piranha | how not to defend yourself

david edelstein's review of the movie precious got sniped at by the folks at jezebel.

so now he defends himself, because he, david edelstein, isn't racist or sizeist, noooo:

"I’ve had weight issues all my life. My mother, an M.D., once treated obesity (or tried like hell) and in filling in for her receptionist in my late teens I saw what women in the African-American community with a certain body type and metabolism were up against — especially since they were surrounded by crap food"

*sigh*. that really needs no further commentary, does it.

he makes the entire movie, in which the protagonist's size is merely one aspect of her (and not the one causing her the most trouble by any stretch of the imagination), about her damn weight:

"In the context of movies, her image is a shock; it throws you violently outside your normal frame of reference, forcing you to rethink your assumptions."

"your" assumptions? not mine! not those of anyone who's fat!

"Here is an obese, black-skinned (as opposed to latte-colored), pregnant, illiterate, poor girl: She has everything against her. And Daniels, like Sapphire, continues to pile on the abuses. She is sexually assaulted by both parents. She is beaten into unconsciousness with a cast-iron pan. She is kicked in the face giving birth. She is expelled from school for being pregnant — not even her fault but the result of her father’s rape. She has AIDS."

the movie isn't about her weight! if one sees her weight as "front and center" as he does, that speaks only about one's sizeist prejudice.

i haven't seen the movie, and from what i've read it's too damn depressing for me to see it -- and it smells just a wee bit of "human suffering" porn, which i generally avoid because i am damn well aware of human suffering and don't need it poured over me in gallons. i can't speak to edelstein's racist prejudices. but his sizeist ones are well in evidence, highlighted by his very defense.