In case you missed America Ferrera’s speech at the Golden Globes:
“Thank you to the foreign press for recognizing this show and this character who is truly bringing a new face to television… and such a beautiful, beautiful message about beauty that lies deeper than what we can see. It’s such an honor to play a role that I hear from young girls on a daily basis how it makes them feel worthy and lovable and that they have more to offer the world than they thought. It’s such an honor to play this role….”
January 28th, 2007
Two movies came out on DVD recently — “Little Miss Sunshine” and “The Devil Wears Prada” — that are super About-Facey (that is, they take on issues of women’s and girls’ body image and media influences), so around the kitchen table the other night, we decided to make up a special rating system. Check it out — and let us know what you thought of these flicks.
Little Miss Sunshine (R, but should be PG-13)
The good: “This is for my grandpa, who taught me these moves.” Olive’s performance in the beauty pageant and more in that scene I can’t reveal here lest I spoil the fun. (Oh, and Alyza thinks Paul Dano is lovable.) Olive (Abigail Breslin) is the little girl we all remember ourselves being.
The sad: Whoa, the beauty pageant scene with the little freaky girls! Scary! (And the directors’ commentary reveals that they are for real.) And when Olive’s dad breaks it to her over breakfast that ice cream is going to make her fat. Heartbreaking. Luckily Uncle Frank (Steve Carell), Grandpa, and Dwayne, show her they love ice cream, even if it does make you fat.
Up in the air: Grandpa’s misogyny.
Reckoning: A funny, sweet comedy. Do four Oscar nominations (including one for Best Picture) lie? Also great to watch with your mom.
RATING: 5 out of 5 About-Faces
The Devil Wears Prada (PG-13)
The good: Meryl Streep being perfectly evil. Was she just having fun, or was that just me? (Oh, and she’s up for a Best Actress Oscar too…)
The sad: Emily (Emily Blunt) says to Andy (Anne Hathaway) “I’m just one stomach flu away from my goal weight” as they enter a gala. Andy tells Nigel she is now a size 4 (down from 6) and they toast with Champagne. C’mon people, seriously.
Up in the air: Doesn’t really take on the insane thin ideal fashion-y people and models feel they must conform to at all times. But at least it kind of makes fun of those ideals. It also makes it seem that Andy can have either a high-powered career or a boyfriend, not both. (The older women we know dispel that myth handily.)
Reckoning: Eh. We’re not so thrilled from a hard-core chick perspective. But it’s pretty entertaining, especially if you REALLY like fashion. Or you’re contemplating the work/life balance. Or both.
RATING: 2 out of 5 About-Faces
Some other About-Face-approved movies:
Lovely and Amazing: Serious body-image talk, with a mom having liposuction, an actress being self-loathing, and a little fat girl trying to make sense of it all.
Drop Dead Gorgeous: If you’re into black comedy, this movie represents some of the blackest. Its take on beauty standards is nothing short of skewering.
If you’ve see any of these movies, tell us what you thought! Just click “Add Comment” below!
– J.B.
January 25th, 2007
I have a soft, round, and extremely cute belly and believe it or not, I’ve had many people (family, friends, colleagues, etc.) ask if I was pregnant. Look! Just because my stomach sticks out, doesn’t mean I am pregnant!
It’s not easy embracing The Belly in an anti-belly world! And let’s face it, the media fuels these anti-belly sentiments.
The mixed messages I receive from my friends and family correspond to the mixed messages the media sends out. The “media†I’m referring to is made up of several magazines and gossip columns (both on the web and on newsstands) that consider it their civic duty to disclose celebrity body fluctuations on an inch-by-inch basis. 
Remember the Reese Witherspoon pregnancy scandal? Editors hoped to sell their magazines by using a few manipulated pictures of Reese with a “bump†so they could be the first to expose that Reese is “preggars!†It might be news to them—and perhaps to us as well—but it’s not so newsworthy to our bodies. To our dismay, our weight-conscious society doesn’t view pregnancy as beautiful, but rather as a condition that adds unwanted pounds. Consequently, when someone is mistaken as pregnant, it’s usually taken as an insult. We now know Reese wasn’t expecting a third child. However, the media hoped she was, because it’s unacceptable for a top-ranking celebrity and America’s sweetheart to carry anything but a washboard stomach!
Yet this is the same media that shockingly reveals (or are they reveling in?) celebrities under a hundred pounds. Gossip columns are as much about body-fat content as stars’ activities. Us, People, InTouch, Star, etc. take turns obsessing over which celebrities are “rail-thin†(ahem, see this week’s People magazine) and which could afford to shed a few pounds. As readers, we are expected to reject both body types. However, we are never given any indication of what they think a healthy body should look like. Their (unhealthy) obsession with weight results in us obsessing and dangerously criticizing our weight. We wonder: “If Nicole Kidman’s body doesn’t size up, how can mine?â€
Let’s bring this back to The Belly. It’s no wonder I’ve had prospective crushes stop me in the midst of conversation to ask whether or not I am expecting. Though that question is never justified, it is especially unwelcome after the crush in question has already bought me a drink! Just because celebrities (or 0.25 percent of the world’s population—if that) have washboard stomachs, doesn’t mean women who don’t are pregnant.
It’s taken me a long time to accept The Belly. But after years of belly-hating, I had to put things in perspective. After all, how long can I hate something that I will carry with me for the rest of my life?
–A.J.
January 21st, 2007
