Wall-E... not so phat

After wanting to see Wall-E since it first came out, I finally saw the movie tonight.

Overall, I loved most of the movie.

I loved how Wall-E and "Eva" are robots that manage to save a declining spaceship of humans [and the planet earth] while falling in love.

Ahhh.

Sigh.

The movie has much to say about consuming and the environment. Humans basically destroy the planet for a very long time because of mass consumerism and the trash it produces.

Of course I don't mind a little jab at consumerism from the movie industry, even if it is a bit ironic coming from Disney who is probably at this moment creating quite a lot of Wall-E products that will eventually end up in the trash.

Still, I was quite uncomfortable with the viewpoint on humans. In the film, humans are so entrapped in the "everything is about my comfort" mentality that they become very large and not so smart. In a way I can understand what the movie is trying to say about our bloated society by demonstrating a very bloated human in the end. But this line of thinking contributes to the very real stereotype in our society that fat people are lazy, stupid, and harmful to society.

When I got home tonight I found that I'm not the only one who was concerned about this "fat" message:

Slate writes,

"According to this lazy logic, a fat body stands in for a distended culture: We gain weight and the Earth suffers. If only society could get off its big, fat butt and go on a diet!

But the metaphor only works if you believe familiar myths about the overweight: They're weak-willed, indolent, and stupid. Sure enough, that's how Pixar depicts the future of humanity. The people in Wall-E drink "cupcakes-in-a-cup," they never exercise, and if they happen to fall off their hovering chairs, they thrash around like babies until a robot helps them up. They watch TV all day long and can barely read.

It ought to go without saying that this stereotype of the "obese lifestyle" is simply false." (Engber, 08)

It saddens me because it is one more piece of media [especially focused on children] that leads to the same conclusion of fear of one's body.

This in a society when most girls would already rather be stupid, blind, or run over by a truck that be fat. And 81% of ten year olds are afraid of being fat. And at least 10 million women have dangerous eating disorders. {National Eating Disorders Association)

In the end I really liked Wall-E... especially if the movie can be a platform to further educate people on body stereotypes in the media...

Did you see Wall-E? What did you think?