Diets are not a girls best friend.
This week I watched the Australian show The Circle for the first time. The Circle is a bit like The View – except everyone’s opinions are more or less the same. They are a happy bunch at The Circle – besties. They love each other. And we love them too. This week Magda Szubanski was on to talk about her weight loss journey. Magda and The Circle’s Chrissie Swan are the public faces of a weight loss company here in Australia. They are a weight loss marketers dream, because:
a) They are really fat; and
b) We absolutely love them.
They are obviously earning some good $$’s for promoting this particular diet, and to be honest, good on ‘em.
Many people, at some time or another, will want to lose weight. I am not saying that that is a good or bad thing. For me it is a very individualistic set of choices that a person makes about his or her own body. There are dozens of reasons why an individual might choose to embark on a weight loss journey. However, most simply, individuals perceive that being thin (or thinner) will somehow improve:
1) Their self esteem, self worth, beauty and acceptance in society;
2) Their physical and mental health and wellbeing.
OR BOTH.
The marketing of the diet industry directly seeks to exploit these two factors, not only to make you hate yourself, but to then blame yourself when the diet fails. But the marketing of these diets has also become more subtle. Because of the evidence about the long term ineffectiveness of commercial diets, companies have repackaged their product so that they are now promoting ‘lifestyle changes’. Clever, because you are no longer failing at their product. Rather you are failing at a more generic set of ‘lifestyle’ issues which can only be your own fault.
I wanted to share a few snippets of the weight loss conversation that happened on The Circle.
The intro was about how Magda had lost 25 kilos in a “bid to get fit” that she was “determined to keep it off” that she had a “new lease on life” and had “strutted her stuff on the catwalk”. So here we see messages which constantly reinforce how bad it is to be fat. That you can’t be fit and fat. That really you have no right to be a happy and vibrant person if you are fat. And that fat people certainly don’t belong on magazine covers and catwalks – which of course are supposed to show off ‘real’ beauty.
Chrissie: “Please welcome my (weight loss company name) buddy Magda Szubanski! HIGH FIVE (audience cheering and applause) Happy Birthday!!! A year you have kept it off!”
OMG! We can have a weight loss birthday!!!! Do we get presents? And do we finally get to EAT SOME CAKE! To be honest I would be celebrating too, given that most people will drop out of these diets after a few days or weeks – let alone a year.
Magda: “Amazing. Because that’s the thing. We all know you can lose the weight, but then you have that tragic despairing thing of the weight creeping back on. I’ve never been able to do this my whole life….”
Commercial diets are repeatedly shown to be ineffective for 95% of the population. Most people will gain back the weight. With interest. This is because food restriction diets do not work in the long run. Short term of course. But when you are on a calorie restricted diet, at some point, like holding your breath for as long as you can, you have to breathe out.
Magda: “The unhealthy and the healthy parts of me were neck and neck. I had my good days and bad days. But eventually the healthy part of me got stronger. It’s training. And you’ve just got to persist. Forty years of bad eating, you are not going to turn that around in a short space of time.”
So again here we see those very subtle messages. That fat people are somehow weak, lazy, individuals, with gluttonous eating habits. And if they just tried hard enough and had some inner strength, they would be able to overcome their moral weaknesses and lose weight. But also there is that message of the ‘healthy potential’. That somewhere deep inside, is the good, healthy, skinny you. You will also notice a shift away from ‘quick fix’, towards long term stickability – obviously the key to success with lifestyle changes!
Magda: “(being the face of a weight loss company) in a way gives you no way out….we are in a contract, we have kinda gotta stay there…but you get through it and it’s fine. So everyone else has to learn to do that without the contract. Or make a contract with your friends. Announce it to your friends. Paint yourself into a corner. Blab so you have got no way out.”
Denise: “Oh that’s a good thing, because the more people you tell, the more you have to do it.”
I think at this point I actually started to cry. Because what sort of message is this giving to people about improving their health and wellbeing? Or about why they should or shouldn’t be okay with themselves for who they are? Or what the role of friends are, and the shame you should feel in front of them. About the pressures individuals should put themselves under to lose weight. Mothers and daughters have been making diet pacts with each other for decades. So have teenagers.
It is one of the most destructive, disturbing recommendations that I think you could be making to a generation of women (and men) who should be loving their bodies and doing things to improve their health and wellbeing for pleasure rather than punishment.
