Wall-E accused of Fascism. Um, I mean Fattism.
Wall-E, the hero of Pixar's latest huge success, has waddled into an unexpected spat.
About fat.
If you have not yet seen the movie, I won't spoil the story.
However, I can tell you that the second half depicts human beings as obese, lazy, mindless slobs who glide around on lounge chairs, slurping humoungously-proportioned cupcake drinks as their flab flaps in the slipstream.
This vision of the future is, naturally, a vast stretch.
However, the National Association To Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA) is largely unamused.
At its conference in LA, which ends today, the organization enjoyed entertainment from the Fatimas, declared its members' determination to make the word 'fat' their own and much private debate apparently whirled around the deleterious influence of Wall-E.
The Wall-E debate seems to have been begun by Ms. Rachel Richardson.
She voiced her concerns about Wall-E's anti-fat depictions even before the movie came out.
On her blog, 'The F-Word,' she accused Pixar of 'fat-bashing.'
"WALL-E specifically singles out and targets obese people as the primary cause of mankind's demise," she wrote.
(Credit:
Zac-Attack)
This use of words seemed a little careless as NAAFA, for example, believes supposedly PC words such as 'obese' or 'overweight' are not merely sad attempts at largesse. They are moral judgments, created by thin people to suppress their more sizable brethren, just as certain world leaders of the past attempted to champion only the perfect eugenic specimens.
Anyway, in her next post worrying about Wall-E's poisonous effects, Ms. Richardson wrote:
"The real truth is that people just don't care that others are being discriminated against, as long as it's not directed their way. They don't - or won't - see how such stereotypes harm both fat and thin people, and contribute to an environment where a recent study of teen girls reveals they'd rather be blinded or lose a limb instead of becoming fat."
Ms.Richardson continued to express her concerns in a post yesterday.
Ms. Marilyn Wann, another fat-tivist, who has her own site, Fat!so?, was quoted by the Daily Telegraph's site as having told London's Sunday Telegraph:
"Pixar should be out of business for portraying this level of prejudicial bigotry-mongering. These are 19th-century hatreds repackaged in modern animation. It's amazing."
Here's the truly amazing thing, though.
Ms. Richardson, for example, hasn't seen the movie.
She does, however, reference those who accuse Pixar of 'lazy logic' by equating environmental collapse with overconsumption.
I'd be a little more interested if she and other fat-tivists wrote about how they felt having actually seen the movie. Would they feel better about it? Or even worse? Would they order the large popcorn? (Yes, I am ashamed of that last question. I am weak. I am in the stranglehold of stereotypes. I watch too much Sarah Silverman. Please save me.)
As it stands, isn't it something of a stereotype confirmation to criticize a movie you haven't bothered to actually see? Isn't this the very logic of the lazy she is warning us against?
In any case, fat-tivist critics are surely missing the deep-seated, positive message of Wall-E's remarkable story.
There he is with his tiny little neck and sweet little binocular eyes. And his rather disproportionately large belly.
The thing is, he puts that belly to such good use. He takes the waste that overconsumers have left behind and makes pretty little buildings out of it.
Surely that's what Pixar is getting at.
The Obesity of Hope.
Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. 
***SPOILER ALERT***
Plus it showed the captain of the Axiom [a fat guy] doing the right thing, getting rid of his complacency and fighting the autopiliot, and eventually leading humans back to earth to do the right thing. While it showed humans at first as just sickening, resource-consuming blobs, the scene where the captain stood up and fought showed that they still had their humanity beneath the stereotype.
***END SPOILER***
It's a difficult charge to answer, considering the movie doesn't do this at all. In the movie, mankind's demise is not brought about by obese people, it is brought about by complacency and the subversive affects of dependency. (In this case, on excessive automation.) Sloth and gluttony are deadly sins, after all. Take a society that consumes without limit and has every action short of thinking and speaking taken care of by robots, and what do you get?
Disclaimer: Not all who are overweight are sloths, or gluttons, or both... of course. (It's absurd I even have to say so, but these are the times.) Not are sloths are overweight. Not all gluttons are overweight. But if you combine the two, well... The deadly sins all grow from the same source: Pride. Watch the movie Ms. Wann, and pay attention. Check your pride at the door, and you'll see the movie is not about you.
