As society now approaches the 21st century, food has become an increasingly volatile issue. In the United States, subjects like eating disorders, obesity, and unhealthy eating habits receive much attention from the media and the medical community. In fact, eating disorders and healthy eating habits are stressed in most high school health curriculums. Despite the importance of these emerging dysfunctions, movies still portray food and eating unrealistically. Attractive characters eat what they want, when they want, and their bodies remain healthy and strong.
Food is held to a double standard in popular culture.
Filmmakers who make violent movies claim to do so because society is violent and they have a responsibility to show the audience reality. The same argument is repeated for the use of profane language, sex, and low social standards. Yet even though eating disorders and the proliferation of junk food into the human diet are rampant in our society, no screen writer or moviemaker seems willing to show this reality. Perhaps it may seem like a trite detail that doesn't concern modern audiences or perhaps modern audiences want to see the attractive characters taking on the unattractive personal habits that the average American embraces. Either way, food and food alone is allowed special treatment in the eyes of the movie industry.