The Pizza Scene in ‘Eat Pray Love’ Encapsulates the Movie’s Biggest Blind Spot

Eat Pray Love is on Netflix today, and it’s the Julia Roberts film that has haunted my psyche more than any other. It’s not the film itself that nags at me, though, but one specific scene set in a Napoli pizzeria.

Julia Roberts’s character, a Hollywood version of author Elizabeth Gilbert, is salivating over her cheesy margarita pizza, but her friend Sofi (Tuva Novotny) is upset. She simply can’t enjoy the delicious food because she has gained 10 pounds on her petite frame, thus giving her a dreaded “muffin top.” Liz Gilbert’s advice to her friend has touched me and haunted me more than I can explain. After nine years, I still am wrestling with this scene’s message, and why it rings hollow despite its straight-forward landing.

Liz’s first response is fine. It’s to shrug off her friend’s body image issues by saying she’s got a muffin top now, too. Then she asks Sofi if a man has ever asked her to leave upon seeing the sight of her naked body. I suppose the argument here is that while women worry about fitting into arbitrary beauty standards, sex makes us all beautiful to the male gaze? (I don’t know. This is “Liz Gilbert,” movie version of a real person’s take on it.)

Liz adds to this musing the note that she’s tired of counting calories, saying no to delicious food, and feeling guilty about not being a certain size and shape. Roberts delivers this mini-monologue with the kind of sincere frustration that every person can relate to. Negative body image is a ravenous beast that dwells in most, if not all, of us, and it is forever nipping at our self esteem.

Finally, she tells her friend that they are going to finish their pizzas, watch a football game, and make a date to purchase new jeans tomorrow. Bigger jeans. Ones that will ease up on their muffin tops.

On the surface, it is a lovely mini-manifesto about women breaking free of the shackles of calorie counting and self-hatred. There is something so refreshingly matter of fact about the advice to just buy bigger jeans! But there’s also something sinister lurking under the character’s advice. It comes from Liz prioritizing how men see women’s bodies over how women feel about them. It’s there in the way she scoffs, “I have no interest in being obese.” It’s in the idea that these beautiful women, worried over a muffin top, can simply purchase bigger jeans — because they can afford to.

Eat Pray Love is a story with noble aims. It’s about a modern woman stepping away from her perfectly ordered life to find true fulfillment abroad. She eats her way through Italy, prays in India, and falls in love with a handsome man in Indonesia. Through this journey, she learns about balance and self-love.

Here’s the thing that’s always nagged me about the film and it’s the same thing that nags me about this specific scene. Elizabeth Gilbert’s depression and ennui were universal; her ability to drop everything in her life and travel the world is not. When Liz tells Sofi they can just buy bigger jeans, it’s not a solution for everyone’s body image issues since not everyone can simply afford to replace an entire wardrobe every time they gain a little weight. And to put it bluntly: Liz and Sofi are traditionally attractive women. They are blonde and both slender enough to remain a sample size (even if they have muffin tops). Plus, Liz isn’t necessarily freeing herself from the patriarchal male gaze. Her very defense has to do with what’s attractive to men. And that disdain at the idea of being obese! She’s not making a broad statement of self-love that applies to all. It’s just a very pretty woman with money realizing she can eat pizza in Italy without losing any of her privilege in society.

Eat Pray Love isn’t a story that can help other people find their way. It is an escapist fantasy about a woman who had it all and then escaped from the doldrums of her own life in order to get more. Nothing encapsulates this more than Julia Roberts shrugging off a pizza tummy by telling another beautiful woman they can just buy slightly bigger jeans and still have the sex they want.

Eat Pray Love is now streaming on Netflix. 

Where to stream Eat Pray Love