Obese people are shown as good people in the WALL-E movie, but I guess that there is no other way to get noticed. There is clearly an error in this person's logic, and above all, watch the movie, then i will listen to your opinions
Furthermore, these comments were made in the fall, and were based upon the reviews of critics Pixar permitted to view the then unfinished version of the film. From what I read and understand, Pixar has considerably toned down the discriminatory characterizations of fat people in the final version released to the public. I posted an addendum on the original post noting the date discrepancies, which you apparently ignored. So, the comments you cite above and erroneously attribute to Marilyn Wann are also cited out of context.
It seems not only are humans lazy, but so too are some bloggers and journalists. Be sure to do your homework next time.
The post is amended accordingly.
However, I would be really interested to see what you actually thought of the movie. As would quite a few of the readers here.
I quote their words: "Miss Wann said the film company would never have considered stereotyping black people "dancing a jig" in the way they have done so with fat people.
She added: "Pixar should be out of business for portraying this level of prejudicial bigotry-mongering. These are 19th-century hatreds repackaged in modern animation. It's amazing."
I have amended this post accordingly.
Jasonbryanmiller, you're in for a pretty miserable life if you have decided that you simply will. not. accept. fat. Fat people have always existed, they continue to exist, and no amount of handwringing on your part or the part of the media has managed to eradicate them yet. Barring internment camps, we aren't going anywhere. Your choice if you want to live in misery, because so far as I can tell, you're going to keep seeing us everywhere you go. It might be a good idea to get used to it. I think it's called "tolerance." Have you heard a word like that before? I know it's a rough concept, but you should consider it.
As to the health, start googling "Obesity Paradox." It's a real eye-opener. In fact, for crying out loud, educate yourself instead of just mouthing what you hear like a ventriloquist's dummy.
By the way, no one has ever figured out a way to make thin people permanently fat, any more than they have figured out a way to make fat people thin. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/08/health/08fat.html Actual studies help here. See? It's just that simple.
Thank you for your comment. There are screaming voices on both sides. Which is not necessarily a good thing.
However, I'd be really interested to know whether you've seen this particular Pixar movie and whether you think it makes the situation worse. Is it 'nasty bigotry'?
"'Pixar should be out of business for portraying this level of prejudicial bigotry-mongering. These are 19th-century hatreds repackaged in modern animation. It's amazing.'
In fact, these words have been now claimed by Ms. Richardson."
If you had bothered to read further, you will also know that I am not claiming anything of the sort nor do my comments on the film that has been released to the public indicate a boycott of Pixar or even that Pixar has done any wrong here. I fully admit that I have not seen the film and I specifically state that I will withhold my personal judgment on the version that has been released to the public until after I have seen it. In the meantime, I offered a link to a review on Slate.com from someone who has seen the film for my readers and then invite their comments and perspectives. In fact, I even go on to extol my love for Pixar and its films, and my advocacy of the environmental messages I see emanating from the film.
Please choose your own words more carefully and please do not put words into mine. I find it very unsettling that this kind of "journalism" is coming from a site owned by CBS, an otherwise reputable news organization of high ethics and integrity.
All that 'Mr. Matyszczyk' was not making me feel good at all.
I really wish you would go see the movie, though.
As I think it would extremely valuable to hear about how it made you FEEL, rather than what the stuff you've heard about it makes you think.
I hope I have now attributed all the right quotes to the right people.
Whether a movie makes things worse? It's possible, in that it can contribute to an atmosphere of hatred and solidify people's prejudices. But like I pointed out, there really are people dying, people having their children taken away, the media blames the fat for global warming (no, seriously) and the government in the US has declared "obesity" a greater threat than terrorism...honestly, I don't know how much movies had to do with getting us to this point, but I really doubt they're going to make much difference one way or the other. So I'd probably say it's possible the movie is nastily bigoted, but I'm not sure how much it matters. I might complain about it if it is, but I guess I'd try to keep it in perspective. As I'm quite sure Rachel did, by the way.
- by dbowker3D July 27, 2008 7:41 PM PDT
- Sometimes the truth hurts... I saw Wall-E for the second time today, and it is indeed damning of over consumption and the relentless modern push towards convenience and "ease". The obesity depicted however is a by-product of those elements, not the direct cause per se. However, it ends (spoiler alert) on a hopeful note and sees the people take responsibility to reclaim the Earth and themselves. I just hope we don't have to wait 700 years until we start taking care of ourselves and the planet that sustains us.
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