Big Fat Ad
I saw this poster in San Francisco over the weekend, put up by some public health initiative, I believe. Of course I thought of you, and snapped this picture!
The first dotted line says “STARTED GOING FOR WALKS DURING LUNCH HOUR.” The second line says “STOPS ORDERING TAKE-OUT AND STARTS COOKING HEALTHY MEALS.” And the third line says “JUST BOUGHT BIKINI THAT CHALLENGES SOME OBSCENITY LAWS.”
The first two lines, of course, are there to show that if the fat woman makes positive health changes and stops “ordering takeout” (you know, as we all do), she will lose lots of weight. It’s the third line where I have the real issue–once she no longer has any “unsightly” lumps (please notice that the shape of the line changes, not just the size) she’s “allowed” to buy a skimpy bikini. Isn’t that the goal, after all?
I have to say, I misunderstood this photo at first. My first thought was, “cool, a fat chick in a bathing suit!” and then I skimmed the ad and thought “hey, she’s going to get empowered and buy a bikini!” totally missing the whole weight loss thing. This obviously proves that I’ve been brainwashed by my own blog; there’s clearly no way a headless fattie in a bathing suit would be there to convey a positive message. But isn’t it nice that I thought so?
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Advertising, Fatism, Feminism, Health, Media, Weight Loss
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I guess the advertisers want you to read those three phrases as if they’re in chronological order (presumably as layers of fat come off). But I kind of like reading it from the inside out, so that it means: first she bought a trashy bikini! Then subsequently she realized she was more than a sex object and started taking care of herself!
I think doing a few Photoshop remixes of this thing is in order.
Can I also just say how much I love that walking during your lunch hour and not ordering take-out are supposed to make you lose enough weight to have a conventionally acceptable bikini body? Way to reinforce the myth that substantial weight loss is just a matter of small, easy changes. *headdesk*
she’s “allowed” to buy a skimpy bikini
I don’t remember there being security personnel in the swimsuit section last time I was at the store. Maybe they were hiding and would have lept down from the ceiling tiles if I had tried to consider a bikini…
I think the design isn’t bad but I totally missed the “getting smaller” suggestion of the text until I read this though…
also her arm is behind her back a little like he’s being handcuffed or something. The placement just looks odd.
It is nice that you thought so. I kind of thought so too.
I don’t know… I’m slightly conflicted, in that I see exactly what you mean, but I do like the message that you don’t have to ALREADY BE SKINNY to start exercising and doing the things you want. Though it ought to be obvious.
I agree with Kate’s analysis. It reinforces the idea that all fat people must be lazy, donut-stuffing, willpower-less, ignorant morons in order to be fat. Because, yanno, all you have to do is walk during your lunch hour (so easy!) instead of eating lunch, and make sure at night you’re cooking homemade pasta instead of ordered take-out from Italian restaurant down the street.
It’s that simple!
Besides, we know no *skinny* people order takeout or eat lunch.
Marilynn Wann posted about this on the fat studies listserv. Someone “vandalized” one of these is San Francisco and replaced the words with (the words are a little hard to read):
1st line) Started getting angry about ads like this that promote anger against fat people
2nd line) Started spreading the word that people of all sizes can be healthy & sexy
3rd line) Started telling weight bigots to kiss my fat ass not that I’d let them!
Personally, I think that is just too cool. Guerilla Fat in action.
I notice that there are no weight/fat loss lines are her arms. So apparently it’s acceptable to have flab on some parts of your body but not on others, cause that just makes you disgusting and unsexy.
It’s such a gorgeous picture, it’s tragic that they chose the message they did.
If only it were so simple. It’s kind of a neat idea- the design, I mean- but as someone said above- obviously no *skinny* people order takeout and they must all walk during their lunch hours, too.
I’m kinda glad it appeared here, in SF, so that someone COULD “vandalize” it.
The sad thing is, it probably isn’t even posted in L.A., because GOD FORBID they see someone wearing a bathing suit who isn’t a walking skeleton!
