Okay, I’m back on Saved! I want to talk about the way that this movie, supposedly a force for tolerance and acceptance, reinforces and supports looks-prejudice and fat-prejudice.
(Man, I made it sound fun, didn’t I?)
At one point in the movie, the trio of outcasts (a pregnant girl, a Jewish girl, and the brother of our Bitch Villainess) decide to strike back. The brother (Macaulay Culkin, whose character uses a wheelchair) reveals that Hillary Faye wasn’t always a beauty, and shows his friends a picture of her when she was *gasp* fat (and pimply and wore braces).
Now, Hillary Faye (played by Mandy Moore) is mean and domineering. She abuses people by being holier than thou, and using the Bible as a weapon (literally, in one scene). What she never does is mock or humiliate anyone on any issues other than religiosity or sinfulness. She never, in the course of the film, remarks on beauty or size (but there are, of course, no fat people) or race.
