social change a marathon not a sprint
Last night I took myself to see Brittany Runs a Marathon, and I really enjoyed it, even more than I already expected to, to the point that I kind of surprised myself by giving it an A-. I nearly gave it a solid A, until I realized how slightly unsatisfying I found a few of the peripheral characters, which I quite liked and wanted to be fleshed out more.
I suppose I should have known a movie like this would be polarizing, though; the MetaCritic score of 74 is actually more than respectable, but the movie has also gotten a certain amount of backlash, particularly from people who, I suppose, can best be described as "fat activists." Consider this tweet by Guy Branum, who is both gay and fat (these things are relevant to the discussion), and is a comedian I like, admire and respect. He shares a point of view from another writer, whose Twitter name is "Your Fat Friend," which he clearly endorses: "Brittany Runs A Marathon" markets itself as a progressive counterpoint to diet culture. It’s not.
I kind of lost patience with the Medium piece this references pretty early on. "When the doctor tells her to lose weight, she reacts with shock, dismay, and shame, as if this is the first time someone has suggested to her that she is fat." Um, I saw the movie, and Brittany was clearly being sarcastic -- I think we're supposed to know this has been suggested to her many times already.
The piece actually has a few valid points embedded in it here and there, but, I think, missed the overall point of the movie, and actually exemplifies too many knee-jerk reactions of defensive fat people. The author may have seen the movie, but it's ridiculous how many people on Twitter then chimed in with their own stupid judgments, even though they either admit they have not actually seen the movie themselves or have allowed this particular judgment to make them decide they won't see it. The piece even asserts that the lead character is played by a thin woman in a fat suit, which is flat out wrong; Jillian Bell literally lost 40 lbs during the filming of the movie.
I wish more of other people's reviews had focused on what was really the main point that really moved me in the film: the idea of getting out of such crushing self-hatred that you realize you're worthy of love and support. As far as I'm concerned, the movie not being absolutely perfect in its position amidst a decades-long, broader cultural discussion about body image and body acceptance is not nearly as important. What is important is the story of a deeply insecure woman learning her own self-worth. Sure, that's a lesson that could be learned through a story that did not involve weight loss, but this was written by a guy who loosely based the story on her roommate, who went through essentially the same process, losing weight with the goal of running the New York City Marathon.
I loved this movie and I still think everyone should see it.
Anyway, I went to the 6 pm showing at the Egyptian, thanks to the AMC Seattle 10 still being "temporarily closed" -- ticketing on the AMC Theatres app appears to have been restored, finally, today -- and got back home around 8:00. I ate the palak paneer dish Shobhit made out of our big bag of Costco spinach, with some rice, for dinner and then spent roughly and hour on the review. I was in bed and zonked out shortly before Shobhit got home from work.
I had my quarterly doctor appointment today, in-person visits being mandated by Dr. Brandon after I tested positive for chlamydia a third time last visit, from just a throat swab. He had forgotten about that this morning and had to be reminded when I said so, and then he looked at the details of the history on his computer screen. On the plus side, the two times I tested positive before, both from anal swabs, were both last year, the most recent nearly a year ago, in October -- I had not realized it had been so long already. So that's good, at least: that one positive result this year notwithstanding, it still means I have been far more consistently responsible this year than I was last year.
I'm not sure what to say about my last test results; condoms for oral play just isn't really ever going to happen. Oddly, Dr. Brandon was surprisingly skeptical at today's appointment about that positive test result, and he actually said he suspects it may have been a false positive. Well, who knows? It may also have been genuine. We'll see once this round of test results come in.
I'm getting better at dealing with getting blood drawn, now that it's happening every three months and has been for a couple of years. I still avert my eyes and take care not to look upon the blood vials or the needle or anything like that. My hyperventilating once I feel the prick into my skin is of much shorter duration than it used to be, though. Maybe one of these days I'll finally be over it completely.
Beyond all that, between coming in late due to the doctor appointment this morning, a rare meeting I have to attend at 12:30, and a rare scheduled phone call set for 2:00 this afternoon, I am nowhere near where I wanted to be by this point with this week's work load. So I guess I better get this posted and get back to work!
[posted 12:23 pm]