I remember, a few years ago, driving down Sunset Blvd. and seeing a huge billboard for Victoria’s Secret’s new thong. The ad consisted of a model wearing said thong and sticking her ass in the camera. So, yes, it was basically a giant billboard of a skinny naked ass. There were a large number of fenderbenders on Sunset, but no one thought it was odd. Except me, and a couple of my female friends. In most other places, SOMEONE would have complained, don’t ya think?
But this is the mentality we’re dealing with. That we are only worthy if we’re skinny, and if we ARE skinny, we should be objectified.
And NEVER MIND that NO ONE gets skinny by taking strolls around the block, and that a majority of models and actresses have eating disorders, which is why they look the way they do. No, let’s just keep our heads in the sand, and “educate” people with methods that have been proven, time and again, NOT to work.
OK, sorry about the rant.
Yeah, my first thought before I read the entry was, “Dayum! Nice ass!” followed shortly by, where can I get that suit? LOL. It’s such a shame because it really is a great picture. And as much as I disagree with the message, I have to admit, it’s one of the better examples I’ve seen of this type of PSA. At least they lured me in with a saucy picture before they insulted me. So, I’m going to name her Sadie, and in the rest of the picture, she has great hair and a smile ten feet wide. If I lived near one of these, I’d get all Fat Guerilla on it (love that term): SHE IS GORGEOUS ALREADY!!!
I saw a similar ad a couple of years ago that showed a picture of a headless fat man and pointed to the notches on his belt. The belt got bigger with labels like “wife got a new lasagna recipe,” “got Sopranos on DVD,” and “hired lawn service.” So the guy was getting fatter.
Alyssa, I’m not sure what LA you’ve been living in, but I lived in LA and OC for 11 years (I moved away about 4 months ago.) In all my times at the beach, not once did I see beach full of perfect 10s in string bikinis. I saw all sizes, shapes, colors and ages at the beach, in bathing suits, having fun. I saw all sizes and body types on Melrose, at the Whiskey, at Roscoe’s. LA is not some “strictly skeleton thin stereotypes only allowed within our viewing range”.
I have to say, buying a 2 piece bathing suit that bared my middle was one of the most important things I’ve ever done in terms of my own personal relationship with my body.
I’d always had trouble buying one piece suits because I was (prior to three pregnancies) barely a B cup on top with broad shoulders, broader hips, a substantial ass, and wearing an 18/20 on the bottom. If the bottom fit, the top, inevitably, did not.
Once places like Target started selling 2 piece suits, I jumped on it, and though it was strange, at first, to have that white swath of squishy skin in the middle bared to the world, I found I loooooved how quickly I dried off after the pool, and how free I felt, and how *in* my skin I was. I bought a bottom that had a small skirt on it, because I’m not a waxing kind of woman, and I like to swim without worrying about a wedgie. And I haven’t looked back since.
Especially in catalogues, it’s getting easier and easier to find two-piece suits in larger sizes, and I highly recommend giving them a try, no matter what your size!
I grew up in L.A., and I agree with that. In certain social scenes, there’s absolutely that pressure to be thin–but if you’re not trying to be an actor or socialite, I don’t think anyone cares. I feel like the guiding principle is that people are so into their own lives that they don’t so much have energy left for judgyness. That’s just my impression, though.
I hardly ever get takeout, I work at home so it’s unnecessary. I also walk pretty much every day, sometimes for hours. Why have I not disappeared?
mo, I agree. I really think nobody should worry about what anyone else thinks they look like, since most people are more worried about how they themselves look. Most people don’t have the capacity to step outside their own egos long enough to worry about how others look in most of those superficial-ish social situations.
Does anyone else wonder what Jennifer Love Hewitt’s reaction to this billboard would be?
I can understand why people are offended by the ad, but I think its intended message is not really a bad one. While Kate Harding is right that little changes are not likely to result in significant weight loss, there is substantial evidence that they can result in small weight losses of 10-15 pounds…which can be enough to reduce your risk of type II diabetes and heart disease. Seeing as how the ad is a product of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (along with the Ad Council), I think that’s probably the ultimate goal here.
