At Least We Can All Agree Dane Cook Sucks, Right?
I’ve been using the Dane Cook trailer recently as an example of all that is evil in Hollywood and the world. But Tara disagrees; I thought her comment was worth pulling out and talking about.
I thought it was pretty funny. Hold on, let me explain. For one, from what little I saw from it, the movie seems to make fun more of what a tool the main character is than of any of the female characters. Secondly, I’m not sure about everyone else, but I don’t know any women, large or small who eat like that. When I was bigger, I didn’t shovel food in my mouth that way, particularly when I was on a date! My point is this; I thought the trailer was funny, and thinking so doesn’t make me less body positive or size accepting. Yes, the leading woman is thin and yes the best friend is chubby. I can’t/won’t argue either of those points, and I too would like to see the love interest be in the form of a bigger girl. I believe that two gorgeous guys CAN be best friends. However, I don’t want to be told to boycott something just because the majority finds it offensive. In my opinion (again, just my opinion) if we truly love and accept ourselves enough to laugh at the images in movies like Norbit and Good Luck Chuck, we disarm those same images that bother us so much.
Personally, I find the trailer both offensive and unfunny. The only woman in the trailer who isn’t thin and gorgeous is an obese woman portrayed as a repulsive, grotesque, I-am-sloppily-eating-something sterotype. I don’t think we’re disarming anything if we laugh at those images. I don’t think if I loved myself more, I would find it funny for fat people (or a fat woman, or any woman for that matter) to be portrayed in this manner. In fact, by going to see this movie, I think we would be enabling some truly disgusting prejudice and misogyny. (I also hate this poster and the one of Dane Cook humping Jessica Alba.)
But, I think Tara is coming from an interesting place, and maybe some of you agree with her. After all, a lot of people went to see Norbit. So what do you think?
Posted by mo pie
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Can’t say I agree with Tara’s comment. It doesn’t matter whether a viewer is fat or thin or loves himself or not, the trailer is very offensive in its depiction of a fat woman. Here’s what it says: the fat woman looks gross but shows off her body anyway, the fat woman messily gorges herself on large quantities of food with abandon, the fat woman is horny and over-sexed, AND the fat woman is a dumb “redneck.” All the other women in the trailer are beautiful and NOT portrayed as negatively as the fat woman. And yes, his friend is fat, but no jokes are being made about his fatness.
One more thing…. another thing I noticed about the film is that Jessica Alba seems to be portrayed as clumsy. It strikes me as a little unusual for the hot love interest to be a clutz.
And the plot of the movie is that he’s going to prove some thing about how, after he fucks a woman, she finds her true love, and the way to prove this is false is that he’s going to fuck a fat woman. Because a fat woman couldn’t *possibly* ever find true love, right? Nobody could EVER love a fat woman!
I don’t find it funny at all. I find it cruel. I find it cruel that the plot is that he’s going to use this fat woman to prove a horrible point.
Oh, and its a ripoff of “The Seduction of Mimi”, with all of Lina Wertmuller’s film’s redeeming qualities totally stripped off.
So, it’s a cheap ripoff, it’s cruel, and its offensive. And I won’t spend a penny on it. If that’s a boycott, I’m in.
How’s it doing at the box office? Honestly, except for this blog, I really hadn’t heard of this anywhere else, which is kind of uplifting.
I haven’t seen the trailer for this movie (kind of glad I haven’t), but just based on the description, I definitely have no plans to see it. And for that, I’m grateful to BFD for urging us to avoid, or “boycott” it. I can’t agree with what Tara’s suggesting. It’s a bit like saying that if a person of color could just bring themselves to see the humor in a minstrel show or a performance in blackface, that the portrayal would lose its power to be offensive. Forget about the intent of the performer. Why is it any less empowering to call it what it is? Why do we have to enjoy it to disarm it?
