American movie...Nigerian values?

While thinking more about my topic, one movie in particular popped into my mind. I remember, maybe a few years ago, clicking through TV channels in my living room, not watching anything specific. Suddenly, I came across this movie called Phat Girlz. The protagonist was an African American woman named Jazmin, played by the famous actress Monique, who was overweight and unhappy. She wanted to become thin and be considered “beautiful”- according to American societal norms- by taking diet pills and doing crash diets. The story follows her and her two friends; Stacy is also overweight and very self conscious while Mia, Jazmin’s cousin, is incredibly thin. Her life drastically changes when she wins a trip to Palm Springs with her friends. There, she meets a Nigerian doctor named Tunde who shows her that by being a bigger woman, she can be herself and still be beautiful. In some of the scenes they discuss how in Nigeria, the bigger you are, the more wealthy and beautiful you are perceived to be.

In one particular scene, the movie shows a Nigerian festival where everyone is dressed in traditional garb and eating customary food. All the women depicted were bigger than the American standard yet none of them were self conscious or saddened by their weight. Instead, they were dancing and rejoicing with a lot of confidence and femininity. In another scene, the protagonist’s cousin actually starts to gorge herself at the dinner table with food in hopes of meeting a handsome, rich Nigerian doctor. My first reaction to the movie was I wish a culture like this actually existed. How nice it would be to not worry how much I’m eating or whether I should work out more! It was very comforting to think like this while watching the movie. However, I honestly didn’t think that this body image existed in the world! I though the director or writer had just made up a world or culture where fat was beautiful. A mere story! Come to find out, this concept of beauty is true. Looking back at my thoughts and reactions to the movie, I can see how naïve I was about body image around the world. I never have really taken the time to explore different cultures and how they view ideal body types. Hopefully, after researching more about Nigerian women and their body images I can rewatch the movie and see if my perception is changed at all by the new knowledge I’ve retained.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5cUAdhOwYs&feature=PlayList&p=3860BA1129A3DD5C&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=62Here is a trailer from the movie. It is a comedy with a lot of sarcastic undertones but the references to both Nigerian body image and American body image is important.