My thoughts on Amy Schumer's - "I Feel Pretty"

Greetings, Magnificent Soul.

Welcome to the blog, this is a place where we break down, breakaway, and break through codependency, allowing ourselves to attract health, build wealth, and live a peaceful life. 

We are tired of being sick and tired. We're tired, but we're not giving up. We know that there is something magnificent inside of us and because we are fighting daily, hourly, and even by the minute: we’re fighting ourselves, our kids, our spouses, and we have to do things differently. 

We have to break this cycle. 

We don't have a million chances. We have to be happy, NOW. We have to find a way. So how do we do that? How is this possible? 

If you look around at what society is telling you, they tell you that what we're doing is impossible. Yet it's happening every single day. It's happening through the practice and the love that we call Awakening the Magnificent Soul.

We are all magnificent souls and these are our stories of healing. 

Today, I will be writing about the new movie out with Amy Schumer, “I Feel Pretty.” As always, please share your thoughts about the blog, this particular post, or anything you want to share. If you have an epiphany, if you have an Aha moment, even if you are feeling down. If it's something that you want us to cover here on the blog, we'd be happy to, or you can remain anonymous and cast it out into the universe as positive or negative energy, but anything you want to share in our safe and open for everyone forum at Epiphany Vault. So again, today we're going to be talking about Amy Schumer and her new movie out, “I Feel Pretty.” If you haven't seen it, I do recommend it. 

The main character, the protagonist, her name is Renee and she lives in New York City and she is going through this life change of being really unhappy with herself and unhappy in her job. She has two really great friends and what we find out through the story that Renee is really just unhappy with her situation. 

Throughout the story, she revolutionizes her thinking and her thoughts about herself. 

Note: Spoiler Alerts ahead!

The catalyst of the movie is that she's at a soul cycle class. She falls off her bike and she bumps her head really badly. She wakes up and she looks in the mirror and she sees a completely different person. She sees the quote/unquote “person of her dreams.” She's skinny, she's beautiful, but in reality, her appearance hasn't changed a bit. 

Kind of like Alice in Wonderland taking a magic pill. Renee wakes up and she's this person that she's been wanting to be throughout her whole life. It's a very interesting concept. 

There was a moment in the movie that really touched me. She’s going through a pretty big depression about the way she looks and about her state in life (this is pre-bump on the head). For some reason, her corporate job, at a well-known cosmetics company has set up her office in a basement in Chinatown, in these really ratchet digs. 

The movie shows her going out with their friends and it's hard for her to get a drink at the bar. Telling us, the audience, that she’s being ostracized because of her looks. There are definite veins of truth to this, sadly.

Renee goes home and she's looking at herself in the mirror and she’s pinching and pulling at herself and just feels really unhappy in her skin. You can see the tears welling up in her eyes. Amy really evokes the despair, hurt and anxiety. And I've felt that deeply in different times in my life. So, that point of the story really connected with me because I've definitely been in that place where I'm fed up...I'm over it.

Side note, I read a lot of reviews in preparation for this just to kind of see what the general perspective was about the movie and I was surprised to see that there were a lot of negative reviews about it.

In all honesty, there are probably some political/sexual undercurrents going on that I’m not really familiar with because I’m not in that industry. But, I have a feeling there were some things going on maybe because it’s female themed, female-led, so I bet there's some stuff going on with that. 

Digressing back to the despair that Renee was feeling and seeing in herself, I was that girl. It's hard for me to express and I know a lot of women that feel the same way: pinching themselves in the mirror and saying degrading things to themselves. It’s everything: they think they’re not smart or they're fat or ugly.

Annnddd, Renee has this horrible accident at Soul Cycle and suddenly, in her mind, her life is different. She is now “beautiful.”

There was a scene with one of the main actors, very handsome, very dashing and smooth; I wouldn’t mind cuddling up to him let’s just say. There was a scene where he hits on Renee in her hotel room and for me, that scene was really triggering and uncomfortable. I don't know if any other women out there feel the same way if you have any thoughts or anything about that (I'm wondering if I'm the only one) feel free to send me through the Epiphany Vault. 