I remember being in a very sparsely-populated movie theater during the trailer for Norbit. Just me, a friend, and a couple of women (rail thin, of course), who of course laughed at it the trailer as if it were the funniest thing they’d ever seen. The sound of their laughter made my skin crawl–thirty years later, and I was back on a grade school playground in an instant. There’s good laughter and there’s evil laughter, and it’s not hard to tell the difference–there’s humor that brings people together and humor that humiliates and isolates. The only good that can come from movies like that is that they give us the opportunity for discussion.
Nope, don’t agree. And it saddens me that Dane Cook went this route because I really like his stand up and I think he can do a lot better. But he wants to be super famous and make a buttload of cash, so whatever. Making fun of fat chicks appeals to the right demographic so he stooped.
One more thing…. another thing I noticed about the film is that Jessica Alba seems to be portrayed as clumsy. It strikes me as a _little_ unusual for the hot love interest to be a clutz.
See, that seemed all too typical to me–the good old “hot babe falls flat on her face” joke. Watch any popular comedy made in the past ten years and I can almost guarantee you’ll see some variation on it.* I think it’s based on th e premise that the only way an attractive woman can be funny is if she falls or gets bonked in the head. I guess in one respect the joke is about bursting the “hot chick fantasy” bubble, but when you really think about it, jeez, there’s a lot of latent hostility there.
*In fact, I bet you can find five trailers on YouTube that do this joke.
I’ve seen the trailer, and it’s has some funny moments. I’m curious to see if Alba can do comedy.
However, I don’t see how the “digusting” character is bad. She is just a combination of everything *most* guys find repulsive. She is not just fat, she is morbidly obese. And she is that way because she eats like a pig, as shown in the trailer. She is also ugly and crude. Everything about her character is designed to gross people out.
Now, if it her only issue was being fat, and the rest of her was positively wonderful, and the movie *still* treated her as having no hope, I could see you being upset.
In my opinion, being upset about this character casting bad light on large women is about the same as getting upset about Jabba the Hutt. They are both bizzare fantasy characters with no grounds in reality, and I think most movie-goers will realize that.
Yeah, it also seems to tie into the whole “nerdy girl becomes pretty princess” theme (see “She’s All That” or “The Princess Diaries”) where the girl is obviously hot to begin with but they dress her badly and hope we won’t notice. Like the audience of normal men might not feel they have enough of a chance with Jessica Alba, so they need to give her a “character flaw” to help the male viewers feel like they could totally get her if they wanted to. And then, as Wendy said, it also is supposed to convey that the hot chick is “funny” while avoiding any uncomfortable implication that she might actually also be smart. It’s stupid.
And hell no do I think that it empowers anyone to try and see the “humor” in the scene with the fat woman. To do so would be to “admit” that there is something objectively funny about the concept of a disgusting fat girl wallowing in her gluttony, ignorance, and ugliness (I don’t believe any of those things about fat people but that’s what the producers are trying to portray in the scene). And it’s NOT funny in the slightest. It’s like the fat Monica scenes on Friends where the fact that they put Monica in a fat suit was supposed to be sufficient to earn laughs. All she really did was stand there in most of those scenes. I still wouldn’t have found it funny at all because it’s cruel and divisive as someone commented above, but if they had devised an actual joke “storyline,” like Monica breaks priceless antique chair and they have to hide the evidence from her parents, or something, I could at least see how that fell into the broad category of humor. A fat person simply existing on screen, stuffing their face and being portrayed as repulsive (see also Fat Bastard from Austin Powers), cannot fall into that category IMO. It’s just hatemongering pure and simple.
Note, I was “Yeah”ing Wendy, I really don’t agree at all with SB above. :)
Count me in the “nothing funny, harmful to the cause” camp. Why?
v’ron nailed it:
“And the plot of the movie is that he’s going to prove some thing about how, after he fucks a woman, she finds her true love, and the way to prove this is false is that he’s going to fuck a fat woman. Because a fat woman couldn’t *possibly* ever find true love, right? Nobody could EVER love a fat woman!”
This movie reminds me of Shallow Hal. And I hate most the poster with Dane where you can see the top of a blond head in the bottom corner.
I will not be going to this movie, and I did not go to Norbit either, but moreso because I really don’t find Eddie Murphy funny.
