie is full of characters who aren't happy with who they really are, and the "happy ending" comes when they can accept and see past that. Perhaps we are all interpreting this with a bit of personal bias.....
Ok, I can understand personal bias... but "They lived ugly ever after" as a closing line? How can you miss the point of THAT?
i can see your point.
I thought though that she was more afraid of what people would think of her, and also the ogres were huge & menacing...
I thought that the people were more frightened of them and such than worried that they were fat.
so, i thought it was a racist type movie--u know, don't be prejudiced is the moral?
I dunno...but u are very cute. =)
read the book. It is a children's book by William Steig....ending is "and they lived horribly ever after." Only difference is that they are BOTH trolls from the beginning.
You can't spoof a fairytale without ridiculing that horrid, saccharine, and unrealistic "happily ever after" crap, anyway.
Why do women do this? I haven't heard any short men griping about Lord Farquaad, or any men with hairy backs getting pissed at Disney for the Beast...
How funny, Celtic, that you manage to put the blame on "women".
I'm with celtic and homer on this one, too. She wasn't worried about the prince she was supposedly marrying finding out, but rather Shrek, the ogre. She loved him for what he was and was afraid that he wouldn't love her in return if she wasn't the princess he was falling for. It was the ogre qualities she was afraid of, not being fat. She was green and had wierd features. And she found something wonderful in his "ogreness" and there's a message there as well. The point and/or message was not "he won't like me if I'm fat and ugly", but rather that they could see beyond outer appearances and see one another's hearts. THAT's the message.
oh and if the message had been about fat, why would they have bothered with the "ogreness" of her?
What was ogreish about her, other than the color green and the cutesy ears?
If Spielberg were trying to promote inner beauty, where's the action figures of the short, pudgy, inwardly beautiful princess?
SPIELBERG DIDN'T DO THIS MOVIE!!! It's done by Jeffery Katzenberg, who used to work for Disney. Remember these things... It's only a movie, (life is good), Beauty is on the inside, it's only a movie, (life is good!) and for pete's sake don't read to much into it... like I said it's only a movie (not by Spielberg!). BTW, don't wish harmful things upon movie producers (especially if they didn't make the movie) they have power and can make things happen! (yeah right!!)
hee hee
Whew, sorry I didn't mean to get on my soap box.... Okay, okay one other thing... don't take it too seriously. like I said, "It's only a movie!".. oh yeah, cool page you got going here!
::: jacob :::
p.s. Spielberg didn't make this movie!! (I PROMISE!)
But what's ogre-ish about any ogre other than the greenness and cutesy ears? And the fact that they're loners?
And they're not going to sell dolls of her being an ogre because her being an ogre is the entire twist ending to the movie!
I'm overweight and have been all my life.
I didn't see Shrek as saying overweight is ugly. They were OGRES. Ogres are ugly. It's been a while since I saw the movie, but I don't recall anyone calling her ugly except herself and maybe the prince.
Yes, society as a whole still attaches a stigma to being overweight. It's one of the last groups that it's okay to discriminate against. It's wrong. I don't think Dreamworks has a secret anti-fat agenda, though.
I think the message of the movie is exactly what most people think it is: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and inner beauty is more important than outer beauty.
Frankly, I've seen films that actually warrant this kind of disdain and outrage before and I don't feel like this is one of them. Just one man's opinion.
And as for blaming women....just for the record, I am one.
I dunno... I thought that being green as well didn't help...
But you have a point... but such things are drummed into children from an early age - just look at Barbie 