She was a green beauty standard-fighting machine. Now, Fiona, from the popular animated movie franchise “Shrek,” has seemingly undergone a transformation, and fans aren’t happy.
Following the release of the “Shrek 5” trailer, people have taken to social media to share that the proud ogre queen looks totally different.
“Can anyone tell me why they gave Fiona from Shrek buccal fat removal, a chin transplant, a nose job, an airbrushed collarbone?” a TikTok user posted, amassing nearly 8 million views and 1.4 million likes.
“The kicker? They aged Shrek. They gave him wrinkles for the passage of time, and they snatch-ified her and made her look younger,” the user added. “This is such an indicator of where we are as a society.”
Another TikTok user joked they put “Shrek 5” Fiona on Ozempic, gaining more than 2 million views and nearly half a million likes.
People in the comments were quick to agree that “it really is that serious,” as one user wrote.
“I’m glad we’re making a big deal about this (because) it is this deep,” another agreed.
Experts say viewers’ frustration makes sense, noting Fiona’s transformation reflects what we’re seeing in our own world, including a “narrowing of what women’s bodies are allowed to look like and an erasure of the diversity that once made a character powerful,” Erica Chito Childs, Ruth and Harold Newman Dean of Arts and Sciences at Hunter College-CUNY, told USA TODAY.
“We have watched this happen in real life too, with women celebrities completely transforming their bodies and faces, and body positivity around larger bodies quietly disappearing from mainstream culture,” she said.
Fans weren’t off in their observations about differences between Fiona and her male counterpart, either.
Based on our society, “it should come as no surprise that Fiona is presented in ‘Shrek 5’ as visibly slimmer and youthful, while Shrek, as a fat man, is afforded the gendered privilege of aging and gaining weight,” said Melvin Williams, associate professor of communication and media studies at Pace University.
USA TODAY has reached out to DreamWorks and Universal Studios for comment.
Experts and fans alike also pointed out this makeover is paradoxical of the film’s message of rejecting traditional beauty standards and the character’s evolution to self-acceptance of her true form.
“The ‘Shrek’ franchise built its entire heart around poking fun at film tropes, fairy tale conventions and the societal norms and expectations we have all absorbed, giving us characters who felt more like the rest of us rather than the fairy tale ideal,” Chito Childs explained.
Now, the trailer threatens to undo all of that.
“We can only hope this is actually a critique, that showing Fiona transformed while Shrek ages is meant to highlight just how absurd and unequal those standards really are,” she added.
If not, it seems like the new beauty standards of “far, far away” will be hitting uncomfortably close to home.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ‘Shrek 5’ trailer sparks backlash over Fiona’s ‘problematic’ transformation
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