Self Confidence is the New Pretty

Self-confidence is more than just how pretty you are; Self-confidence is being confident in your decisions and trusting yourself. It is stepping out of your comfort zone but being sure of who you are as you do that. I Feel Pretty took self-confidence in the average women and explored the idea of not having confidence then gaining confidence by accident. Amy Schumer portrays Renee Bennett, the main character, who gains self-confidence by falling off a cycling bike. After she falls, she sees herself differently and assumes everyone else does too. The only change in Renee is her confidence and we see how it changes her life in both good and bad ways. This movie defies social norms and takes on many ideas to prove a point and doing so it took on a lot of backlash. I want to discuss particular scenes within the movie that I think were spot on with the theme or swayed from the main idea just a little too much. 

In the opening scene of the movie we Renee walking into her cycling class; as she walks in, we see her notice all the “pretty” girls. Walking up to the counter they ask her for her shoe size and she says “eight, no seven, actually 9 and a half… double wide.” The girl at the counter responds with a smart remark making Renee embarrassed. I found this scene interesting because we can clearly see that none of the other girls are paying attention to Renee getting her shoes nor, are they listening to what she is saying to the girl at the counter. It is clear to see that Renee has low self-confidence and right off the bat we are able to see the on-going theme of the movie. The rest of the opening scenes is a compilation of scenes where Renee is obviously not sure of herself in her daily activities. I think the most important scene is the one at the end of the sequence when Renee gets undressed and stares at herself in the mirror. This scene alone portrays the thoughts so so so many women of all ages have when they look at themselves and it didn't even need words. 

When Renee gains her confidence, we see her instantly change. She sees the way she looks in the mirror and she points out everything she used to see as a flaw and is loving it! This is the turning point for Renee when she decides she is going to take on her life. She goes for the job she wants and gets the guy. Honestly, she makes it look all too easy. This is typical for any movie with a main character who doesn’t have confidence, take Spiderman for instance. Peter Parker doesn’t think he is good for anything until he becomes Spiderman. When Renee gets her confidence, it is all good but then she begins to cling to the idea that the beauty on the outside is all she needs to be confident. Doing this she starts to point out her friends’ flaws, and she doesn’t notice the average woman anymore and kind of brushes them off to the side. I think this is an interesting point to make in the movie because as a society we get so intertwined with looks and the prettier the better.

I think the last major important scene in this movie is when Renee realizes it was not her looks that gave her self-confidence but the fact that all the bad things, she thought about herself were no longer potent to her. When she realizes that she looked the same before and after the confidence she realizes that there is more than just looks. In the beginning Renee connected looks with self-confidence but then at the end she learns that confidence is more than that. Confidence is from within and as Renee says in her heartwarming speech “What I am is me.” I truly think this is an important message for everyone to hear. 

After watching this movie, you really gain a self-confidence in yourself, even if you are already a confident person it just reassures that you are you and that is all that matters. I think this movie did a great job at portraying confidence, but it did get some backlash. This movie uses an average woman for the main character, she is not overweight by any means, but she is a little thicker than what we see in Hollywood. This is the point of the movie, Amy Schumer is a confident woman and she makes sure everyone knows that she is who she is and she loves that. This was key in using her as the main character but the movie and Amy Schumer herself received a lot of backlash.Some in particular was when Rolling Stone points out that the people who made this movie should feel embarrassed for their hypocrisy, by using the technique, “see this movie and you’ll feel better about yourself.” Personally I agree with the fact that you will feel confident after watching this movie though it is a shallow way to get viewers. I loved this movie and I see where it faults and lets be honest they are obvious scenes, but I do not think they overshadow the theme of the movie itself. Honestly this movie is a must watch no matter what the critics have said! (Check out the Roger Ebert website for a great review!)