And what sort of terrible impact does it have on an individual when this ‘lifestyle change’ doesn’t work? What then? Let’s just amplify the potential for shame and embarrassment shall we by putting ourselves out there to our friends and families?
Yumi: “I feel like there is a fat person in me waiting to come out. Did you feel like there was a skinny person waiting to come out?”
Magda: “There is a fat lady in my head that wants fat old habits. And there is another part of me that wants vitality. To live life more. I’m going to be 50 next year and I feel younger than I ever have before.”
What … younger than when you were 5? 10? 20? Shame on you fatties for ever thinking that you were allowed to live life to the fullest. To be full of energy and enthusiasm. Because you must all be sitting on the couch, stuffing your face with cream cakes, and feeling like you need to go into an aged care facility. And for those skinny’s out there – beware. Because if you don’t behave yourself, a big fatty will jump out of you! But also it reinforces that if you are a fatty, that evil fatty will always be in there ready to pounce. So you NEED to make a long term committment to the ‘lifestyle change’ company. Which of course means more money for them.
Magda then gave a whole bunch of tips for weight loss, which ended with…
“It’s like training a dog, you have just got to keep doing it”
Followed a couple of minutes later with this gem from Yumi:
“Of course there is nothing wrong with being fat. We are totally up for that… ”
Really? Why have you just spent the last 6 minutes saying how horrible it is?
Magda: “Oh I’m fat! I’m not not fat. It’s about setting a real goal where you can be your best self. And fit and healthy”
OHHHH NOOOOO. Because you can’t be overweight and healthy. And you definitely can’t be your best self, and REALLY FAT. Rather you are an animal that needs to be trained.
ARGHHHH.
You know I could go on and on with the analysis of this segment (and the horrid fact that there were two other segments in the show which meant that the Panel tucked into Kit Kat’s and Chef Toby’s frittata thingo while Chrissie just sat there eating nothing – even though she had a portion in front of her).
But I guess the point of this post is that when you break down what might seem to be a really helpful or innocent chit chat session about weight/weight loss/health, you can uncover an absolute minefield of rhetoric that serves only to make us feel terrible about ourselves. The tragedy is compounded by the fact that many people who are fat would actually agree with Magda. Buy into what she is saying. And hate themselves and their lives.
That has to stop. And I for one am not prepared to accept that this is a reasonable way to talk about ourselves or other peoples bodies anymore.
What do you think?
Themocracy
[...] Diets are not a girls best friend. Dr Samantha Thomas is an awesome FA friend from Twitter who is one of Australia’s leading Health Sociologists with Monash University. Samantha has recently started a new blog after writing a couple of fantastic guest posts on other Australian FA blogs like Spilt Milk and Fat Heffalump. Do go have a read! This particular post is an analysis of a weight loss segment on Australian daytime TV show, The Circle, in which Magda Szubanski, Chrissie Swan and the other panelists discussed diet products. I’m glad I didn’t watch – I adore Magda and Chrissie, and seeing them peddle these horrible products really tarnishes my opinion of them. [...]
Wow, I am SO SO glad I didn’t watch that segment. When you were livetweeting it I was curious but too busy to go out to the tv. It’s a really upsetting recap to read because I admire pretty much all the people on The Circle’s panel!
Nat, it was your reaction that lead me to write this. And then this horrible feeling of ‘the fatty shouldn’t be eating’ when Chrissie didn’t eat anything on the show. Because in real life that’s what people think. And on that same day Janey had that horrible comment to her from the Brisbane Fruiterer “You shouldn’t eat anything if you want to lose weight”. And she was only buying apples.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Elizabeth@Spilt Milk, Samantha Thomas. Samantha Thomas said: First post up at my blog!! Magda, The Circle and Diet Talk. http://tiny.cc/iuo49 [...]
This is why I intensely dislike the spectacle of public dieting and weight loss. Magda and Chrissie, and Mikey Robins, and umpteen other well-known fat people who have done this, they become the Public Face of Fat, confirming everyone’s stereotypical beliefs about the behaviour, personality, and activities of ALL fat people. I don’t need that.
This is one reason I love Dawn French. She’s spoken publicly about dieting twice (once when she felt pressure to do so before her wedding, second when she had to meet a weight requirement to adopt her daughter (because fat people are obviously rotten parents)) and both times said it was horrible in so many ways and felt much better when she stopped.
Gosh yeah. I never thought about it that way – the Public Face of Fat. But it is also so interesting that they feel so comfortable with putting those stereotypes out there. It doesn’t make any sense to me. So why does this happen?
