Fat=immoral? WTF?
Apr. 10th, 2008 09:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kitanziWhen did fat become a moral issue? Seriously, when?
I don’t mean “People are starving in Africa, why are we eating too much in America?” I mean television ads like one I saw last night. The sound was off (I was watching it at the gym) and the usual tv-actress-thin woman was looking in the window of a bakery with yearning in every line of her body, and a set of devil’s horns. She straightened up, reached into her pocket for whatever health bar they were selling, and immediately traded the horns for a halo and a blissful smile while she munched the marketed product. That doesn’t need words to make that message clear.
I mean women, every day in casual conversation, at work and on the street and me myself sometimes (I hate it but I admit it) talking about “being good” when they stick to a diet and “being bad” when they indulge. “I was very good today, I had a salad for lunch and did a half hour on the treadmill.” “Whoops, I was bad – I shouldn’t have had that brownie.”
When did this happen, and why are we buying it? Is it just me, or does this simultaneously trivialize morality in general and brand fat people as less moral than thin people? What other examples have folks seen, or even counter examples? I’d love to be convinced I’m mistaken on this, actually, but I don’t think so.
I don’t mean “People are starving in Africa, why are we eating too much in America?” I mean television ads like one I saw last night. The sound was off (I was watching it at the gym) and the usual tv-actress-thin woman was looking in the window of a bakery with yearning in every line of her body, and a set of devil’s horns. She straightened up, reached into her pocket for whatever health bar they were selling, and immediately traded the horns for a halo and a blissful smile while she munched the marketed product. That doesn’t need words to make that message clear.
I mean women, every day in casual conversation, at work and on the street and me myself sometimes (I hate it but I admit it) talking about “being good” when they stick to a diet and “being bad” when they indulge. “I was very good today, I had a salad for lunch and did a half hour on the treadmill.” “Whoops, I was bad – I shouldn’t have had that brownie.”
When did this happen, and why are we buying it? Is it just me, or does this simultaneously trivialize morality in general and brand fat people as less moral than thin people? What other examples have folks seen, or even counter examples? I’d love to be convinced I’m mistaken on this, actually, but I don’t think so.
