The Tale of Po, The Kung Fu Panda

***SPOILER ALERT***

IF YOU READ BEYOND THIS YOU MAY READ THINGS ABOUT THE MOVIE YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED IT YET

I had not given this movie much attention in the trailer days prior to it's opening, and wasn't even considering going to see it until our local drive in guy said that he too had passed it by thinking it would suck, until he watched it for previewing, and decided to show it on opening day as the family movie of the summer. He called it the "underestimated hit of the summer".


Well the kids saw a neigborchild with a panda toy from McD's and wanted one too, and I decided that perhaps we'd go see it anyway, for the kids.

Well, the kids loved it, but *I* loved it too.

At first, They introduced us to Po, the fat panda who loved Kung Fu so much, his natural curiosity caused him to be accidentally ( but remember there are no accidents) picked to be the one who would fight the evil character, much to the distaste of the Kung Fu fighters who had trained for a long time to be one of the ones picked to be the one to fight the evil character.

Po was in awe of being chosen as he ate, slept and breathed Kung Fu.

Once Po got chosen and he had to be trained, no one wanted him there, and the fat jokes started. I cringed at this point thinking this could be where the movie goes very very bad.

In honesty I had no real belief it wouldn't go sour at this point, given our society and how socially acceptable it is to harass fat people, and how we live in a multi billion dollar diet industry.

For the minute I thought it would turn out to be a Jane fonda workout, kung fu style for a panda bear kind of movie, where he loses his excess weight, gains a six pack washboard stomach and goes on to win the battle becasue he conformed to the pressure to change.

I cringed because I figured this movie had the ability to tell a great story or really destroy a good opportunity at a chance to tell a good moral, and I wasn't positive where it would go.

I am happy to say though, that this didn't last long, and though I HATE when the fat jokes come out in a movie, this time it was a setup to make a point, and therefore a necessary segment in the movie.And I'm glad they didn't go overboard with them, but only used enough to make the point and get the setup done.

After thinking there would never be anyway to train Po, Po's master discovers that his motivation is through food, and starts to train him to do kung Fu, Panda style, and motivates him with food rewards etc... there is a bit of a "karate kid" montage when he is being trained with noodles and wonton soup, and it was cute and funny and done well. I found myself chuckling along with the kids, and really enjoying the movie at this point.

The real moment comes in the movie though, when the secret scroll is opened to reveal the secret of being the dragon master and the scroll is blank. Everyone is shocked, and po shrinks down in defeat, thinking he could never be the one and should have known better all along.

He goes back to his father, who happily accepts him back home to take on the family business ( a noodle restaurant.) Po has a heart to heart with his dad, and he reveals to Po that there is no secret ingredient in the "secret ingredient soup" his family's resturant has been selling for generations. His father tells him, that the secret ingredient is believing it is there all along.

Po has his lightbulb moment, recalling the blank scroll that he could see only his reflection in, and runs off to save the village from the evil character who has returned to destroy everything in his sight.

Of course being a child's movie, you know that the good will win over the evil, so there is no spoiler in telling you Po wins the battle, and the war, and gains the respect of his teasers from earlier in the movie when I was cringing.

The best part of the movie though, is when Po is kicking butt, panda style, by bouncing the bad guy off his fat panda belly full of noodle soup and it makes funny noises the kids will love.

I guarantee you will love this movie too. The choices of actor voices for the parts were perfect, and I really enjoyed it a lot. This is one we plan to purchase when it is released on DVD.

The fat hero saves the day :) I LOVE it!

Weight discrimination could be as common as racial bias

 

By Svetlana Shkolnikova, USA TODAY

Weight discrimination, especially against women, is increasing in U.S. society and is almost as common as racial discrimination, two studies suggest.

Reported discrimination based on weight has increased 66% in the past decade, up from about 7% to 12% of U.S. adults, says one study, in the journal Obesity. The other study, in the International Journal of Obesity, says such discrimination is common in both institutional and interpersonal situations — and in some cases is even more prevalent than rates of discrimination based on gender and race. (About 17% of men and 9% of women reported race discrimination.)

Among severely obese people, about 28% of men and 45% of women said they have experienced discrimination because of their weight.

"Weight discrimination is a very serious social problem that we need to pay attention to," says Rebecca Puhl of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, a co-author of both studies.

The research, based on surveys of more than 2,000 U.S. adults in 1995-96 and 2004-06, is the first to compare rates of weight discrimination with other forms of discrimination, Puhl says.

Institutional discrimination involved health care, education or workplace situations, such as cases in which people said they were fired, denied a job or a promotion because of their weight. Interpersonal discrimination focused on insults, abuse and harassment from others.

Lynn McAfee, director of medical advocacy at the non-profit Council on Size and Weight Discrimination in Mt. Marion, N.Y., is not surprised by the findings.

"Until we clean up language like 'war on obesity' and have authorities speak out about it, discrimination will continue to increase," she says.

Puhl agrees weight discrimination will not decrease until attitudes change and laws begin addressing it.

No federal laws against weight discrimination exist, although some cities, including Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, have banned discrimination locally. The Massachusetts Legislature had hearings last month on a proposed law.

Peggy Howell says she will never forget the day her boss told her she either had to lose weight or lose her job. She weighed 280 pounds at the time and was working as a librarian. Feeling as if she had no choice but to comply, Howell joined Weight Watchers.

Howell volunteers for the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, a non-profit organization in Oakland.

After shedding 120 pounds in a year and a half, she quit her library job and started an online business selling items that portray people of size in a positive light.

She says she now knows she has the right to challenge stereotypes, and she wants to "help people to see the beauty in themselves, no matter what their size."

The proof is in the pudding-Sass Jordan says Moo

Click on the picture to go to youtube and watch the first 15 seconds or so, to see that Sass Jordan says "moo" to a contestant.

cannot refute the hard evidence.

Canadian Idol/Sass Jordan discriminated against a chubby teen girl contestant

NOTE: My husband wrote this blog entry. He said it as well or even better then I could have so I borrowed it with his permission. If you find it elsewhere, it is because he has it on his blog too.

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Whether it was a product of the producers/editors or Sass herself, I don’t know.

Canadian Idol started last night, and it seems a little incident went almost completely unnoticed. There has been no ruckus raised or comments made that I have found so far.

A chubby teen girl from Ajax/Pickering, named Vanessa Kalala auditioned and afterwards, Sass Jordan leaned over to one of her fellow judges and said “Moo”.

To basically humiliate a teenager on national television because of her weight in the middle of an alleged singing contest DISGUSTS me.

So here is what to do. Search the web for a picture of a cow. Stick it in an email and send it to: sassparilla@sassjordan.com

and idol@ctv.ca

If you can’t find a good cow picture, just send the word MOO - or maybe some other form of cowalect.

Maybe Sass and the producers of Idol will get the point?

Tell as many people as you can that we as Canadian's won't tolerate this kind of hate with our children.

Why the name?

When I was pregnant with my son, my 4 year old daughter was hugging me and was rubbing my belly and she was trying to compliment me saying I was beautiful, and she said," you're a big fat bowl of mommy salad!"

It was so sweet and innocent that I took it as it was meant, a compliment, and little does she know it, but my daughter in her childlike ways has done a lot to help me feel good about myself no matter what size I am. She doesn't look at me and see a fat woman who according to the BMI ( which is bullshit) am "morbidly obese". She looks at me and sees her mommy. a fun loving active, person in her life whom she loves.

so that's me.....Bigfatbowlofmommysalad.