White, thin, blonde and wealthy. Those 4 words are what categorized every main character in the movies and television shows I watched while growing up. My world revolved around aspiring to be like Miley Cyrus from her Hannah Montana days or Elle Woods from Legally Blonde. The closest taste of diversity I experienced was London Tipton, who was thin and Asian and took on the “Dumb rich blonde” role. Heavier females were usually the funny characters who were clueless and tried hard to fit in. For example, “Trish” who is played by Raini Rodriguez in the Disney show Austin and Ally. She was comical, picked on for her looks and was not the main character. My point is, heavier woman are used in movies to try to be diverse. But is it really working? They are usually used in an episode that will focus on not bullying people that look like them. When in reality, we should normalize making them the main character, making them the bully, the rich one, etc. Instead of forcing this idea of loving yourself for being chunky, when most children probably don’t even question their weight.
This leads me into the Netflix original film “Dumplin” that is directed by Anne Fletcher. This movie is considered a Comedy and Drama film. What’s so comedic you ask? The heavy-set girl. And no, not the heavy-set girl who plays the main character either, but the heavier girl who is once again playing the “funny” and “clueless” role. My take on this film is that it was created to make girls who are heavier feel like they are heard and show that they can defy the beauty standard odds too. But was that really accomplished in this film? Let’s do a little timeline. The storyline starts off Willowdean Dickson, daughter of the beauty pageant queen (Rosie Dickson) sharing her story on her nickname and introducing her childhood best friend. It moves on to Willowdean running for their small Texas town pageant to spite her thin, blonde, pageant winning mother. Bo, the hot new boy in town, gains and expresses his feelings towards the plus size main character Willowdean, also known and Dumplin. Willowdean questions, why her? Why not the towns high school princess herself? Beckah Cotter. Ahh, Beckah Cotter. Another prime example of making a thin, Caucasian female the beauty queen of the film.
I believe that the point of the film is to “normalize” heavy set females. But personally, I feel like if anything, it does more harm than good by pointing them out. If I were to produce a film where I wanted to normalize plus size females in the industry, I would simply make them the lead. I wouldn’t have them doubt their self-worth, blatantly state their body type on film or make them “funny” to fit in. I wouldn’t have them question on film why the hot boy of the town likes them either. Simply because, if anything it is showing that it’s not normal for these incidents to occur. Rather than normalizing situations like this. No one ever question why Troy liked Gabriella with her weight in question. But I bet if Martha Cox from high school musical were to get with Troy Bolton it would have to be a part of the episodes script to point that out.
This review is never to bash females who fit into the “blonde, thin, wealthy” stereotype. Because honestly, there’s nothing wrong with that. Skinny shaming is truly just as bad as fat shamming a person. This review is to open the eyes of directors and producers and show them other effective ways to make heavier girls the main character in movies without making a joke out of them or making them feel uncomfortable. Oh, and by the way. This movie is still one of my favorite movies. Surprise!
