Body positivity in movies

By Alexis Kominos

I have been noticing a lot of posts around social media about the movie, I Feel Pretty, starring Amy Schumer. At first, the movie looked like a comedy with good meaning behind it. As I looked further into it, there were some aspects of the movie that made me confused and swayed my

opinion about the th eme in a diffe rent direction. The theme was meant to be about how there has been a drastic rise in society's harsh view on the perspective of beauty on women, and even the masculinity of men as well, and that people should be happy with the way they are. Although that is a statement that many people make, the movie does not do a good job portraying self-love and the meaning of the movie is took a wrong turn.

In the movie, a woman named Renee, played by Amy Schumer, deals with insecurities and dissatisfaction of her own body and how she looks. One day she falls off a stationary bike and hits her head. When she wakes up, she looks into the mirror and believes she is beautiful with a model-like figure, hugely contrasting to how she thought about herself before. She lives on with her life with the thought that she is drop-dead gorgeous and her confidence has significantly increased. She now wears what she wants, and lives how she wants without a care as to what others think of her. A man even falls in love with her because her confidence really set her off from the rest. It is shown that her life has clearly changed due to her head injury.

Many people might believe that this movie is trying to teach women, and even men, to be confident and that they really can act how they want, and be who they want.  However, it’s personally confusing and its message is that Renee had to fall off a bike and hit her head noticeably hard to gain self-confidence and believe she is better looking than she really is. Are self-esteem and confidence really that hard to come by that people need to have a severe head injury? This is more metaphorical, but the fact that Renne could not learn to love herself and for herself without her concussion shows that the movie took a wrong turn and the message is being noticeably misunderstood by many people including myself. The movie should promote body positivity and different ways to gain self confidence. But in reality, it is a story about how a woman did not love herself or feel accepted and had to get hit in the head to feel any different.

Along with the previous observation, this movie could also be offensive to other people who are larger than her. As many people could see by watching the movie, Amy Schumer, playing Renee is not a grotesque person. The movie puts her in the protagonist position saying that she does not have the ideal body for the modern society to accept her. Other people may weigh more than her or think they look worse than her. With that opinion could bring many negative thoughts about oneself. This may apply to all viewers seeing this movie and anticipating that there will be a good message, but end up feeling worse about themselves.


A Freshman, Iyana Mohammed, saw the movie and had some of the same feelings as I did. She claims, “I felt like at the end of the movie the message was clear,  but I understand why people didn’t like the movie because if you’re someone that is a bit bigger you could take it in the wrong way. For example, she entered into a Bikini contest and was showing off her rolls because she thought she had abs. Also, it made it seem like all the girls that are skinny are either very stuck up or don’t like the way they look.” Along with my opinions I have on the movie theme, other people noticed that it was not a good portrayal of body positivity. Gillian Marx, a Junior at Glenelg High School, speaks her opinion about body standards and the extent they have risen to this day in age. She stated, “I think that people these days, especially teenagers, put a lot of pressure on themselves to meet the high expectations of their peers.” The media should really be working on trying to defend body standards and help people who don’t feel amazing about themselves. The movie, I Feel Pretty, tried to do so, but did not make the mark.

I believe the movie was meant to be about not caring what other people think, but it turned out to be a triggering movie about body shaming. Amy Schumer is not ugly or fat, so the role of her believing that she is terrible looking doesn't fit the theme and should have been thought over carefully after releasing a movie about self-confidence and personal beliefs on one's own body. At first the movie, I Feel Pretty, seemed like a lighthearted, humorous movie, but further analyzing it, I noticed that it wasn’t as it seemed to be.