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I think Shallow Hal suffers from the same problem that American Pie does. People look at the problematic actions and/or ideas of the characters and then label it a problematic movie without understanding that the movie itself constantly calls out the problematic behavior as problematic.
Being more attracted to a person because of who they are as a person thus causing you to see them as sexier, more beautiful in your mind is absolutely a thing.
People call out the movie for it's beauty standard of how to represent that. Here's the thing though remember all the "beautiful" women we're seeing are what his character perceives as the beauty standard that he holds.
You can point at a movie like The Truth About Cats and Dogs and point out the fact that Jeanene Gerafolo is a beautiful woman any guy would be lucky to know as being problematic for acting like she's the "ugly" friend. (sidenote I was confused because I'm more attracted to women like her than I am to Uma Thurman)
Meanwhile in Shallow Hal the way we saw the women when Hal wasn't under the influence was the kinds of shallow flaws he was judgy of. He didn't really have much in the way of standards for women at all and it showed. They just had to look his idea of pretty. So when he perceives them one way of the other us the audience is seeing his ideas not our own.
Being more attracted to a person because of who they are as a person thus causing you to see them as sexier, more beautiful in your mind is absolutely a thing.
People call out the movie for it's beauty standard of how to represent that. Here's the thing though remember all the "beautiful" women we're seeing are what his character perceives as the beauty standard that he holds.
You can point at a movie like The Truth About Cats and Dogs and point out the fact that Jeanene Gerafolo is a beautiful woman any guy would be lucky to know as being problematic for acting like she's the "ugly" friend. (sidenote I was confused because I'm more attracted to women like her than I am to Uma Thurman)
Meanwhile in Shallow Hal the way we saw the women when Hal wasn't under the influence was the kinds of shallow flaws he was judgy of. He didn't really have much in the way of standards for women at all and it showed. They just had to look his idea of pretty. So when he perceives them one way of the other us the audience is seeing his ideas not our own.