Renee was out of town and the handsome/dashing character forces himself into her hotel room. He was definitely too presumptuous but Renee let it pass, even though she had a boyfriend. She had fantasized about him before. (Honestly, who wouldn’t.) But he tried to make a move and thankfully she came to her senses and kicked him out. 

But for me, that whole situation was situation was triggering. I've been in situations like that in professional and corporate settings. That scene was the only thing that rubbed me the wrong way, but in thinking about it, that’s probably progressive. Meaning, the uncomfortable nature of the scene was probably needed in this #metoo movement. 

One thing that I really enjoyed throughout the movie was the hammering in that all of the characters suffer from insecurities, but we all suffer from insecurities in real life.

Renee's boyfriend, for example, you witnessed him feeling insecure and measuring himself up to the dashing character. We see insecurity from a friend that Renee made in her cycling class. On the outside, her friend is the epitome of beauty as society sees it. She's a model, but I think the movie did an awesome job of relaying the fact that people, no matter who they are, have insecurities. Even the CEO played by Michelle Williams seemed to be a puppet on the strings of her insecurities.

Everyone has their own ideas and their own kind of negative self-talk in their head and “I Feel Pretty tapped into that. 

Another point that I could really understand was Renee being constantly beat down and berated by society (sometimes not overtly). During the speech at the end of the movie where she has her epiphany, she comes to the realization on stage that she’s just the same. She was once this little girl that was confident and sassy. She could be ALL her: stick out her stomach or pick her wedgie. 

And I think this is totally true. The sad part is, that for some (most) people, that constant disapproval that you keep absorbing, swallowing, and smiling it deep down inside you messes you up later in life. I distinctly remember my grandparents commenting about my weight. And here I am today, overcoming eating disorders and now, teaching about codependency. 

So there's just this constant conversation that you're not a part of, right? And it just continues to beat you down; it continues to tell you things about you that aren't true and you begin to believe them. That was a major theme throughout this movie.

Renee was able to break free of this rhetoric and constant conversation, own who she is, and celebrate that inherent confidence.

But those clouds of decisiveness that most people experience and the constant rhetoric that society throws at you, those clouds just get heavier and heavier if you let them and they can really rob you of your quality of life. So just something to think about...

It's easy to lose yourself and your identity and that's what happened to Renee. After she has this “thing” that she’s been “wanting” forever, she has this paradigm shift and she went about her life in a completely different manner. Like, inherently, she shifted from not being herself.

It's just crazy to think about the disconnect between who society thought she was supposed to be and who she thought she really was. It just wasn't the same. Right? 

So, we see Renee in a downward spiral. Even though she was her dream person, her life becomes miserable. She loses her two awesome friends for fake friends and she began acting pretentious and like an asshole. She lost her authentic self and her identity.

This part really had me thinking: what you think about, you bring about.

Renee had really gone to this nasty place in spite of herself. Self-worth and self-esteem: they don't come from the outside, they come from within. I loved this parable that shone through this movie and Renee’s story.

There's no pill, there's no potion, there's no like knock on the head, there is no magic, for beauty to happen. I am beautiful, you are beautiful.

Sometimes it takes work and maybe falling down to realize that this is all work, but you’re worth it. When I reached that point of just being tired of being sick and tired, I knew that I was here to do this for myself and then to help others with this type of work.

The only magic is really within you. 

The tough part is that it’s not something that you can have, not something that you can touch if that makes sense. It’s something that you know, YOU JUST KNOW. Kind of in the way that Renee just knew that she was beautiful. That mindset is there, we just have to tap into it. 

So I’m here to take it step by step and I’m inviting you to take it with me. The magic comes in you. 

I encourage you to go have a look at “I Feel Pretty” and let me know what you think at the Epiphany Vault.

If there are any aha moments that you want to talk about it or put it out there into the universe, that's what the Epiphany Vault is for. You can remain anonymous if you'd like. But I really appreciate you joining me today, Magnificent Souls.