And if you look at where those dotted lines are, they don’t seem to represent a massive weight loss. The “obscene bikini” line is at a point where that’s still a pretty curvaceous booty, in my opinion. I think here they are trying to say that if you lose some weight you will likely feel better about yourself and enjoy showing off your body…even if you’re not super-skinny. I understand why people take objection to the conflation of self-esteem and body weight, but I think the reality is that most people do feel better about themselves when they’ve lost a few pounds.
ok Im completely HORRIFIED that thats actually a real ad.
and I completely adore that youve been brainwashed by yer own blog.
M.
La Wade, I don’t mean to pick on you, but that kind of thinking–just lose a few pounds and you’ll feel better!–is just as damaging as the “you must lose 100 pounds immediately or you will die.” Why? Well, first of all because not everyone who makes “small, healthy changes” is going to see the result of weight loss. I lived in a major European city and didn’t own a car for four and a half years, while living on the 4th floor of a walkup apartment. “Takeout” was largely unavailable. While I now live in the United States and don’t get to walk everywhere anymore, I am still plenty active and cook 90 percent of my family’s meals from scratch. I focus on loving myself–all of myself–and that means eating well and staying active.
Guess what? The weight never changes. I am fat, just as I have been since early childhood. If I lost 10-15 pounds, I would still be fat, and as a fat person would still be subject to the random judgments of strangers who know fuck-all about who I am or what I do for lunch or when I order a pizza. It’s not like I would then be able to wear a sign that says, “I’m fat, but I lost a few pounds and feel so much better now and am at much less risk of TEH DIABETEEZ, so please don’t stigmatize me.”
Hey, my first thought was “my bum looks like that!”. I already own a bikini, and have worn it in public, I don’t think mine threatens to break any decency laws, unless there’s a law against looking indecently cute?
I think this ad is acceptable, because it’s not overtly judgmental, even with the take-out assumption, and it is advocating little healthy changes, that is a message that very much needs to get out there.
I’m taking an Epidemiology of Chronic Disease class with now for my Master’s (Mistress’?) degree, part of the class is online discussion groups, and it is INTERESTING what some people come up with when the debate is “why do people not exercise?”.
It is judgemental. The ad assumes that fat woman doesn’t exercise at all, only eats take-out, and shouldn’t be allowed to wear a two piece because she’s fat. The model they used probably does walk and doesn’t stuff herself with take-out food.
Some people don’t need to lose a few pounds to feel better or look better. When some of you will stop buying into that junk, society will be a better place.
Kinda skimmed thru the comments, so not sure if someone already touched upon this or not…..
It’s ironic how many times I hear the “eat better, exercise more, and you will lose weight”.
I’ve been at a restaurant and ask to substitute veggies for french fries, or am sweating away at the gym…when I get those looks that say “why are you even bothering, pig?” or “You know you’re gonna eat some Ben n Jerry’s when nobody is watching”.
I still make the choices that are healthier, but there are times when I resent the implication that because I “allowed myself to get this way”, I am suddenly beyond hope.
Hey, I live in SF and saw this a couple of weeks ago in Spanish at my local bus stop. As I don’t speak Spanish, I didn’t know exactly what the lines said, but I apparently surmised the content fairly accurately.
Every time I walk by the thing, I wish I had a better grasp of Spanish and a thick black sharpie so I could do some creative revisions.
I’ll take suggestions for Spanish phrases that appropriately modify the ad…
Miriam, your post has made me want to try to wear a bikini again, even though I’m at my biggest since right before my ED began in high school.
I know this doesn’t seem like much, but…wow, it oddly means a lot to me that you said that. I mean, what the hell, why is my flesh not “allowed” to see the sun while the svelte can stride in confident bliss?
How odd. I just never considered I could do it again. I never thought I could just say, “Fuck all!” to the world of beach bodies who would eye me disapprovingly, or the teenage boys that would inevitably mock me (why the fuck do I care about what teenage boys think of me again? Oh yeah, PTSD from high school, sigh).
Thanks to this ad, instead of desiring to get ‘smaller’ than I am (because, as La Wade pointed out, smaller is automatically healthier, and you can lose 15 lbs by walking at lunch and not eating takeout), I want to *accept* who I am — not just for me, but for *all* the fat women out there. Even the ones who will also eye me disapprovingly, because they’re still in the grip of the Fantasy of Being Thin.
