Comments on: "As Crazy As It Sounds"

By: Kay

Kay — Thu, 15 May 2008 05:21:37 +0000

Zac and Nikki have a thing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1UUC8ejbGw

By: ho_cho

ho_cho — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 18:41:34 +0000

with this particular article, i dont see much use in scrutinizing it for deep meaning. in all honesty, its a fluff piece where the author relied too heavily on his(her?) thesaurus, that gushes about queen latifah, and in its attempt to be innocuous shows some glaring flaws about the relationship between the media and womens boides. and corpulent just means really fat, but i understand the fact that simply having that word there takes the article in a questionable direction.

as far as what spacedcowgirl is saying, the self hate is a symptom of a group of people that are marginalized and viewed as “different”. Part of having a voice in society as a member of that group can be a self-deprecating approach to your position. The problem is whether you are fat, gay, black, or even a woman of any type, your damned if you do and damned if you’re dont – some people will accuse you of ignoring the obvious while others of putting too fine a point on it. so just write what you feel.

By: spacedcowgirl

spacedcowgirl — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 14:34:08 +0000

Those are the most irritating words. “Beefy.” “Corpulent.” If they are really trying to be positive about the issue they could say “plus-sized,” “curvy,” “ample,” “larger” etc. if they didn’t want to keep saying “fat.” (I realize there could be some argument about those words too but I really don’t think any of them rise to the condescendingly amused level of “beefy”).

PastaQueen, of course only you know your own motives but I think there is something else that plays into it in general… a lot of weight loss bloggers seem to have sort of “taken back” these types of words and use them a lot to describe themselves in their writing.

I have mixed feelings about this because although some people are able to convey statements of fact, or a lighthearted tone, using words like “lard” or “fat,” there is a thinly veiled self-hatred that comes through many others’ writing. Like they are “owning” not only the fact that they are fat but also that fat is bad and ugly, and being a “straight shooter” in this manner almost seems like a form of penance. Or like the authors need to be hyper-aware of their fatness lest fat women be accused of getting too high and mighty and delusional enough to actually like ourselves–the old idea that nobody’s words can hurt you if you insult yourself first. “You’re not hurting my feelings, I know perfectly well I’m unhealthy and disgusting to look at.” JMO and I’m not talking about your own writing, just in general.

By: K

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 14:14:21 +0000

Anyone calls me “plumptious” will get a hard smack… (Don’t ask me why, but I really hate the word “plump”.)

Btw, it is possible to be in love with someone and not know what colour their eyes are. My mother once challenged my father on this (when they were teenagers) and he got it wrong. She married him anyway.

By: La Wade

La Wade — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 14:12:00 +0000

To clarify, I wasn’t saying that “fat” was problematic language. The article just seemed gratuitous to me in its overly cute attempts to never use the same adjective twice in referring to the fat stars of this film (see, I used it there myself!). “Corpulent” was the only term I found really troubling in and of itself, but I know this is a subject on which people differ, so I thought it might be an interesting topic for discussion!

By: DivaJean

DivaJean — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 12:10:36 +0000

I am driven crazy by euphemism for fat. Just say it.

When pointing me out in a crowd, I am the fat one with shoulder length brown hair & glasses. DOn’t try to talk around it.

By: ho_cho

ho_cho — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 05:14:05 +0000

the article is ABOUT fat people in hollywood, or lack thereof, because it is in fact an anomaly. and as pastaqueen pointed out you can only same the world so many times. furthermore, i felt it had a fat positive message, in how the author was lamenting the fact that there is no, and probably wont be, an onslaught of large, or even average sized starlets and reminiscing about voluptuous stars of the past. and i am particularly perplexed that the word “fat” was used as an example of problematic language since the person who said it was Mr. Waters himself and he said it in the context of his joy that hes played such a part in the careers of three big girls…

on a related note, i am reading liz wurtzel’s “bitch” where she talks at length about the shift from female stars being the focus of hollywood films to male stars. it is not a coincidence that as women moved to secondary positions in films, their size dwindled and their curves shrank. i think.

By: Bronwen

Bronwen — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 03:13:47 +0000

Zac Effron is totally gay. My gaydar hasn’t pinged this loud since, like, ever.

Plumptious is a fantastic word. The one that always sets my teeth on edge, though, is ZAFTIG. Drives me nuts, that word does.

By: lisa-marie

lisa-marie — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 22:32:44 +0000

Okay, Mo, I figured that. My brain is just taking everything too literally today!

By: Jade

Jade — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 21:31:22 +0000

I thought they were super cute together if they are really a couple. I saw him on the view this morning and when they asked him if he had a girlfriend and he kind of shyed around the question so I think at least half of that rumor is true ( the half about him not being with Vanessa).