i have wanted to watch the movie Pitch Perfect for years now. the concept and theme are right up my alley, and who doesn’t love an underdog story? 9 years since its release, i finally watched it.
one of the reasons i wanted to watch it was because of the actress Rebel Wilson. she’s a fat actress and we rarely see fat actresses on screen.
about 15 minutes into the movie, as the fictional a capella group, The Barden Bellas, is in the process of assembling its team for the year, it became clear what the creative/executive team behind the movie not only thought of fat people, but what they thought of Asians and Blacks. to be more precise, what they thought of Asian women, Black women, and fat women.
to the creative/executive team, it was funny to have a character who wants to sing, but is made to be so quiet that she is on the verge of being silent. i don’t think it’s a coincidence that this character is Asian. Asians are stereotypically hard-working and obedient; the women stereotypically submissive and not courageous. why give an Asian woman an actual voice and let her not only speak normally, but also sing in a normal tone? i winced every time the actress was on screen having to speak (and sing!) barely above a whisper. the most horrific scene is that the creative/executive team found it funny to have this character land in a pool of vomit and then make vomit(“snow”)-angels. i mean, how much more degrading could you make a near-silenced character be? on top of that, the only other Asian character was Becca’s roommate who, like the Barden Bella teammate, was nearly-silenced. she spoke very little and had a consistent scour on her face. She was also consistently annoyed at her brooding roommate, Becca, (played by Anna Kendrick) who would try to talk to her, but was always stonewalled. again, it’s apparently funny to not let Asian characters, especially Asian women, have a voice.
also, to the creative/executive team, it was funny to have a testosterone-driven lesbian character. i don’t think it’s a coincidence that this character was Black. the creative/executive team gets to feel good about themselves - “Hey, look! We’re woke! We have an LGBQTI character!” - and - “Hey, look! We have a Black person in our cast!” but…when you read in between these token lines, all you have is a stereotype that a Black woman cannot be feminine because that threatens the fragility of the white members of the a capella team. to make the Black character more masculine, she poses no competitive threat to the other women whether it’s in singing or in romance. in addition, the creative/executive team never has this character explicitly define their sexuality leaving the issue in limbo and, if the character really *is* a lesbian, they keep her silenced. why? to be clear, her sexuality makes no difference with whether the team can do a good job singing, but if you’re going to jump into the “inclusivity” pool, don’t half-ass it. LGBQTI people are just that first: people. not jokes or mysteries.
lastly, and to the character closest to my heart: Fat Amy played by Rebel Wilson. i mean, the name itself is an eye roll. she explains this name to a shocked Aubrey (played by Anna Camp), by saying she’d rather say “Fat Amy” up front than have “bitches” call her that behind her back. by explaining it away like that, the creative/executive team takes themselves off the hook for perpetuating stereotypes about fat people. the character literally becomes a label while everyone else is allowed to use a simple name. why is the fat person separated simply because she’s fat? Rebel has a great voice. and, if not Rebel, whoever were to take the role would have had to have a great voice because that’s what the movie called for and, so, why is that not enough?
and, as if the word “Fat” attached to the character’s name isn’t bad enough, the character, like most fat characters in movies, is the comic relief by perpetuating the most stupid stereotypes ever. there’s a bit where cardio is discussed and Fat Amy is the only one who doesn’t want to do it. when they all have to run around, Fat Amy is caught laying down joking that she’s running “horizontally.” it’s so easy to peg a fat person as not wanting to exercise and, while there are those who don’t like it, i have a secret to tell you: i have known thin people throughout my life who don’t like to exercise either, but weirdly, that’s not so funny and no one bats an eyelash. is that shocking to you? keep reading cause i have another secret to divulge: i was fat growing up and i used to play volleyball in elementary school, in high school, and college. and i’m fat now and i exercise whenever my schedule permits. has your head exploded? i hope so.
fat. people. exercise.
to make them the butt of the joke that they don’t want to exercise, or don’t like to exercise, perpetuates this myth. how about writers use their brain and come up with actual jokes for someone like Rebel Wilson to tell? ones that don’t involve in perpetuating *myths* especially if they want to see themselves on the silver screen.
one last mega-eye roll about this movie has to do with the fact that the creative/executive team decided it’d be funny to have Fat Amy make “jokes” (if you can call them that) at the expense of Jews. these “jokes” aren’t funny and, in my humble opinion, are examples of more lazy writing. there’s a scene towards the beginning of the movie where Fat Amy approaches a table at the college Activities Fair and she starts making Jewish jokes. the table seemed to be a club for DJs, so i wasn’t sure why Jewish “jokes” seemed appropriate at this time, but what she said was offensive and made no contribution to the story in any way. there were so many other one-liners that Fat Amy could’ve been given. a few scenes later, she tells Aubrey that she’s giving her hair style a Jewish name. her hair style was simply a high ponytail with strands going down the side of her face. why was it necessary to compare her hair to a Hasidic Jew? i don’t get the “joke,” but because she’s a fat character, she’s given these bad “jokes” which only paint fat people in an even worse picture: “Fat people aren’t funny. They’re pathetic.” as a fat person, i’m no longer hurt by these stereotypes. i’m pissed.
however, despite all these blatant wtf’s, i still love the concept of the movie. i do feel, though, that it lost such a great opportunity to make great headway into bringing in a diverse group of people and showcasing their talents. music unifies and the movie’s arrangements and performances were top-notch (the scene where all the a capella groups have a riff-off is one of my favorite musical scenes ever), but the creative/executive team chose to insert stereotypes that taint the movie for me. i can’t unsee these choices, nor can i unsee these choices continuously being made in hollywood which begs the question, when is hollywood going to actually let people showcase their talents instead of perpetuating myths? perhaps the Pitch Perfect TV series on Peacock will get it right, but i'm not holding my breath.
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