Being Ugly: Revisiting Shallow Hal During the Rise of Anti Fat Sentiment
It started as a mess, aged poorly for years, then ended up having some merit?
(Credit: IMDb)
Shallow Hall is the 2003 film, starring Jack Black as Hal who, upon taking the advice of his father on his deathbed, only dates women who embody the “perfect” physical form. That all changes after Hal has a random run in with self-help guru, Tony Robbins, who takes intrigue in Hal’s shallowness. Robbins puts Hal under hypnosis so that he sees the true inner beauty, and ugly, of every new person he meets, including his new found love, Rosemary, a fat character played by Gwenyth Paltrow. If you’ve never seen the movie, To clarify: everyone sees a fat Rosemary, but Hal sees a skinny Rosemary, because he sees her inner beauty, and beauty = skinny - get it?
Credit: IMDb
I was working while Tubi was playing in the background and Shallow Hal popped up on my screen. I love baddie fatty legend, Jack Black, so I absent mindedly let it play. 20 minutes in what was supposed to be a light hearted hate watch, turned into this blog you’re reading now, that no one asked for. You won't hear me say Shallow Hal is a classic film and I despise the fact that Gwennathon Paltrow wears a fat suit and “plays” a fat person. It especially stings when Paltrow has made Disordered Eating and being thin, and most importantly being morally superior because she’s NOT fat, her brand for decades. Though we know Paltrow is not a fat person, The Rosemary character IS a fat person who has lived in a fat body, which is what makes this film a bit more tolerable. While this may not be a good movie, Shallow Hal is an honest movie, as it showcases how society treats fat people who are merely trying to exist, or in Rosemary’s case, trying to date.
In the film, everyone STAYS talking shit about Rosemary as she’s damn near a celebrity because of her size. When she and Hal begin their budding romance, every time Rosemary leaves the room, someone’s pulling on Hal’s ear, dehumanizing Rosemary for her size. Specifically his certified 2, bald headed friend, Mauricio (Jason Alexander), who made it his mission to break up Hal and Rosemary just because HE felt like Rosemary was not attractive enough for Hal. The irony of two shallow mediocre white men judging women of any size or feature so harshly holds a mirror to other men, of their nonsensical bias against fat women. The film also acts as a mirror to society and the violent language in regards to fat and disabled bodies, with thin and / or able bodied characters talking amongst themselves, putting their fat and disabled friends on blast! Even Rosemary’s own father (Joe Viterelli)!!!!!!! A fat himself!!!!! Is Rosemary’s biggest hater. During a “meet the parents” dinner with Rosemary’s parents, her father, who is Hal’s boss, tells Hal to drop the act, as he knows his daughter is limited because of her looks.
Credit: IMDb
At this point, I pause the movie and think: When you’re fat…you’ll always have someone talking behind your back and calling it big. Even your own family. And while Hal was able to put Rosemary’s father in his place, in the real world, I doubt Hal would be able to change the mind of a parent of a fat child.
We have not moved the needle very far from societal attitudes since Shallow Hal dropped, despite the body positive movement that happened briefly in between then and now. There has been an uptick in fatphobic sentiment and it’s cool to hate fat people again. According to the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA), there arevery few laws that specifically outlaw discrimination based on body size. In 2019 alone, body size discrimination harmed34 million Americans. This discrimination denies people necessary or life-saving medical treatment, contributes to financial inequality, and creates serious mental health challenges. Injustices like this become even more complicated when they’re intertwined with systemic racism, sexism, and other efforts to deny the humanity of fat people.
Credit: IMDb
As a baddie fattie, it’s been disheartening and stressful, but I have some hope. As fat activists like Samyra fight for fashion equality or the NAAFA’s fight for us in legislation, millions of others fight for us in medical and professional spaces. Despite this, Shallow Hal confirms that the world is cruel to those who are different and “undesirable.” This conversation has recently come up on Tiktok: pretty privilege, ugly privilege, what it means to be Beautiful with a capital B and Ugly with a capital U, as scholar Da’Shaun L. Harrison describes it in their book, Belly of the Beast. Many Black women creators have come forward with their experience being treated poorly because they’re deemed “ugly.” A lot of these creators have been met with dismissive remarks, some missing the point completely, with the rebuttal of “you’re not even ugly/ fat / xyz.” I was mistaken and thought the same as those commenting.
Being “ugly” or “pretty” is complicated. In some rooms I’ve experienced fuggo treatment and also been victimized by lookism. But as a light skinned fat person, I have also benefited from its system of social positionality. Is it “looks” that we are being treated poorly for, or is it racism, colorism, sexism, fatphobia, ableism, BIGOTRY? Or is lookism its own separate sub genre of bigotry? Political commentator, Olayemi Olurin has an awesome discussion on looksim, that left me with even more questions. As people who exist in bigger bodies, why must we “accept” that we’re ugly rather than accepting that others may think we’re are ugly? What good is it to agree with a beauty standard that never had non white features in mind? The Black women creators who have come forward remind us that if we do not examine and unpack our bias, the harm will never stop. “Ugly Laws” are real, people do experience harm for being perceived as “UGLY” specifically, desirability politics do run the show, and perhaps Shallow Hal acts as an ugly reminder of it all, too.
Credit: IMDb