The have now exhibited their public remorse at being fat. It is like some kind of iniation ceremony that anyone who does not look like a top model must continue to humilate and degredate themselves, show steel-like willpower and never eat anything with calories and if you do, don’t you dare look like you enjoy it, guilty must be written all over your face.
Yeah like put yourself out there and beg for forgiveness. Show the error of your ways, and then try and convert everyone to the cause. Its almost cult like????
Well, people do engage in a kind of magical thinking when it comes to their fat bodies, and weight loss.
“I am [X]. I am fat. Therefore I’m [X] because I’m fat.”
or
“I am [X]. People say you get [X] if you’re fat. Therefore I’m [X] because I’m fat.”
And even though they’ve been on 17 diets and always gained the weight back, they swear that *this time* they’ll keep the weight off for good. Diet companies and weight loss surgery peddlers rely on this. And you get into all the rituals and rules of weight loss, and every weight loss method has its own special rules in addition.
I guess it’s not surprising that people turn to this kind of magical/superstitious thinking when they’re kept in a state of anxiety about their weight. The current public health campaigns don’t help either, people have further anxiety that being even a little bit fat is going to have them dead of a heart attack, stroke and diabetes simultaneously at 35. How many times have we heard from someone who’s been terrified by their doctor like this?
What shits me the most about this (other than all the other obvious stuff) is that Magda is still fat despite all her hoo-ha about her weight loss and Chrissy’s goal weight still leaves her in the fat category too. In fact I think they would both be in the obese category based on what I know of their height and their (current and goal respectively) weight. If they want to diet themselves into oblivion (or at all) then good for them but do they have to harp on about it to the rest of us, sending all sorts of damaging and hurtful messages (which they say they don’t intend to do but good intentions pave the road to hell or something like that) to the rest of us who are fat and living perfectly happy, healthy lives. I don’t feel betrayed by Magda for losing weight (as Chrissy once asked me if I felt that way) I feel betrayed by the implicit messages they are sending out since they started losing weight.
(Great post).
Hey! That means a lot thanks! But I also think that its strange that they wont enter into any dialogue about things. I had a semi-conversation with Chrissie about it on Twitter. But then I think she just thought I was some kind of weirdo
LOL!! There goes any future gig on The Circle eh!!
I guess these women (and men) are part of the Diet Industry now. Sure, they can do whatever they like with/to their own bodies. But when their weight loss is for sale, it’s not just an individual choice anymore. It becomes a message to the whole world – not about one fat person, but about ALL fat people.
Yeah. Thats my beef too. Do what you want – but don’t encourage everyone else to take part in something we know is damaging.
I don’t get that show here, but I did see Magda being interviewed somewhere the other night and also thought that she is still carrying a little weight, but that she seemed quite happy. I really admire Magda for her work and was interested to note that she thought her weight loss would interfere with the characters she had played over the years-namely her ones as Sharon on Kath & Kim and in her comedy roles.
What is she really saying about being fat and her role in portraying the fat person? Sharon was a sports mad, man mad, foodaholic. What is that all about.
I am a bit slow at analysing stuff some times, but it seems that there is something disengenious with the whole matter.
i wonder if Magda really comprehends how she is coming across. i will still enjoy her performances, if she can get a job now that is. Hey she probably wont need to act again. Or maybe that is what this whole shebang is all about.
I know. I still love Magda too!! I think Kendra over at Voice in Recovery said that it is just so interesting how this language is just normalised and accepted so quickly in society. Including from people – like Magda and Chrissie – that you would expect could be an amazing voice for supporting and challenging some of the assumptions and stereotypes around fat. I when Magda initially joined up with this weight loss company she said she wanted to be more involve in the debate and discussion (and policy making) about fat. I don’t know if she has done that or not?
What really irks me about these diets is that there is always a repeated message to “get your life back.” As if all non-dieting fat people don’t have lives. Well, we do, and I personally don’t want to spend my life endlessly dieting. Magda, Chrissie, Marie Osmond, and the others who spend tons of money on these programs can do it for me.
Yey! Big High Five for that one!!!!!
I recently read a post on a health site where a woman wrote that even though she joined the site to lose weight, she wasn’t very disappointed she hadn’t because it made her notice that she wasn’t very unfit or unhealthy. She was just fat and it might not be that bad.