I won’t be going to see this film, just like I did not go to see either Norbit or Shallow Hal. I just don’t find it funny or entertaining when films go for baseline humiliation humor, when they want people to laugh at someone, rather than laugh about a situation that’s portrayed. It’s the same reason I hate all those Punk’d-type practical joke shows.
I agree with G.G. regarding fun laughter vs. evil laughter, and I’ve sat in theatres reliving horrible scenes from grade school as well. I think it’s a stretch to call laughing at cruelty an effort to “disarm” anything… that feels like a justification to me.
It also annoys me to pay nine bucks to see a film that resorts to such lazy writing and plotting. If they can’t be bothered to do anything beyond boring, insulting stereotypes, then I can’t be bothered to go to the movie.
I really wish that I could re-watch the trailer at home, but my computer here is old and doesn’t like YouTube.
What I recall thinking from the trailer is that the initial sighting of the fat girl was someone in a fat suit. Knowing several fat chicks and having seen them naked, it didn’t seem plausible for a fat woman’s body to look like that when she’s lying down. So they exagerate her grotesqueness in this way. Then they further play in to stereotypes by making her a glutton and sexually aggressive (although all the other women have also been sexually aggressive, so the only reason this seems repulsive is because of this woman’s weight). It’s sad and disturbing, and will largely go unquestioned by most of the viewing public.
I find it interesting that you find it unfunny and inappropriate that the overweight woman is stereotyped as being an over the top lobster eater – but you don’t have an issue with the fact that she speaks like a hillbilly.
My point is – it’s okay that she sounds hillbilly – or trashy or whatever (?because it’s okay to stereotype hillbillies?) but it’s not okay that she doesn’t have etiquette when having lobster for dinner.
I mean, she’s either supposed to be a comical personality or she’s not.
I would say MOST overweight people don’t SOUND like this particular woman…
I guess my point is – that it seems like you are posing issue because you are specifically sensitive to the fact that she’s overweight.
I think that if such is the case, that is fine. There are a variety of movies I don’t watch for lesser reasons.
It’s your choice – but at the end of the day, I think the screenwriter was going for a totally over the top character and that is all.
I guess I’m in the minority here. I loved shallow hal and I think this movie looks funny. And I am a fat (240lb) woman.
The fat girl scene doesn’t bother me at all. Maybe it’s because I don’t eat like that and I don’t know of any fat people who do. I see it as an overexaggeration and assume that others will as well.
Dane plays a guy who is depicted as a “superficial horny male pig”. Do we assume that all men are like that? I’m sure that there are a few guys left out there who don’t fit this stereotype.
HeatherLee, of course you don’t owe me an explanation or anything like that, but I was curious if you would be willing to flesh out (ha!) what you think looks funny about this movie, and what was funny about Shallow Hal? Or that may be a stupid question because one can’t really be intellectually “convinced” that something is funny, you either think it’s funny or you don’t (obviously I’m in the “don’t” camp). But I was curious anyway.
I do disagree that most audiences will get that this is a crazy overexaggerated character. I was reading Junk Food Science yesterday and there was an essay about the commercials about childhood obesity, where images of extremely obese children are shown to illustrate the “obesity crisis.” The problem (well, other than basically exploiting innocent kids in the name of humiliating other innocent kids) comes when people look at images like this and are then told “And 60% of our population is overweight or obese!!” so they get confused about what the relative health risks are (if we even know) and the fact that there is a difference between being a little chunky and being as heavy as these kids (which almost nobody is).
Or when someone in an argument forces you to admit that, no, weighing 500 lbs. is probably not healthy for most people, and then make the leap of logic that therefore, of course, anyone who is “overweight or obese” is in such immediate danger that they need to lose weight at any cost.
So then you get Kelly Clarkson putting on a few pounds to where she probably wears an 8 now, and people on message boards start bleating about how she’s not only ugly and disgusting, she’s unhealthy and at risk for blah blah blah. I don’t think it’s that big of a leap to assume that those same people might watch this movie and use the fat girl scene as further evidence that all fat people eat that way and are about to have a heart attack tomorrow, since a lot of people pretty much think that anyway. People are confused and self-righteous enough about weight without this crap fueling the fire.
