“Eat our processed food and lose weight!” “Join this gym and lose weight!” “Take this pill, shake, herb, tea, suppository, and lose weight!”
And they’re off! New Year’s is the weight loss industry’s black Friday. Many millions are reaped throughout the year, but it is January that does wonders for the industry’s bottom line. As our nation has grown in size so has an industry filled with an abundance of promises and zero standards. How has this happened?
Whether one considers excessive weight to be a health, behavior or public issue is somewhat secondary to the point that the market feels free to exploit the situation.
If you feel that being overweight is a health issue, what do you make of reality television shows featuring obese contestants being humiliated as a means to bolstering their health? Do we watch smokers and drinkers being humiliated on reality shows? Do we honestly think that this programming is not solely about the viewer’s entertainment? How did other people’s heartbreaking struggle with a health issue become fodder for our entertainment?
If you feel that being overweight is the result of an utter lack of self-control, what do you make of products that reinforce that disconnect between outcome and behavior? The “behavior” camp asserts that maintaining a healthy weight is the result of not consuming more than one is using. A sensible diet and a moderate amount of exercise is the permanent method with which to control weight. If the federal government believes this (and they seem to) why then are companies allowed to sell snake oil? Why doesn’t every advertisement for Nutri-Jenny-Fast have a big black box across it stating “Eating our fake food is not sustainable & your behavior will not be changed by our program. You may in fact lose weight while you are our customer, but most people gain it back immediately after leaving our program.” Too big brother? Remember, we now have warnings on aerosol bottles to dissuade people from huffing.
If you feel that the public health of our nation is at risk, then we really have to talk. Whether we should start with the corn subsidies or food labeling, or school lunches makes for good dinner party conversation. But so do dinner parties for that matter. All of our habits, from the decline of dinner tables to carbo-loaded toddlers while they burn zero calories riding in a stroller, to wheels on sneakers (children don’t even walk anymore, they roll,) it’s all up for scrutiny. What about processed foods designed specifically for children? The baby food industry started the trend with “toddler” jarred foods. Apparently toddlers find real yogurt and bananas to be daunting. As they get older, the food industry has graciously provided, fake cheese, yogurt with candy, processed breaded chicken nuggets, lunchables and colored flavored drinks. For those in the public health camp; why is this even tolerated? We regulate pill bottle caps, cribs, car seats, window blind cords, but not the food sold for our children? We are cultivating a lifelong appetite for fake food.
It is a terrible burden to feel as if your size is standing in your way. Feeling as if your own body is the enemy is an exhausting way to go through life. For anyone pulling on their new sneakers and heading out into the unknown this January, I say Brava! It is physics; the first steps are the hardest. Keep at it, and in about six weeks it will be the new normal. Eat real food, celebrate meals, enjoy life and save your money. There are no shortcuts and the only magic is discovering your own strength.
Here She Is Boys 
The White Hood Of The Web
There have always been people crouching behind barriers and throwing stones. In an actual battle, this strategy is in fact prudent. But when the stones are being thrown at unwilling participants it is abusive, and when the abuser is shielding him/herself it is bullying. (Bullying is by definition an abuser preying on a weaker person. Hiding offers protection, exposure leaves one weaker.)
Since the dawn of time, or since there were enough people on the planet to adequately ostracize some of them; people have bullied other people. Often groups decide that someone, or groups of someones are a threat to the status quo. The group itself gives rise to an enthusiasm and sense of protection for the abusers. Persecution of women in Salem, backlashes to integration and voting rights, gay bashing; we have a rich national history of bullying, And it’s getting worse.
We are in a time of economic uncertainty, political polarization, political correctness pressure and the internet. People have not become more or less decent, they just may feel more threatened. Nothing gets the bully’s goat like threat. But what brings the simmering increase of abuse to the boiling point is the rise of technology. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and countless website comment sections, have allowed for a new form of white hood. There is a vile cocktail of exhibitionism and hatred that litters the comment sections of legitimate news outlets. For some reason web editors and/or executives are allowing their brand to be a platform for hate groups. These posters use tragically uncreative screen names to hide behind, while rabidly posting. The unsuspecting reader is affronted with spewing from people calling themselves by war criminal’s names.
I am willing to concede, that just like wildly offensive television programming, the viewer can avoid the offensive material pretty easily. But I am concerned about the news outlets sense of responsibility and integrity. Offensive and abusive comments on Facebook and Twitter can easily be blocked and ignored as well. Even bloggers can block nasty commenters with ugly agendas. But where does this leave us?
The fact that we can protect ourselves from these high tech hooded thugs, doesn’t address the real issue. Why are we allowing people to hide in plain sight. Newspapers have long made it de rigueur to only publish letters from individuals with confirmed identities. Make no mistake, I am not advocating restraints on free speech. Far from it. But surely we have the technology to expose these people? The rest of us non-software engineers, should ignore the comments (versus engaging) and not patronize sites whose management allows for this behavior. People are entitled to be as dark and hateful as they desire, but civilized societies should not allow for them to do so in disguise.
Posted by Anonymous on November 16, 2011 in Cultural Critique, Media/Marketing
Tags: blogs, Brenda Tobias, bullying, commenters, cowards, Facebook, gay bashing, hate groups, integration, internet, Newspapers, Salem witch trials, Twitter, voting rights