I finally saw the film I Feel Pretty. It came out in the first part of the year and while I was given screening passes, I just couldn't go when it released. It recently came out on rent and I thought well, I'll give it a go. I was expecting something similar to Shallow Hall ( a favorite comedy film of mine), except maybe from the perspective of the female. Unfortunately the producers were trying to hard to appease our current feel good social justice warrior society to actually be funny or even poignant.
In the film Amy Schumer plays an average looking girl with a couple of extra points who feels if she was just beautiful she could have everything she wanted. She hits her head in an exercise class and suddenly see's herself as beautiful. This is not made completely clear by the way until she actually says, my biggest dream was to be beautiful, which is near the end of the film. Instead the film seems to show Schumer more being a person who lacks self confidence. That's where the trouble stars. The film isn't sure if it wants the leading character to just lack confidence or to actually lack ..beauty. This means the film has trouble being funny, because you can't make fun of the leading character for the very thing the movie is about because it is taking itself a little to serious. The film is about a person who suddenly thinks she is far more beautiful than she is, if that is where you want to go, you need to run with that.You don't need to give the idea out that perhaps its just a confidence thing, when it really is a I want everyone to think I am beautiful thing, because those are not the same things.
You see there is an idea that is being pushed that everyone is equally beautiful out there and well...if we just had more confidence, if we just loved ourselves more, if we just ignored the trolls, we could all see it. That, of course isn't true. Some people are in fact, more beautiful than others. What everyone seems to be afraid to say these days is we are not equal. In fact no matter how beautiful a person is, trust me, someone out there is more beautiful. That's just how it is. There are people who are more intelligent than others, there are people who are more creative or funnier. We just aren't all born the same.We actually, genetically, aren't all equal.
The real lesson this film should have taught us is that we don't actually need validation from others to feel good about ourselves. The movie can't teach that lesson if its to afraid to make the statement that yes, some people are more attractive than others. My goodness I saw people stating that Schumer was in fact to attractive the even play this role. *sigh*..OK ladies, I'm going to tell you what you dad or mom or big sister should have sat you down and told you....I'm going to do what this movie should have done.
In this word there will be people who don't like you, and there will be people who do like you but most people will be fairly ambivalent about you. That's just life. Some people will be mean to you for no real good reason. It's not becasue they are jealous or any good reason other than, it's something for them to do. The important thing to remember is, if someone doesn't like you, does it really matter that much? Why do you really care about what people who aren't part of your actual life think of you.. Someone out there will like you and care about you, and enjoy your company and yes, think you are beautiful. The rest doesn't really matter to much. I'm not saying don't work on yourself. The way you look does matter, I won't lie to you. You have one body, take care of it. What I am saying is we can't all be models anymore than we can all be scientists or doctors or famous musicians. What I'm saying is that even models get criticized, believe me. What I'm saying is focusing to much on the opinion of others is the problem, not the reality that some people are a size 2 and some people are a size 16 and the beauty standard is 2.
The fact is, all the confidence in the world won't make everyone think you are beautiful, but wouldn't it be great if we could actually go ahead and admit that in todays world? ....becasue unfortunately when we can't come out and say that, what we are really saying is that being beautiful matters way more than it actually does. Want a better example of a lessen in why it's ok to not be perfect? Try the Twilight Zone episode Number 12 Looks just like you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLbLupvIe1w
