WEIGHTY ISSUES BATTLING STEREOTYPES ABOUT OBESITY WILL REQUIRE SOME RETRAINING.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

When it comes to understanding the trials and tribulations of the overweight and obese, filmdom's Shallow Hal isn't the only person in need of a lesson. The skinny-loving culture and stereotype-perpetuating media that births a Shallow Hal could also use a wake-up call.

Consider, say researchers and psychologists, young children who, when asked to describe a heavy person's silhouette, come up with words like ``stupid,'' ``lazy'' and ``dirty.'' Consider the teens who thinks it's funny to make oinking noises at people in supermarkets.

Prejudice in medical field

Even the physicians who are supposed to be helping obese patients harbor biases toward their patients, say researchers at Yale University's Center for Eating and Weight Disorders.

``It's clear that the reason that such prejudice exists is that our society believes that people who are overweight are responsible for their problem, and they therefore deserve blame and ridicule,'' says Dr. Kelly Brownell, a psychologist and the director of the Yale center.

``The fact that this prejudice exists did not surprise us a bit, but its strength did,'' adds Brownell, who has called discrimination against the overweight ``the last socially acceptable form of discrimination.''

Brownell's study - ``Implicit anti-fat bias among health professionals: is anyone immune?''- appeared in the recent International Journal of Obesity. In the study, he concludes that ``even health-care specialists have strong negative associations toward obese persons, indicating the pervasiveness of the stigma of obesity.''

Dr. William Hartman, director of behavioral medicine at Pacific Medical Center's Weight Management program, estimates that 80 to 90 percent of the patients he counsels feel like they've been slighted or discriminated against by the medical profession.

``You walk in with a hangnail and the doctor says you have to lose weight,'' says Hartman. ``Like they don't know it.''

If Americans are judging obesity and obese people based on what they're seeing on television, we might believe nobody is overweight. Data from a study of commercial TV collected by researchers at Michigan State University indicate that 3 percent of females characters would be considered obese, compared to 25 percent of women in the real world. Thirty-six percent of females and 12 percent of male characters on TV possessed an underweight body type even though only 5 percent of the male population and 2 percent of the female population would be considered underweight.

Furthermore, the overweight characters that are depicted are frequently the object of ridicule. They're less likely to have friends or romantic partners and they're more likely to be shown eating, according to the study.

MSU Communications Professor Bradley S. Greenberg - the study's principal investigator - found some signs of progress. Larger female characters received more respect and larger male characters less ridicule than their thin or normal-weight counterparts. Camryn Manheim, arguably the most dynamic heavy person on television, is part of a law firm where two other members would probably be considered overweight.

And on a episode of Fox's ``Boston Public,'' an overweight teacher has been taken to task by an administrator for being obese and is now on medication.

Doing their part

For reasons both sociological and professional, performers within the motion picture and television industry also keep an eye on trends regarding the depiction of overweight people. Actress Diane Bliss started the Plus-Size Task Force under the National Women's Committee of the Screen Actors Guild to protect the interests of plus-size actresses.

While she tries to stay positive about the opportunities filmmakers make available to performers, Bliss acknowledges there have been roles she - and fellow actors of size - have boycotted. In the Rob Schneider comedy ``Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo,'' for example, an enormous woman with whom nobody will have sex walks into a courtroom and practically causes an earthquake. Water spills out of water glasses, and the building shakes. The woman takes the witness stand and starts eating pudding.

Not funny, says Bliss, who notes the part eventually went to the male radio personality Big Boy because no woman would touch it.

``I've been asked to audition for a part where I get stuck in a hotel bathroom. The final shot would be of my naked behind as I'm being extricated by three burly men,'' says Bliss. ``I refused to audition for it. Hollywood has a long history of using plus-size women as the visual butt of a joke.''

Like Greenberg, Bliss sees signs of progress, especially on television, where actresses such as Manheim, Liz Torres and Melissa McCarthy (of the show ``Gilmore Girls''), and Sherri Shepherd (``Emeril'') are playing strong, complex characters whose weight is not an issue. Drew Carey, who has his own show on ABC, is positively leading man material when balanced against his nemesis, the equally overweight, freakishly dressed Mimi Bobeck (played by Kathy Kinney).

``Men don't have the same issues about body image and weight,'' says Bliss. ``One of the saving graces about the movie 'Shallow Hal' is that the characters played by Jack Black and Jason Alexander are not terribly hunky gorgeous men. They're not the American public's idea and they're expected to be able to date super-model women types.''

How 'Shallow' can you get

Hal is the ``I only date babes''-minded hero played by Jack Black in the recently released ``Shallow Hal,'' a romantic comedy by the directing team of Peter and Bobby Farrelly. Thrown into a trance by self-help guru Tony Robbins, Hal sees only people's inner natures. He ends up falling in love with a 300-pound hospital nurse and Peace Corps volunteer named Rosemary who, in Hal's eyes, looks like famously svelte Gwyneth Paltrow.

In the film, which has drawn mixed reactions from advocacy groups for the overweight, Rosemary is the film's moral center. She breaks hearts, and she also breaks chairs.

Many say the message about accepting people for their character rather than their waist size is a positive one, even if the methods of delivery aren't always especially kind.

Carnie Wilson, the former singer and talk-show host who shed more than 130 pounds through gastric bypass surgery, said she had mixed feelings about ``Shallow Hal.''

``In a way, I'm sort of glad 'Shallow Hal' was made because it is creating some awareness,'' said Wilson, a Valley resident. ``Some of the scenes - the breaking of the booth and the steel chair - were just over the top. I was just saddened a lot of the time, I think, because I could relate.''

Playing a role

``We wake up into a world that says there's something wrong with us,'' agrees Lisa Brounstein, a Plus-Size Task Force member who has a role in ``Shallow Hal.'' ``It's coming from the media, from the billion-dollar diet industry. It kills me that little kids see little fat girls being made fun of. It kills me that little kids see that and think there's something wrong with them.''

In ``Shallow Hal,'' Brounstein plays one of three women rocking out on the dance floor with a blissfully happy Hal, who believes he is partying with a trio of beauties. When seen through the un-entranced gaze of Hal's friend Mauricio (Jason Alexander), it becomes clear the women look rather different.

Brounstein said she had a blast filming ``Shallow Hal'' and enjoyed the film. In the end credits, she is listed as ``spastic character #2.'' ``Quite frankly, I am fat,'' she says. ``But I don't sit on a couch and eat bonbons. I live an active life and I have a handsome boyfriend.''

Hartman of Pacific Medical Center says his patients aren't lonely losers who sit around stuffing their faces. They are happily married professionals, heads of multimillion-dollar companies who also happen to have weight problems.

``There is no fat personality profile. Period. There just isn't,'' says Hartman. ``Global measures of depression are not higher among overweight, self-esteem measures are not lower. Despite what society tells them, they manage not to dislike themselves.''

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, chart

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) GWYNETH PALTROW IN ``SHALLOW HAL''

(2) Hal (Jack Black) seems perplexed by the actual size of his beloved Rosemary's undies in ``Shallow Hal.''

(3) Diane Bliss

creator of the Plus-Size Task Force

John Lazar/Staff Photographer

Chart:

BODY TYPES: REALITY VS. TELEVISION