The "obesity epidemic" is all over the news these days. Tall, slender female anchors deliver the latest statistics on the American waistline with a look of carefully-crafted, news-anchorly concern. It's people's health about which Big Media really cares, right? That's why there are all these ads for weight-loss products and beauty aids--and pizza and hamburgers and ice cream and candy and . . .
Fear. Consume. Repeat.
Enter Joy Nash. This clever, sassy smart woman tells it like it is in her YouTube video, A Fat Rant. Her video is well-written, the delivery heartfelt and the pacing quick. She never shys away from the word "fat." You won't find any euphemisms in this video. This is a shout-out to everyday people struggling not so much with their weight as with the way they feel about their weight.
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3 comments:
Love it, love it!! A great combination of fact and opinion piece. So much better than any ""news"" article on the subject.
I think the use of the word "epidemic" by the media is intended to engender low-grade panic, to make the public feel helpless to solve the problem, and to absolve the public of their personal responsibility for the proper care of their own bodies. In short, it primes the public to buy "quick fix" diet products.
The ads I see for diet books, diet pills, weight-loss programs, special foods, etc. present the issue of weight management as a very complicated, unpleasant thing. I think the advertisers are trying to tell me that, as a solitary consumer, I haven't a hope of maintaining a healthy weight on my own. It's very complicated! It involves cortisol and green tea and special exercises from the "Far East" and magnets and prepackaged vacuum-sealed foods and---
Whatever.
It involves eating when I'm hungry, stopping when I'm full. It involves approaching food as tasty fuel, not as a hobby, a comforter or a means of relieving boredom. It involves some amount of exercise.
I grant you that there are people who physically can't lose weight. However, observing the way in which the average American approaches food (not just what they eat, but how much and *why*) I can't help thinking that this "epidemic" is something we can beat, no gimmicks necessary.
I think it falls into line with the way many people approach life in general... as something that just happens to them; they have no control and thus never have to take responsibility for anything. Blame it on God, society, your kids, the government, your genes, whatever. What a sad way to live!
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