Thanks Miriam, and thanks lovely headless fat woman in the ad. :)
I saw this ad in person about a month ago in SF, and thought about capturing it to send in to BFD. But I was so ENRAGED that I couldn’t bring myself to go back and look at it again.
To La Wade: I ALREADY take walks during lunch, and I ALREADY cook healthy meals at home and don’t order take out. In fact, I spend about 800 dollars a month ordering fresh, grass fed, organic lean meat, organic vegetables, beet kvass, and raw milk for myself and my husband. They are delivered every week, and I cook because this food isn’t cheap and I don’t want to waste it. I walk, lift weights, and swim.
The ad I saw was in spanish, which makes it even more pompous.
La Wade, I’d love to see a picture of you. What do you weigh? I’m guessing (based on nothing, since that’s what your post was based on) that you need to pluck your eyebrows to feel just a little better about yourself.
After all, I “think” the “reality” is that most people (especially entry-level scientists) who tend to make inaccurate assumptions about people they don’t know “tend” to feel better about themselves when they are more conventionally groomed. Even removing a stray hair or two can do wonders for someone.
And you know, once that “better feeling” wears off, just pluck another. And then another. You know, like an anorexic might do if with the pounds if they want to keep feeling just a little better about themselves.
*Sheesh* the ignorance.
Insulting or not, “ignorant” or not, a LOT of women DO seem to get some kind of boost when they lose a little weight. I’m not judging them for that, and I’m not judging anyone who doesn’t care about their weight.
I’m aware that this comment is based on anecdotal evidence…however, I feel most of the “I do this and this and can’t lose weight therefor these changes will make no difference for anyone else” are based on less than scientific evidence.
This in no way changes my opinion that anyone should wear a bikini if they darn well want, and if I don’t like it I’ll keep it to myself, and I won’t look.
Wow, Stacy, that was really mean and totally uncalled for! We’re all in this fight together and being cruel to someone for their well-researched and intelligent opinions doesn’t do any of us any good. Maybe consider taking the high road next time.
Well, it’s certainly enlightening to see the range of responses to this ad!
To me, they seem to be saying that small, healthy lifestyle changes can result in modest weight loss that can make you look and feel better.
But most of the commenters here seem to feel they are saying that if you look like the woman in the picture, you are doing something wrong, and you need to change. I agree that this is a message often perpetrated by our society. But I don’t think it’s the message this particular ad is trying to send.
I think maybe the fact that it’s a fat person in the ad and not an “average” or thin person proves that this ad isn’t all about health.
Lisa-Marie –
My phrasing wasn’t intended to be mean, and I’m sorry that you perceive my analogy as cruel. It was intended as nothing of the sort.
For someone to assume that I will fee better about myself if I lose 10-15 pounds is ludicrous. As it would be ludicrous for me to assume that someone would feel better about themselves if they pluck their eyebrows.
And there is absolutely nothing “well-researched” behind the statement that “changes” like those described in the ad will result in a weight loss of that many pounds.
What if your starting weight is 90 lbs? Should you make those “changes” so that you can feel better about yourself?
What if you are already doing those things? How then, does one implement those “small changes?”
Oh, just walk a little *more* and eat a little *less,* right? That’s exactly the kind of thinking that the diet industry pushes on people.
I’ll take the high-road with trolls, thanks, but with regular posters who should know better, I’m pretty sure it’s okay to call them out on lazy thinking.
Have you seen the ads for http://www.smallstep.gov? They come up on the CNN website. The one I was just looking at showed an overweight man with an air valve (like the ones you see on kids’ plastic rafts) in his chin. The air valve was open and presumably he was “deflating”. It said, “Step 11: Avoid portion sizes larger than your fist.”
Pretty insulting.
Hey Fatfighter: I was actually referring mainly to the industry-types. I should have made that more clear. Sunset Blvd. is where a lot of them hang out (power lunches, clubs, etc.) and I think that’s why that particular billboard was placed there, and nowhere else. As far as women in swimsuits go, they often ask young women who are auditioning for them to send a photo of themselves wearing a swimsuit, preferably a bikini.
