Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Fat Shaming the Youth


I get it. I get that childhood obesity is an exponentially growing issue. But is this the solution:





Where are the solutions in these ads? There are no proactive steps to help curve obesity, simply a depiction of how miserable all "overweight" people are. Parents are also being shamed for making their children "fat," but I wonder how many households have access/can afford organic fresh foods, or have safe/plentiful open spaces to run around in.

And what are the real messages behind these ads:
"Be skinny, or people will make fun of you." Shouldn't we be sending out messages to the folks making fun of others to not bully? I understand that it is a wonderful thing for folks to be healthy, but skinny does not always equal healthy, nor does a higher BMI always equal unhealthy.

Your thoughts? Have these Georgia ads gone too far?

2 comments:

  1. I think that the worst thing anyone can do an obese child is to make him/her feel ashamed. It just leads to low self esteem.
    I was quite chubby as a child and then my mom started freaking out and made me exercise and diet at 14. I became anorexic, had really irregular periods, ended up looking prepubescent, started cutting myself, and hated my body for a decade. Now, I'm starting to love my body, including my fat, and am gaining weight and feel so much happier.
    In a consumer culture, advertisers make money off of conflicting messages: buy fattening food all the time so that you can hate yourself and then buy plastic surgery to get thin again so that you can buy expensive clothes.
    I feel like the only way to combat all eating disorders (over-eating, anorexia, bulimia, etc) is to eliminate advertising or overpower it. I'm not sure how to do that.
    But, campaigns like this only reinforce the negative messages in pop culture and make it seem like being thin is the answer. Totally wrong.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "He has his father's eyes, his laugh, and maybe even his diabetes" This could apply to anyone who has a genetic predisposition to any disease.. being fat doesn't make you diabetic- they're just assuming that fat people eat all the stuff that does. Of course.. if you're a thin person who eats all the stuff that does then that's just fine, isn't it? A recent study showed the best predictor of diabetes wasn't weight.. it was income. So this add is sizist, ableist, and classist all in one go! wow.. now that's a talent. I can't believe, with all the actual science available, that we still have to put up with these ridiculous "obesity epidemic" campaigns.

    ReplyDelete