Netflix just released a new movie to add to their growing collection of “Rom-Coms” called “Sierra Burgess is a loser”. Warning, Spoilers Ahead!!!!
Strap in your seatbelts kids, because this is going to be a bumpy ride. Here’s the reason why Sierra Burgess is actually a loser. As an overweight, 19-year-old female in today’s day and age, I was super excited to see that there was going to be a movie where the lead role belonged to a girl that I could relate to. A girl who was considered a loser at her high school, someone who didn’t fit in, who didn’t put on makeup and wasn’t stick thin. Sierra was her own self, she didn’t let Vanessa (The stereotypical mean cheerleader in the movie), lower her self-esteem even though she literally called her fat and a loser almost every day.
Sierra made me think that there was a chance that I could finally leave the house without worrying what I looked like, without worrying what people thought because Sierra Burgess didn’t care about what people thought of her and she still ended up with the Quarter Back. She did not give a damn, that is what I lover about this character. Unfortunately, it was the only thing I loved. 30 minutes into the movie, I started to realize how unrealistic it actually was. Yes, I understand that Romantic Comedies never happen in real life, but something about Sierra Burgess ticked me off.
Firstly, it frustrated me that she thought it was okay to catfish a person for such a long period of time and to even go as far as to get the person she was posing as, to meet up with him and make it seem like he was, in fact, talking to this person the whole time. She had Vanessa, the person she was pretending to be, meet up with Jamie (the boy she was catfishing). Due to Vanessa needing a tutor to help her seem smarter to impress a college boy (don’t even get me started on this part, this article would turn into a novel), she agreed to Sierra’s plan. If someone came up to you and said, “Hey, I’ve been catfishing this dude and he actually thinks I’m you, could you facetime him and go on a date, so he doesn’t get suspicious?” I’m 99.9% sure that most of you reading this would say, “HELL NO”, I would.
Secondly, when Sierra sees Jamie and Vanessa kissing at a football game, instead of confronting Vanessa about it, she goes ahead and hacks her Instagram and posts a screenshot of the college boy dumping Vanessa through DM with a picture of them making out. Once the picture is posted, another student proceeds to project it on the scoreboard for everyone to see. Now, this, this is the part that made me hate Sierra Burgess. This is NOT what a rational thinking person would do in this situation. Not only is it cyber bullying, but she didn’t even have the audacity to ask Vanessa beforehand before jumping to the conclusion that “oh, she’s trying to steal my guy”, the same guy who has no clue that he’s actually dating Sierra, not Vanessa. Again, if this scenario were to be played out in real life, then Sierra Burgess would not only be a loser, she would be an expelled loser. They would have kicked her out of that school so quick and that dream of going to Stanford, would’ve gone down the drain in two seconds.
Lastly, even though she exposed someone online and she lied about her identity, Jamie still fell in love with Sierra. This part is pretty self-explanatory, there is even a whole show dedicated to people getting catfished, and most of the time, the stories don’t end well. To our surprise, this one did! What joy! Except the message that they were trying to portray in the beginning of the movie, which was Love yourself no matter what, Beauty comes from within, got lost in all of the psycho-drama that Sierra created. Next time, I think I’ll stick to Love Actually.