links for 2011-05-18

It's not so much that the character was unrecognizable—I've known women like Megan. It's that none of the humanity we see in her came from the script—it was all in McCarthy's performance. Which is lovely as it provides a good showcase for McCarthy's talent, but I wonder what she, in her heart of hearts, feels about being consigned to roles like this because of her body type. Sure, comedies often feature a buffoon character along these lines. In some sense she was playing the Jonah Hill/Zach Galifianakis role. What I object to is less that these roles exist than that they are assigned from the get-go to the kinds of women (fat, butch, maybe African-American if “sass” is required) that society feels extremely comfortable laughing at. Which is to say: why can't the buffoon be skinny? Even pretty in a conventional way? Even more to the point, why must her looks be made the essence of her buffoonery?