I lived in L.A. for 9 years, and used to be an actress.
Why is there an assumption that if a woman lost weight that she’d automatically buy something skimpy that “challenges a few obscenity laws”? Pssh…I challenge them everyday by wearing clothes that fit me!
Anyhow, the add is a double-edged sword. It can be viewed in both lights as being about being healthy or trying to adhere to the “ideal”.
*ad
I can see why someone would want to think that this ad is about how you can make small changes that might cause you to lose a small amount of weight and that improves your health. But you know, it’s not. It’s about how a woman looks. If it was about health, the innermost line wouldn’t be about a sexy bikini.
As for me, I resent the idea that I have to go for a walk on my lunch. I only get half a hour for lunch. I’m on my feet for the rest of the day, usually running around the store, up and down stairs several times an hour. Today, I spent the whole day hauling thirty to fifty pound boxes around the back room. When it’s lunch time, I want to sit my big ass down and get off my feet. Maybe if I had an office job, a walk would be appealing.
The only thing this ad conveyed to me was “Holy Shit! Somewhere out there in the world, there is a gorgeous and practical magenta swimsuit in my size!
The ad is a well-meaning effort to improve people’s health by appealing to their vanity. Vanity is a much greater motivator for most people than the desire to be healthy – this is something I’ve noticed about human nature. Not every fat person is unhealthy and sedentary, but many are and the judgment in the ad is therefore not unreasonable.
Sorry for the misunderstanding, Stacy! I guess I’m just in the “if I lose 10 – 15 lbs I will feel better about myself” camp, so for me what La Wade posted wasn’t a ludicrous statement, but one that makes sense, so your analogy was lost on me. Sorry. (I also feel better about myself after a good eyebrow waxing, so maybe I’m just vain!)
I have small hands. Portion size of my fist wouldn’t even give me a side salad anywhere.
Unfortunately the ‘small steps’ the US Government is advocating plays into a lot of the stereotypes of fatties out there. You know, that we never excersize, we never play with our kids (at leat five of the tips refer to playing with your kids #54, #75, #118, #119, and #170, nevermind that not all of us have kids to play with), that we watch tv all the time (#31), that we all drink full sugar soda all the time (#18, #95), and on and on. I’ve not seen one about not eating donuts, but on the tv commercials, there is one about ‘substituting healthy snacks (ie, fruits and veggies) for unhealthy chips and snack cakes’. It’s insulting and condenscending, frankly. Just like this add that tries to use the ‘health aspect’ (feeding into the stereotype that all fatties are unhealthy) but the real payoff is buying a bikini.
I’ve recently commented in my personal journal. Due to medication I’m on, in a bit over a year, I lost 70 lbs. Now, I’m STILL overweight, but I started at 270, and am now at 200 (I’m also 5’2″ and so am still in the 39 BMI range).
I’ve done some math and realized that by losing the 70 pounds I lost, I’m down to a 12% chance of diabetes. WOOOHOOO! I’m SO much healthier! Nevermind the fact that I have a low genetic risk of diabetes and have never tested anything but normal for all the times I’ve had the fasting test done (even when I was at my highest weight of 270). But wait… on top of that, I work out 3 times a week for an hour (had knee surgery 2.5 months ago and am doing PT 3 times a week, excersizing hard for the whole hour), and hardly ever do “take out”.*
Yet still, yesterday, when following my PT’s instructions to eat *immediately* following my appointment and eat protien and LOTS of carbs, including drinking shakes, I was “politely” redirected by the (thin) clerk behind the counter to a ‘fat free’ smoothy instead of the full fat strawberry and cream smoothy I was ordering. Yes, the PT told me that I wasn’t eating enough carbs after my workout, and that I had to increase the amount of carbs and should even be drinking chocolate milk and milkshakes right after my therapy appointment! (For the record, I teased him and asked him if there was some oversight committee I needed to report him to, because he was telling a fattie to drink milkshakes and eat more carbs. He knows some of the issues I’ve had with fat prejudice, knew I was teasing, and laughed at me for wanting to ‘report’ him.)
