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March 26, 2006
Watching "Super Size Me"
I guess I was wrong about Americans being unable to laugh at themselves. The documentary "Super Size Me" pokes fun at Americans and it was a big success; McDonalds really took a beating, and actually made changes in what they served after the movie took off. It showed more disgustingly bulging stomachs and thighs than I've seen in a while. The narrator was obnoxious though. Maybe his being thin (at the beginning, anyway) made it worse: do we like Michael Moore (those of us who do not hate him, that is) because he's fat and out of shape just like all people he's interviewing in the Midwest? Are they more comfortable talking to him because he is chubby and wears a baseball cap?
Fast foods is one of America's gifts to the world, and McDonalds is the most potent symbol of a host of global food companies. I got into trouble once for using the word 'McDonalds' in a book when I was talking about fast foods in general: it got me, and my small London publisher, caught up in the infamous McLibel trial, and I have the dubious honor of being the only American citizen harrassed as part of that expensive effort by McDonalds to stifle criticism. Read the letter I received from McDonalds's lawyers in London.
Like many things American, fast food is something many people around the world (our Xian taxi driver for one, whose favorite was KFC) love--and love to hate. Oddly enough, all cultures have their own fast foods, usually very delicious and cheap. Eating American food is a symbolic act, I suspect, to do with modernity and economic aspiration. If only we had something better to offer the world!
Posted by Karen Christensen at March 26, 2006 12:04 PM