Actress Rebel Wilson was just announced last night to be the host of next year’s MTV movie awards. Which will probably be the first time I’ll be watching them since I realized when I was 14 that MTV wasn’t actually cool.
The thing I like about Rebel is that she’s exactly what her name indicates. She embraces her body-type, and has enough confidence to put herself out there. While I wouldn’t say she makes fun of herself, she doesn’t pretend to be someone she’s not. But after watching the ad for the upcoming movie awards, it concerns me that MTV is essentially continuing fat-stereotypes, which might work well for their target audience. Take a look here:
In the ad, Rebel is a prisoner, chained by her wrists, and being beaten and interrogated by three men about what she is planning (one of the men is Bridesmaids cast mate Matt Lucas). Lucas says, “If she wont talk, then she will starve.” When Lucas leaves, Rebel pulls a candy bar out of her mouth that she had secretly hidden, and eats it. HA HA. Fat people eat candy bars. Hilarious! Okay, some people may say “C’mon, it’s a joke, its funny, let it go.” But, at this year’s MTV movie awards, she also showed up in a bikini T-shirt and eating potato chips while presenting the Best Female Video nominees. While it’s cool Rebel is able to sometimes joke about who she is, I am just concerned that MTV is taking advantage of her, and perpetuating fat-stereotypes. Additionally, I also wasn’t a fan of the violence in the movie, which again, is all being marketed to an audience who might think the joke “For serious, I’m not playing with myself,” is hilarious.
I’ll still be watching, but in hopes that all the jokes aren’t centered around her weight. Maybe she’ll even help break those stereotypes. The show airs on April 14, 9/8c.