*Since the surgery, I’ve been doing physical therapy three times a week every week, for two and a half months. I did not start off at an hour’s worth of exersize, but have been doing an hour’s worth of exersize for about three weeks now with no weight loss. I’ve been doing hard, makes my heart beat fast, sweat rolling down my face, need to take a shower when I leave the physical therapy center exersize that includes stamina exersizes, weight lifting and stability exercises (which are a combination of the stamina and weight lifting exersizes). The exercises I am doing are more than ‘parking at the back of the lot and walking’, ‘walking the beach instead of just sunbathing’, or ‘don’t just watch the dog walk, go on a walk with the dog’. And I’ve lost not one extra pound.
And only started drinking shakes after my sessions this past week.
Lisa-Marie –
NP. Where I’m coming from is that I’ve realized there is nothing I can do to lose 10 – 15 lbs and keep it off.
It isn’t easy to accept that.
Nor is it easy to face the fact that dieting is what has made me fat, and that I have to STOP IT or I will just get fatter.
That is what the science shows, and will continue to show. The world is only just beginning to catch on, but in the meantime, it’s hard to accept it. Ads and misinformation just make it harder.
And believe me, I’m plenty vain myself, and look like a plus-sized model. Regardless of how vain I am though, losing 10-15 lbs will only make me gain 20 later. And that sucks.
Anyway, to be fair, my annoyance at the continued spreading of misinformation probably obscured that analogy.
:)
I feel like a lot of people jumped on La Wade’s comment, but really the people here are a different “breed” We are all here because we want to be accepted for who we are no matter what that shell is. If most of the world agreed, though, the entire FA movement wouldn’t exist. I do think a lot of women would say losing 10-15 lbs would make them feel better. Maybe you wouldn’t. You know eating healthy and keeping active is what counts in the end. If I polled my entire office, though, that wouldn’t be enough. The people I work with still equate what they see in front of them to how hard people are working.
In the end I think the poster was leaning in the right direction with the words, but in he wrong way with the picture. It’s tough to market health at any size to your every day American. If they put up the same poster with some smiling women of different sizes saying, “Be healthy, walk at lunch, eat home prepared meals, feel good about yourself, wear something you’re proud off…etc” It would probably be perceived as cheesy. Like it or not that picture caught peoples attention just as it caught ours. Shock value just works, even if the end result (as in this case) is misguided.
“I’d love to see a picture of you. What do you weigh?”
Do we have a minimum weight requirement to comment, now? Is an average-weight person’s opinion invalid?
Well, just to make sure I meet Stacy’s new fat credential check, I’m a junior level scientist and overweight person. That is, I’m 5’2″ and weigh around 153. In case you’re also checking activity levels, I work out for 45 to 60 minutes at 65 to 90% of my maximum heart rate 4 or 5 days a week. So I am safe in calling myself a pretty active overweight person.
My perception of this ad, if I’m permitted to share it, is that it’s a deeply wrong-headed attempt to try to get the idea across that you can make small positive changes to diet and physical activity levels, and improve your general outlook and appearance.
In fact, looking at the logos at the bottom, it’s a joint effort of the Ad Council and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. A little poking around reveals that in the print version, the tagline at the bottom reads, “TAKE A SMALL STEP TO GET HEALTHY. Get started at http://www.smallstep.gov.” A little more sleuthing yielded this information about the campaign itself: http://www.adcouncil.org/default.aspx?id=54 (There are links to about a half-dozen print spots in the same labelled-contour vein, featuring both men and women.)
I think the worst problem with this ad and the others is the one I’ve ranted about before, which is the incorrect assumption that one can judge activity level, dietary choices, and general health of adults by body contours and general appearance.
I realize this all a matter of perspective, but I don’t see the implication here that fat people are fat because they made worse diet and exercise choices than thin people. I figured that they used an obese model because obese people are the target audience of this campaign, as they are at increased risk of weight-related health problems, and therefore stand to benefit the most from weight reduction. But then again, I obviously have a lower sensitivity to perception of anti-fat bias than most people here!
Ginger, just out of curiosity, can you think of a way to approach a campaign like this with greater sensitivity? Is it possible to have a campaign that promotes weight loss without the appearance of making generalizations or judgements about fat people?
