The Culture of Obesity As Portrayed in Movies and Films

Running head: CULTURE OF OBESITY
Culture of obesity
Name
Institution
Course
Lecturer
Date
The Culture of Obesity As Portrayed in Movies and Films
Tolerance, acceptance, and withdrawal
The culture of obesity has been portrayed in different movies and films across the world and especially in America. The films try to ridicule fat people as having obesity and they are portrayed as sad and uncomfortable. Fat people in the movies are associated with heavy and bad eating habits .those with thin bodies are seen to be happy even if their eating habits are bad. Children programs and movies communicate negative message and give bad impression about overweight people (Kumanyika & Brownson, 2007). Different studies have revealed that even in children programs, overweight cartoons characters are always depicted as unattractive, unintelligent, unhappy and cruel. Studies show that in 40% of films and movies aired in televisions, at least one obese character is disliked, and obese character in children movies are shown thinking about or eating food.
The Reality TV shows are effective in show-casting health and fitness matters to many people around the world (Christenson & Ivancin, 2006). In these shows people who are moderately to morbidly obese are assembled for once-in-a-lifetime chance to get in shape, lose weight fast and win cash. The reality shows command a big mass audience, hence worthy considering how the causes, consequences and possible solutions to obesity are portrayed. In this shows the overweight contestants are exposed to physical exercises to cut their weight. Some contestants leave the show before it ends when the exercises become tougher for them, others struggle up to the end to see that their weight is cut and win the prizes.
In the film The Nutty Professor, Norbit and Shall Hal, the actors dress in big suits to look big and engage in clinched slapstick,i.e they are shown stacking in small spaces because of their big bodies (Montalbano, 2010). These actors are trying to imitate how the obese people behave in a mocking manner. They look bad while acting as overweight people and this create a lesson to the viewers. Some people stop the bad eating habits by watching these films and stick on good diet to maintain their weight.
In the hit show friends, the obese characters are shown over eating junk foods and when compared with thinner people, they less get involved in romantic relationships. In this show ‘Fat Monica’ is used as a prime example of obese people. In this show Monica is portrayed as attractive and lovable in her thin figure, but when dressed in overweight suits, Monica is portrayed as pathetic and eating all the time. This shows that men do not like to have romantic relationship with fat women likewise, slim ladies are unwilling to have a relationship with overweight men.
In Shallow hal film, the fat character like Dudley the cousin of Harry Potter is portrayed as dim-witted, greedy, mean a...