I juct checked out the official site for “Good Luck Chuck.” I agree that the movie looks awful, and offensive. Did anyone else notice that the movie poster with Dane Cook and the faceless blond head says “There’s something funny about Dane,” The one with his friend says “There’s something wild about Dan.” The one with Jessica Alba? It just says “There’s something about Jessica” and I’m assuming we’re supposed to fill in the blank with “yeah, she’s HOT, dude! Woo!”
I guess the thing I don’t understand is *Why*? Why is it funny? If this woman is supposed to be over-the-top, and most people accept this sterotype doesn’t-exist-in-real-life, then where does the actual humor enter into it? When I watch a comedy, it’s the characters that have some basis in reality that make me laugh. Is this supposed to be some sort of fantasy-based comedy, where we’re supposed to recognize that all the characters (the pretty girl and the jerk protagonist, too) are 100% fictional? If that’s the case, why bother to watch anyway? (And yes, I do recognize that movies=make-believe, but aren’t the good ones supposed to hold some sort of mirror up to life?)
And then there was that recent article (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19725025/)about overweight kids and the crippling affects societal ridicule has on their self-esteem–“The stigmatization of overweight children has been documented for decades. When children were asked to rank photos of children as friends in a 1961 study, the overweight child was ranked last. Children as young as 3 are more likely to consider overweight peers to be mean, stupid, ugly and sloppy.”
Where do kids learn this stuff, huh? Because kids instinctively know that surface isn’t everything, right? Most people, too?
I think the problem is that a lot of people out there DO believe the sterotype. And crap like this just reinforces it.
Dane plays a guy who is depicted as a “superficial horny male pig”. Do we assume that all men are like that? I’m sure that there are a few guys left out there who don’t fit this stereotype.
This little paragraph captured exactly what my big post was trying to say. Again, I agree that this film uses the same old Hollywood formulas (fat best bud, thin leading lady, hunky leading man, and the fat overeating character). Again, this is just my tiny opinion, me throwing my two cents in. I wasn’t trying to rock the boat or offend anyone.
I still believe that one can see the humor in this and still be size positive. How do I know? Because I for on am, in fact size VERY size positive. I watched some behind the scenes footage (courtesy of Youtube) from the show Mo’nique’s Fat Chance. The clip was of Mo’nique and the pageant contestants singing a song about doughnuts. It was great because these women KNOW that they’re fierce, and yes, I thought that was funny, too.
“size VERY size positive”
Sorry, that was supposed to say “VERY size positive”. I’m sure everyone got the point, though.
I’m a zillion percent with you, Mo Pie, and I honestly can’t even fathom how a fat woman could find this funny — let alone how it would be somehow empowering to laugh at it.
Yes, obviously, she’s over the top. She’s also fictional. That doesn’t mean she’s meaningless as a symbol of how this culture feels about fat people. To go over the top, you have to play on an under-the-top “truth” — and what they’re playing on is the stereotype that all fat people massively overeat, are totally clueless about the fact that other people are disgusted by them, and have no chance whatsoever of getting a legitimate date. Take all those things people actually believe, multiply them by 10, and you’ve got this character.
The “joke” wouldn’t work if most people’s attitudes toward fat people weren’t basically ignorant and hateful. Comedy doesn’t operate in a vacuum.
Heh, I think I wear a Size VERY.
Another thing about these fat stereotype characters, especially the women, is that they almost always have ravenous libidos, and that’s what makes them “scary.” Like THAT doesn’t say a shitload about male insecurities right there.
I think that irregardless what type of “undesirable” woman you would depict, it would always imply that this sort of person isn’t worthy of having a relationship and being loved.
You could substitute the fat, sloppy woman for a rail-thin gawky klutz or a woman with a hot body but not so hot face (at least regarding Hollywood standards: e. g. big nose, bushy eyebrows, crooked teeth, whatever), but would that have made that the message any easier to stomache? No.
