Super Size Me: Part 1

For Biology class, we had to watch the documentary Super Size Me. It was just for bonus points, but I rented it and watched it over the break. I was interested in it already because I’ve heard a lot of good things about it. The film was a little different than I had originally thought.

The first section of the movie annoyed me a bit. It was, as you would expect, a bunch of statistics about how “fat” America is. And of course there were plenty of scenes of obese people to accompany those statistics. For example, the film stated that one in three Americans is overweight (if I recall correctly). I hear statistics like this all the time. With all of the diet commercials on TV, it’s hard not to think our nation is fat. When it came to my attention, I looked around myself. Walking through the mall, school, or anywhere else, I tried to see if we really are as fat as they claim. You know, most people I see are either skinny or perfectly fine in terms of weight. I didn’t see a huge problem (or at least not as bad as they claim). I just found this part a bit annoying because they brought up the case about the two teenagers suing McDonald’s. I don’t know anyone who would sue McDonald’s for making them “fat.” So, in addition to feeling like we are all fat, the film made it look like America was a bit stupid in general.

A section of the film contained the director asking little kids whether they knew whose face was on the poster he would hold up. It was kind of funny, but mostly sad. Most couldn’t identify George Washington, but they immediately recognized Ronald McDonald. I can understand what the film was getting at with this point, but it just left me shaking my head and feeling very dumb. I mostly felt guilty though. I was probably just like those kids at that age-knowing Ronald before knowing basic U.S. history.