1. Fat shaming.
I have voiced my concerns over channel 10’s “Biggest Loser” in the Sydney Morning Herald before here: The burden of treating girls’ bodies as the enemy and here in a piece co-written with Nina Funnell:Biggest losers from TV obesity cures are gullible viewers.
Sadly, based on an examination of the show’s 2013 season promos, the fat-shaming formula has not changed:
One of my Facebook friends, women’s advocate and activist Melinda Liszewski, nailed it in her post on why she finds this program so very disturbing and harmful:
LOVE this post Danni – I am with you grrrring here myself at the same things!
I have to say I am especially outraged by the “Biggest Loser” clip – I saw it for the first time the other day and was speechless that this was a promo for a TV show – essentially a form of “entertainment”. I have to ask what is wrong with us as a society if we get some sort of strange pleasure or smug sense of self righteous-ness from watching this? Why on earth would we want to shame people in this way? Writing comments like those listed here is the shameful behaviour I am concerned with in our world.
I agree! I’m sure the aim of The Biggest Loser came from somewhere good, but this type of thing ruins the positives that could come from it.
I work in sex and relationship education, and this week what’s making me go grrrrrrrrr is the fact that some schools don’t think it’s important to educate young people on more than the scientific side of sex. And if more is covered, it’s often just about the negatives of sex, and only covers heterosexual relationships.
It’s a normal part of life that young people need to be educated on.
There we go, vent over.
Great blog as always Danni, very inspiring!