IMO this is just a cheap shot, very cruel and NOT funny at all, whatever way you look at it.
Amen to that.
Listen, I don’t want to make the blackface minstrel analogy to explain why “people aren’t really like that in real life” is an insufficient excuse for gross stereotyping… but I will if I have to.
I’m disgusted with the poster depicting Jessica Alba holding the suspiciously phallic-looking melting icecream cone. I’m sure that the melting icecream was PhotoShopped on afterward, but I like to think that Jessica didn’t realise how her photo was going to be used. It’s demeaning to her and to women in general. Ugh!
Tara: “Again, this is just my tiny opinion, me throwing my two cents in. I wasn’t trying to rock the boat or offend anyone.”
Tara, thanks for coming back to chime in again. I definitely wasn’t posting this as in “let’s pile on Tara!” (which of course didn’t happen, because BFD commenters rule) but I was interested in the boat rocking. I think it’s made for a really interesting conversation about why (in the opinions of some) these images are offensive and why (in other people’s minds) they are funny.
I understand a lot more where people who find humor in this stuff are coming from–though I still emphatically disagree, it’s been really interesting to talk about, and I’m glad you took the time to post your thoughts in the first place, to give us this jumping off point.
Er, okay. Carry on, everyone.
Yes, we should all hate Dane Crook.
I couldn’t care less about this movie, after hearing that Dane Cook plays a lead in it. Curious as to why I loathe America’s Favorite Eternal Teenager? (Besides his obvious annoying personality and antics) Follow this link and watch any of the relevant videos.
http://youtube.com/results?search_query=dane+cook+steals&search=
Dane Cook is almost as bad as Carlos Mencia with his stolen material.
Mhmm.
“Secondly, I’m not sure about everyone else, but I don’t know any women, large or small who eat like that. When I was bigger, I didn’t shovel food in my mouth that way, particularly when I was on a date!”
That’s the point though. Of course nobody eats like that, but there are a lot of people out there who think fat people DO shovel food in their mouths – otherwise they wouldn’t be fat! So that scene is completely reinforcing stereotypes people have about fat people, and that’s why (in my opinion) it is harmful to the fat acceptance cause.
And Karin, word.
“but there are a lot of people out there who think fat people DO shovel food in their mouths – otherwise they wouldn’t be fat!”
There are also people who think that all black women are weave wearing, gold digging chicken heads (or nappy headed hoes if your name is Imus); as a black woman I laugh that off too because those who aren’t open minded enough to see beyond the images presented to them by Hollywood or the media (and trust me I have encountered the dreaded, “those”) are either ignorant, stupid, or too lazy to get out in the world and get to know someone different from them. To be perfectly honest, other people’s stupidity and ignorance are really not my problem, whether it’s regarding race or fat acceptance. I know I can see the beauty in myself and others so as long as I can do that, I can laugh at dumb sex comedies like Good Luck Chuck and enjoy the karmic come uppance of an old asshole radio personality’s dumbness (is that a word?) costing him his job.
Here’s the thing: scriptwriters rely on stereotypes as shorthand to get people into the scene/joke/story faster. So, to back up what others have said, the shorthand wouldn’t work if it wasn’t mutually recognized — so that goes a bit counter to the “but everyone understands that isn’t true” arguement. The stereotype exists because many people believe it IS true.
That is not to say that all such shorthand is inherently bad: we use and see these devices every day. What makes something interesting or funny or entertaining is what can be done with it that is unexpected or challenging. But in this case, there appears to be no character development, no twist on the tired old theme, and as such it’s just supporting a negative cultural view of fat women, and going for the cheap laugh of the “oh look, gross!” variety. Which, to me, is not only not funny, but boring, lazy, and offensive.
Of course, humor is incredibly subjective.
Along with the over-weight issue being offensive, I was also taken aback at how they portray the other women in the movie. Making them out to be crazies who would do anything, for example, sleeping with a stranger, just so they could get married. Because we all know women can’t be happy unless they have the diamond, the bridezilla wedding, and the picket fence to seal it all in.