I’d just like to say that part of the reason losing weight makes someone feel good is because it is a tangible sign that their efforts are paying off. Personally, I exercise 4-5 days a week, eat healthy, don’t smoke or drink, etc. and still don’t lose weight. But my feel good moments come when my efforts are seen through the curve of a muscle I didn’t have before, or when I roll out of bed after working out the day before and my whole body looks lifted, perkier if you will.
What I’m saying is that although the media fuels the myth that losing weight will make you into a completely different person and you can’t love yourself or feel good until you do, losing weight or other side effects of working out, still make you feel good.
“LA is not some “strictly skeleton thin stereotypes only allowed within our viewing range”.
Then I need to hang out with you when I’m there.
It might be better for my career for me to move there, at least temporarily, but when I’m there on business, I HAAAAAAAAATE feeling like a humongous galoot at size 8, so I stay in New York all the time.
Except for when I visit relatives in the Midwest, where I am universally excoriated for being “too skinny”.
*sigh*
Women – Hated At Every Size
Ginger, you’ve missed my point entirely.
La Wade made an inaccurate statement:
“While Kate Harding is right that little changes are not likely to result in significant weight loss, there is substantial evidence that they can result in small weight losses of 10-15 pounds…”
Followed by a guess:
“I think here they are trying to say that if you lose some weight you will likely feel better about yourself…”
And an assumption:
“…I think the reality is that most people do feel better about themselves when they’ve lost a few pounds.”
When I asked La Wade how much she weighs, the inflection was on the word “you.” In other words, if La Wade starts walking at lunch and cooking at home instead of eating take-out, will she lose 10-15 lbs? If not, why not? Because she doesn’t need to/want to? Does that advice only apply to overweight people?
If not, why don’t we just require everyone to walk at lunchtime and only cook at home?
She “thinks” the “reality” is. La Wade was implying the ad was about health, but her entire point was about weight. Her thinking was/is only a slightly less dramatic version of what the weight loss industry pushes on people.
If someone wants to “feel better,” losing 10-15 lbs is probably not the best way to do it, because they *will* gain it back. How about learning to accept oneself instead?
I could care less what La Wade really looks like. I was making a point.
(But it is interesting Ginger, that you felt you should tell me how much you work out. If anything, you should see the value in my pointing out the lazy thinking in La Wade’s original post.)
I also resent the assumption that La Wade thinks that the “obese” get special diseases too.
I worked in a doctor’s office for six years, and there were plenty of normal and thin people with diabetes and heart problems.
Those people get treated. The obese are just told to lose weight. Not very fair, is it?
“Not every fat person is unhealthy and sedentary, but many are and the judgment in the ad is therefore not unreasonable.”
Many thin people are unhealthy and sedentary too. How come they don’t get targeted to get active and eat better?
Getting back to mo pie’s original post…
I think you hit an interesting point dealing with entitlement. Once you are small enough, you have earned the right to wear a bikini.
I just got back from vacation. Before I went I contemplated buying a bikini. I chickened out and wore my smokin’-hot halter 1-piece with the sparkles…I digress. My destination was a popular spot for Europeans. Let me tell you, these ladies had no reservations WHATSOEVER about wearing a bikini. I was shocked and a little disappointed that I didn’t look harder for a bikini for myself.
There were some other things that shocked me as well. The Europeans seemed to not care if people were waiting in line, they were entitled to whatever people were waiting for (a room, food, drinks, towels etc.). They also felt entitled to take whatever they wanted and to be rude to the staff of the resort.
I turned that whole idea around and decided that the large women in bikinis didn’t think that they were NOT entitled to wear a bikini if they wanted to.
In the US people believe that we have a merit based culture (my disagreement with that is for someone else’s race/class blog). We believe that if you were in line first, you deserve to be served first, if you work hard enough or were blessed enough to be a size 2 or 4 then you deserve to wear a bikini. If you haven’t then you are relegated to onesy ville. I think it is time to get away from thinking that large people aren’t entitled to things, and start taking them for ourselves. If others don’t accept it, they have two options.
1. Get Angry
2. Get out of the way.
Either way, we get to do what we want.