Member's Stories fat phobia | fat phobia |
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| Written by blueyes | |
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I have recently had the displeasure of watching the latest diet ad campaign on TV. Its an absolute crime that such utter denigration of fat people is allowed to be viewed. How dare they publicly shame fat people in such a discriminatory way. I think that these diet companies should cease to be promoting their ad and their advertisers should be shot! Incase the diet companies are unaware, fat people have feelings too and to have to see ads that are so shaming to essentially who they are is unfair and further promotes fatist attitudes that some members of our society already hold about fat people. The diet industry makes a huge profit each year and often has this in mind for its own interests, not the health of people. The particular diet company i have in mind that is showing these shocking ads on TV currently makes substantial profits each year with less than a 1% success rate for people maintaining their weight loss. They are doing nothing more than promoting size discrimination, fat phobia, increase in size, development of eating disorders and disordered eating and all this consumers pay for. I am proud to be a fat women, I enjoy my curves and uniqueness. I want to encourage fat women to celebrate who they are not who society dictates who they 'should be'! I want to encourge anyone watching these ads and feeling the same way I do to actively protest by turning the TV off or turning the channel over when the diet ads come on. Comments
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written by jode , 05 October, 2007
Hear, hear, Blueyes! I'm with you all the way. Those weightloss companies are interested primarily in reducing the weight of our wallets. Their success depends upon repeat custom - if their products worked first time round, they'd all go broke. Weight Watchers is owned by a biscuit manufacturing company, for Pete's sake! My own personal protest is a refusal to buy anything labelled "Slimmers" or "Weight Watchers" - "Low Fat" is fine - I know a high fat diet is unhealthy - but I resent the implication that a fat woman choosing a low fat option MUST be doing so in order to lose weight - gaining health is a much more worthy objective, so I eat for my health, not my weight - and sometimes, just sometimes, my emotional health NEEDS chocolate.
Bravo!
written by realwahine , 19 June, 2010
Well the last comment on this post was 2007 - it's now June 2010 and I wanted to add my vote of support too! We live in a modern complex world that has many, many, many stressors - there is so much fear and hate manifesting in the world. To me it is indeed a disgusting, objectionable thing to see the way the labels of weight, fat, overweight, obese and plus size are bandied about and people are shamed for their particular way of trying, essentially, to cope with what life presents. to me things extend far further than the industries who take profit from the pain of people who battle with food. How much better of a world would it be if we all took a good hard look inside our own selves rather than projecting our own judgements outward. To me the disgrace is that discrimination on the grounds of a persons size or shape is NOT illegal. The shame is on those people who are so weak that they need to put down others in order to feel superior or avoid their own pain. There is a saying that I think sums it all up "When we feel inwardly strong we have no need, or desire, to speak ill of others" - thank you blueeyes for putting voice to an issue that is still prevalent 3-4 years on. Demeaning people for the challenges they have in life, supposed to help and encourage people to get help - I think not. I encourage everyone out there to help be part of the solution - how do we do that? Well in my mind we are honest with what's going on in ourselves, we work to have genuine empathy for others and consider how, how might I SUPPORT someone to have a different experience of life, an experience where food and eating can be an enjoyable, pleasurable and natural gift which we can genuinely enjoy.
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