By Riley Eisenbeil
Staff Writer
Content warning: Mention of eating disorders
Paramount Pictures recently released the trailer for its movie adaptation of the 2018 Broadway musical “Mean Girls.” While many fans are excited to see the newest musical-movie rendition of Tina Fey’s original 2004 comedy film, some folks online have voiced harsh criticism towards specific cast members saying they were not what longtime fans expected — to put it lightly.
The trailer was released on Nov. 8 and featured stars like Christopher Briney from “The Summer I Turned Pretty” as Aaron, Jenna Fischer from “The Office” as Cady’s mom, Jon Hamm from “Mad Men” as the health teacher and Auliʻi Cravalho from “Moana” as Janis. Also featured playing their original roles from 2004 are Tim Meadows as Principal Duvali and Fey as Ms. Norbury.
Reneé Rapp, famously known for her role on “The Sex Lives of College Girls” starred as Regina George on Broadway from 2019 to 2020 so it only made sense to have her play George in this. However, fans online disagreed and are coming at Rapp saying George is “mid and fat now,” as “Pop Culture Crisis” YouTube star Mary Morgan wrote in a post on X.
Morga was not the fan online to share this opinion. One user known as @defnotcybrdivr continued with the bigotry by writing, “they ACTUALLY made regina george fat omg,” in a post on X that has since been deleted. Their bio on X indicates their body mass index, which Yale Medicine has described as an inaccurate tool to determine if someone is “healthy” solely based on their height and weight with no regard for other factors, along with the quote “still fatphobic af.”
To be blatantly fatphobic and to be proud of it is not only concerning and damaging to other viewers, it is ignorance at its finest. While there are many fat-positive accounts online, comments and accounts dedicated to spreading fatphobia are all too common.
Fat is not a bad word. Being fat is not a bad thing and it is not directly linked to being unhealthy. Plenty of fat people live long, healthy and happy lives. Yet many people still view being fat as a bad thing and therefore still use it as an insult to bring people down, or to project their own problematic insecurities onto others.
The issue still at bay though is that Rapp is not fat by any means, yet she is bigger than the thin beauty ideal set by societal norms so folks are not backing down. Unfortunately, this is not the first time Rapp was subjected to body shaming and fatphobia. She was 19 when she moved to New York City to join the Broadway scene. At the time she had an eating disorder and it was only worsened by the people in production. She shared in an interview with The Guardian that folks, “would say some vile f****** things to [her] about [her] body.”
When it got worse and started affecting her personally, The Guardian shared that her parents flew to the city to pick her up and pull her from the show. She has been very open about her eating disorders and mental health online as she shared that she “suffered in silence for so many years” and does not want others to feel obligated to do the same.
Other critics of the trailer have flat-out said the cast is ugly. One user on X, known as @gracelessdream, reposted an update from @FilmUpdates about Briney playing Aaron along with the statement, “the new Mean Girls film said, ‘we’re not going to cast a single attractive person in this movie’ and really stuck to that.”
Though the post highlighted Briney, plenty of commenters defended Rapp. “Don’t SPEAK on my girl Reneé EVER again,” wrote @punkrxckjonas. “Renee rapp is literally gorgeous please delete,” wrote @madsz6180. “???? MY QUEEN RENEE,” wrote @barbarameastman.
Unfortunately in the current climate of social media, almost everything is subject to hate. Only time will tell if fans can look beyond physical appearances and appreciate the musical movie for its ode to both the original film and the Broadway hit, but for now, people will continue to hide behind screens and be outwardly hateful.
Regardless, the movie is set to release only in theaters on Jan. 12 and features well-known aspects of the original film like Cady’s scary bride costume gone wrong, weird sex education lessons in health class and the notorious burn book. It will combine plot aspects of the 2004 movie with musical hits from the Broadway show for a brand new ‘Mean Girls’ viewing experience.
