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Looks Aren't Everything

 Up until a few days ago, I'd never heard of the movie Little Miss Sunshine. Originally, I was under the impression the movie wasn't going to be anything phenomenal, or anything that blew me away. But after completing watching this movie, I was proven utterly wrong--and not just because Steve Carell is in it.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS7GzRivYoM


In Little Miss Sunshine, we see a dysfunctional family come together in order to support their young daughter/granddaughter/niece, Olive, as she strives to win the Little Miss Sunshine Pageant. Despite not winning and ultimately getting kicked out, she is joined on stage with her family alongside her for one last big hoorah. It is honestly a much happier ending in my opinion than Olive winning. In the film Little Miss Sunshine, directors and husband and wife Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton portray societal norms and standards like the prevalence of depression, body image and mental illness/issues in society. They do this through this comedy film by creating a situation that brings together a dysfunctional family that each has their own flaws.


 Despite being rather a comedy film, Little Miss Sunshine actually touches on some important topics and norms. One norm I noticed involved the prevalence of depression and misfortune in our society, as we see Frank struggle with that throughout the film. Upon losing his job, Frank spirals into a depression and even attempts at committing suicide. His struggle with his depression and mental illness reflects the norm that discussion of such things in society and amongst peers is often times seen as taboo and not really as normalized as it should be, despite its prevalence in society. Another topic/norm touched on is the prevalence of body image issues and body dysmorphia, especially in young girls. This film touches on how things like beauty pageants can amplify societal beauty standards and cause body image issues in girls, especially from a young age. We see Olive struggle with her image quite a bit throughout the film, but its very much evident at the beginning of the film when she is seen mimicking the movements of the winner of the title Miss America on TV.

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