Meh. No I won’t be going to see this movie.
It seems to me that people who were overweight as children get a lot more offended and defensive over fat people getting made fun of than people who gained weight in adulthood. Or, is this just people I know?
I saw the trailer and just thought it looked like stupid humor from writers who can’t come up with anything original.
Emily, I would agree with you on the assessment of those who were overweight as children vs. those who became fat as adults. I can only speak for myself, of course. People who became fat as adults don’t have years of bad memories of being made fun of by their family members and/or kids at school — an experience that is replicated by seeing a theater full of people hoot at an obese person on screen.
I just thought of something….
I didn’t even know that Dane Cook had a movie coming out until I read about it here. Between the links to the trailer and peeks at the posters we’re giving this film a LOT of publicity for a group so upset about it. Just saying.
I hate stereotypes of any kind and don’t think that laughing at them is a way to “disarm” them. I think laughing at them just perpuates the stereotype and reinforces that it must be true.
That being said, I haven’t seen the trailer because I live in Chile where this movie will probably never come out. And even if it does I don’t think Dane Cook’s funny and Jessica Alba got under my skin with her, don’t ever mistake me for being latina comments. ok, so what I’m trying to politely say is I hate both of them and you couldn’t pay me to see a movie that either one of them is in.
Dane Cook is not funny. That trailer is not funny. The entire premise of the movie is misogynistic *and* also not funny.
And ditto on, like, 95% of the above comments, as everything else has been said quite eloquently.
i agree that the premise of the movie is offensive to women–saying that all women want is to land a husband (because clearly our lives are horribly miserable until a man chooses us)…the problem is, so many of us really do think that on some level (even those of us who try not to believe it because we know it’s not true).
and, the reality is, there are a lot of men out there who will not marry a fat woman. (there are also men who will, and men who prefer it, and men who are fine either way–but given our culture, i have seen fat women (like myself) get passed over very regularly.) and i guess the reason this trailer bothers me is not because it’s fundamentally not true (although, yes, the character is totally exaggerated, and it’s certainly not 100% true), but it rubs salt in the wounds of us fat women who have experienced more singleness than we would like…and who struggle to keep the hope that maybe one day we will get married.
It seems to me that people who were overweight as children get a lot more offended and defensive over fat people getting made fun of than people who gained weight in adulthood. Or, is this just people I know?
FWIW, I was a scrawny child — like, in the hospital because I couldn’t GAIN weight — and I’m seriously offended by the trailer. That’s just one person, but there you go.
Someone in connection with the Good Luck Chuck production actually posted at a fat-positive board (Dimensions) looking to cast the role of the “fat chick.” Nice, huh?
I find it hilarious that some people go on and on about how hot they think Alba is, but not one word that she was/may be “unhealthy.” (She had an eating disorder in the past and based on the recovery statistics may still have one.) But that’s okay because being unhealthy isn’t a problem if one is thin, right?
They could’ve gone in a fresh direction with this whole scenario and still kept it funny/made it funnier/made it poignant. Say Chuck is biased and thinks fat women stuff their faces constantly, don’t exercise, and cause nausea in bed. Let’s have the joke be on him when he eats “fat chick” under the table and discovers her four-times-a-week yoga class sparked her interest in tantric sex, and she ends up rocking his world in the bedroom. Punchline: he wants more, but like the other women in the film, she just added his notch to her bedpost so she’d marry her Mr. Right.
“Here’s the thing: scriptwriters rely on stereotypes as shorthand to get people into the scene/joke/story faster. So, to back up what others have said, the shorthand wouldn’t work if it wasn’t mutually recognized — so that goes a bit counter to the “but everyone understands that isn’t true” arguement. The stereotype exists because many people believe it IS true.”
So right Mizshrew! What I woul like to add: BAD AND LAZY scriptwriters. Try finding a movie that shatters stereotypes (no matter which one). Most likely, when you find it, it wasn’t made in Hollywood.
I believe “funny” is objective in the sense that if it makes you laugh, it’s funny for you. It might still be cruel, stupid, or pernicious, but that doesn’t make the funny go away.
