When I was training to be a nurse, over thirty years ago, the only time body image came up was when we were being asked to consider how peope felt when they had to have an amputation of a limb, a breast, a testical or plastic surgery for burns. Now there is so much pressure to be the 'perfect' size it's affecting people mentally and that is, to me, unhealthy. It erodes self esteem and creates bad habits. Sometimes even obsessive habits
On the odd occasion I walk into town, there are all sorts of shapes and sizes of people. I just see people. It's lovely. But when I see, young women, especially skinny and made up like dolls, it makes me really sad. How are they supposed to work out who they really are? Who is their true self, when they are putting so much pressure on themselves to conform to media pressure?
With Oprah (and other moguls of our day), they’ll always choose capital gains over social/systemic change, despite them preaching the opposite. A sad truth of our society.
This outstanding. I am at a loss to put words to my admiration for this essay, and the importance it has in our culture. We are at such a bizarre time in history that it boggles my mind this conversation even needs to be had. But it does.
I am an Oprah fan because of the good she has promoted in our world, but I appreciate you calling her out this way to give us a reality check about what is truly at stake here and how different it could be. Other influencers are shifting the conversation (Pamela Anderson comes to mind) and Oprah could use her platform in such a different way, but alas, I did not know she owns part of WW.
Thank you, Donna. I so appreciate hearing this kind of feedback. Pamela Anderson is a great example of someone shifting the narrative. I love it for her as much as I love it for us. How empowering that must feel to her!
Such an important perspective, @kristi. Thank you for giving us permission to "drop the diet talk" and the obsession over our physical appearance. Like I tell my kids, "the look of our bodies are the least interesting thing about us."
I loved your take on Oprah using the injectables. I agree with you. I am disappointed. I've been taken in by Oprah's different ways of losing weight over the years and I wish she would use her platform not to send a message, as you describe, to tell us yet again that only being thin enough is the ultimate goal, the only goal, even if we have to be injecting ourselves with a drug for weightloss whose side effects won't be known for a long time. In the last week, my MD's office has been relentlessly leaving voicemails, sending text messages and me direct messages over the medical portal (alarming me that I had a scary test result!) and instead they are hawking one of the weight loss injectables. Come in for the first visit, just $100, they write. After that, "just" $450 a month! It's awful. Thank you for being a sane voice in all of this. I want to release extra weight I am carrying so I can be physically in the best shape possible for the 200 km Camino de Santiago I am walking next September with my daughters. That is the only reason I want to release pounds, but it will be through intuitive eating, through increasing the kind of exercise that gives me joy and not through medical fixes. I like that I am not on any prescription drugs, at 63, and I want to keep it that way.
But they’re still prescribing weight loss instead of body acceptance, and they stand to gain billions more from the weight loss drugs they’re selling. If we were to stop discriminating against people in higher-weight bodies, we wouldn’t need to fix the shame part.
When I was training to be a nurse, over thirty years ago, the only time body image came up was when we were being asked to consider how peope felt when they had to have an amputation of a limb, a breast, a testical or plastic surgery for burns. Now there is so much pressure to be the 'perfect' size it's affecting people mentally and that is, to me, unhealthy. It erodes self esteem and creates bad habits. Sometimes even obsessive habits
On the odd occasion I walk into town, there are all sorts of shapes and sizes of people. I just see people. It's lovely. But when I see, young women, especially skinny and made up like dolls, it makes me really sad. How are they supposed to work out who they really are? Who is their true self, when they are putting so much pressure on themselves to conform to media pressure?
Thanks for sharing my letter this week :)
With Oprah (and other moguls of our day), they’ll always choose capital gains over social/systemic change, despite them preaching the opposite. A sad truth of our society.
Isn't it crazy that she has been at it for 35+ years and still without longterm "success"?
Imagine what would happen if no one paid any heed to her body, regardless how it is changing... I wonder what kind of world we would have then.
It is angering and tragic all at the same time.
Linn, I feel your anger from across the pond! As usual, you've gotten to the very core of the matter.
I mean if nobody cared, which of course we know isn't true, but say it was. Would she keep trying? It is just sad :(
I am glad that people are waking up. Radical as it is.
I can’t see why she would. Now it feels purely like a money play for her anyway.
I think you’re right. 🙁
This outstanding. I am at a loss to put words to my admiration for this essay, and the importance it has in our culture. We are at such a bizarre time in history that it boggles my mind this conversation even needs to be had. But it does.
I am an Oprah fan because of the good she has promoted in our world, but I appreciate you calling her out this way to give us a reality check about what is truly at stake here and how different it could be. Other influencers are shifting the conversation (Pamela Anderson comes to mind) and Oprah could use her platform in such a different way, but alas, I did not know she owns part of WW.
Thank you Kristi.
Thank you, Donna. I so appreciate hearing this kind of feedback. Pamela Anderson is a great example of someone shifting the narrative. I love it for her as much as I love it for us. How empowering that must feel to her!
Such an important perspective, @kristi. Thank you for giving us permission to "drop the diet talk" and the obsession over our physical appearance. Like I tell my kids, "the look of our bodies are the least interesting thing about us."
Many thanks for the mention!
I loved your take on Oprah using the injectables. I agree with you. I am disappointed. I've been taken in by Oprah's different ways of losing weight over the years and I wish she would use her platform not to send a message, as you describe, to tell us yet again that only being thin enough is the ultimate goal, the only goal, even if we have to be injecting ourselves with a drug for weightloss whose side effects won't be known for a long time. In the last week, my MD's office has been relentlessly leaving voicemails, sending text messages and me direct messages over the medical portal (alarming me that I had a scary test result!) and instead they are hawking one of the weight loss injectables. Come in for the first visit, just $100, they write. After that, "just" $450 a month! It's awful. Thank you for being a sane voice in all of this. I want to release extra weight I am carrying so I can be physically in the best shape possible for the 200 km Camino de Santiago I am walking next September with my daughters. That is the only reason I want to release pounds, but it will be through intuitive eating, through increasing the kind of exercise that gives me joy and not through medical fixes. I like that I am not on any prescription drugs, at 63, and I want to keep it that way.
I wrote about this the day WW’s made their announcement. My angle is that it’s a huge shift in diet culture. https://open.substack.com/pub/johnmoyermedlpcncc/p/the-death-of-diet-culture?r=3p5dh&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
But they’re still prescribing weight loss instead of body acceptance, and they stand to gain billions more from the weight loss drugs they’re selling. If we were to stop discriminating against people in higher-weight bodies, we wouldn’t need to fix the shame part.
Exactly!