The responses on it were from a woman that was discouraged that her former aerobics instructor was fat (because if you exercise you should be skinny, right?) but then wrote that it had to be a combination of diet AND exercise (so assuming her instructor overate). Another was from an overweight ballerina who wrote that even though she is fat do it still strong and very flexible but she still needs to lose weight because she’s somehow not good enough the way she is. The last was that if you are fit you just need to work more, push your body to to its limit and be more intense.
One of my spinning instructors is Fat. She is AMAZING! Wipes the floor with all of us.. … lol!!
I think the biggest problem with conversations about weight and weight loss is that we use too much negative language when talking about it. You should check out http://endfattalk.org, an organization trying to end fat talk.
I agree and love that organisation!!! I use their stuff all the time. Thanks for commenting
Welcome to the blogging world Dr Samantha! Nice to have your voice represented.
I really like both Magda and Chrissie but I don’t appreciate their commercial arrangement with this weight loss company being targeted at me and others in ways now to numerous to mention. As if the ads weren’t bad enough, it is the messaging like this on The Circle that I think is even more dangerous and shaming.
I know enough about the company they are promoting to know it is all pre-packaged food that permits the consumption of very little outside what is given in packets. Hence, the very sad situation of Chrissie having food in front of her that she would not have been ‘permitted’ to eat. What an awful message that sends out to the world. It’s so unbalanced for anyone dieting in such a way, not to mention the shaming messages it gives to others.
What I want to know is what happens to these famous women when the weight is gained back? Are they relegated to the D list, never again to appear on screens or magazine covers, because they’re “failures”?
Oprah is still yo-yo dieting into her 50′s despite being one of the wealthiest and most influential women in the world. Her wealth and influence goes further and further into the diet industry, when she could be making herself FAR happier to direct that somewhere that actually does some good. The likes of Magda and Chrissie don’t have her wealth and influence… so what happens to them?
Something tells me that they will be cast aside and some other new “face” attached to the brand to sell the same lies.
Good to see you blogging Samantha!
Good point about Oprah Kath – I think she’s a prime example of diets not working: she is a woman with vast wealth who can, and does, pay a personal chef and a personal trainer and who knows who else to help her lose weight. She is also someone with enormous strength of character, she’s intelligent, she presumably has ‘will power’ because honestly if she didn’t she would not be so successful – and yet she struggles to lose weight or maintain weight loss.
It does seem to me that she’s been far more stable in her weight the last few years and I WISH she’d do some learning about HAES and some shows about it, because that would be awesome. She won’t though – all that money she and the diet industry make off of each other preclude it I suspect.
As for Chrissie – a little anecdote. A while back I was at the gym talking to another fat woman who has real issues with her self esteem and is still yo-yo dieting. We were on the treadmills, and The Circle came on our screens, and she started talking about how Chrissie Swan makes her feel. She was saying that Chrissie is a ‘beautiful sexy woman’ and how it makes her feel so much better about herself to see a fat woman looking great on TV. She said that it was a real boost to her self esteem, and it helped her feel more comfortable at the gym (she was very self-conscious about exercising because years of diet ‘support groups’ had eroded her self esteem and made her feel like unless she lost weight she wasn’t worthy or acceptable.) Anyway – this all happened before Chrissie signed up with that diet company. I wonder how she makes people feel about themselves now? Just how that company would wish them to feel, no doubt.
My mum occasionally buys trash magazines and Magda is on the front of Women’s Day talking about her weight loss anniversary. Some of the language she uses is terrifying – that she’ll arrive to friends’ parties late so she isn’t tempted by the canapes, that she meets her friends for walks instead of lunch, that she’s now considering losing more weight. Worst of all is the letter that she pens to her former fat self (I KNOW!) talking about all the wonderful things she does now, like being a cover girl and walking her dogs and traveling with confidence. I felt like shaking her and yelling “NOTHING WAS STOPPING YOU FROM DOING ALL THAT BEFORE.”
OMG. I just watched this followed by the Kit Kat segment. Poor Chrissy just sitting there while everyone chomps into a bunch of kit kats. Bloody horrid.
Also, where do they get off basically just promoting a commercial weight loss product like its a story. Advertorials – urghhhh
l’excellent matériel.
I was horrified watching ‘The Circle’ chatting to Magda about her weight loss and Yumi says “I feel like there is a fat person in me waiting to come out. Did you feel like there was a skinny person waiting to come out?” Excuse me? what a bitchy thing to say, skinny chick needs to shut her mouth before Magda or Chrissie shuts it for her!!
Yumi has no tact