Tara, sometimes other people’s stupidity and ignorance *are* your problem, though I grant they’re less of a problem if you don’t internalize stupidity and ignorance.
“Tara, sometimes other people’s stupidity and ignorance *are* your problem, though I grant they’re less of a problem if you don’t internalize stupidity and ignorance.”
I would have completely agreed with this statement 10 years ago, but now that I’m older I find it much easier to let the ugliness roll off. When I was in grammar school, a boy called me the “N-word”. I beat him to a pulp, went home and told my father what happened. He didn’t punish me for fighting, but after a very long talk I learned a valueable lesson about picking battles. If it weren’t for this conversation I think I’d be mad every time I turned on the TV or surfed the internet. If I were to be offended by every single negative image of women (small, large, or in between) I would then have to be angry about how the media portrayals of people of color, too. I said all of this to say that if you’re offended by the trailer, it’s completely understandable. I don’t agree with what is going in the film either. I think that Jessica Alba is beautiful but would look even better with more meat on her bones. I agree that the writers used the old tired Hollywood formula. I am well aware of the mysoginy (sp?) in Hollywood, which is why I refuse to see movies that sexualize violence toward women (i.e. Captivity, Hostel Part 2, and the majority of slasher films old and new alike). Those are the movies that truly piss me off but I guess that’s another subject altogether.
Tara, I see your point about picking your battles — it would be easy to be so angry about everything every day that we would eventually collapse in a big pile of outrage fatigue. Sometimes you just want to go to a silly movie and laugh without analyzing every damn element involved.
That said, misogyny takes many forms. Of course there are the obvious slasher-film examples that you mention, but hatred of women can also include cruel, pointless jokes designed to stigmatize and humiliate women who don’t fit some kind of adolescent boy’s fantasy ideal. Not to mention trivializing the intelligence of those who do fit the nebulous ideal.
I’m not saying that the trailer, or the movie is necessarily misogynistic, just that misogyny isn’t limited to outward and/or sexualized violence.
Again, thank you for bringing up a fascinating topic. I love reading what people think about stuff like this.
I agree with Tara on the battle-picking point and also on the fact that there she, and everyone, has the right to go see whatever movie we want without fearing backlash from those urging us to boycott it.
I for one, will not go see this movie, and to be honest I dont need a further reason than Dane Cook is in it. The trailer upset me and I think only the most childish sense of humor would find that whole concept, much less the fat jokes, utterly hilarious. I think it is interesting that Tara and someone else said they dont feel upset by this image because they dont behave that way. That implies either that there is some belief out there that there are people who behave that way or that the fact that its an exagerration makes it compeltely innocuous, neither one of which rings true. Once again, the media is telling people that women’s value is defined by their outward appearance and deviation from those norms gives others the right to laugh at you, ostracize and marginalize you. It’s not the fact that this particular woman is fat and therefore isnt going to lead the happy life of a thin woman, its that she represents the kind of women who do not subsribe to society’s ideals, whatever they may be and to whatever degree, and therefore is allowing herself to be the subject of ridicule and if shes not happy, she has no one but herself to blame.
Now I kind of want to see it so I can get even more angry. Grrrr.
What I love most is that all the blame is placed on Dane Cook, and not the various writers, producers, and other stars of the film. Kudos for thinking of the obsese population, but a big SU-FI to those who purely blame the discriminatory parts on ONE PERSON in the whole entire film.
It is easy and fun to blame Dane Cook, because this movie is just a vehicle for him, he gets the glory and fame and yet lacks any talent and personality. While Alba is the object of the “male gaze” he reflects the males in the audience and what they should be thinking. There is a reason women are not the main characters of movies like this – because the idea of a conflict experienced by a woman that all people can relate to is ludicrous. If the stereotypical female in a movie is thin and generic, with just enough quirks to ward off the yawns for 80 minutes, then he is the male side of the coin: unquestioning, brutish and undeserving of his success.
Backlash? Is there a Fat Mafia I don’t know about? (Just wonderin’:-)