When a Queen Lets Down Her Subjects:  Queen Latifah Representing Diet Industry Giant Jenny Craig

by T. A. Politis, Managing Editor
Musings for the Editor’s Chair at Elegant Plus Magazine

I’d begun this week writing a column on the looming clash of plus-size apparel company giants for market share, but a surprise….. a disappointing surprise…… popped up on the radar screen.  Queen Latifah, a celebrity I had long admired for just plain being good at what she did and doing her thing while proving size really had very little to do with talent, is now publicly linked with diet industry giant Jenny Craig.  To say I’m let down and disappointed is an understatement.  So the other article will have to wait until later in the week while I pause to examine the issues this turn of affairs raises.

There are those who are applauding Queen Latifah’s move, asking why shouldn’t a woman clearly comfortable in her own skin not promote healthy lifestyle?  In fact, some believe she has a moral obligation to do so as a role model and a celebrity.  And, guess what, fundamentally I agree with the view that healthy lifestyles are worth promoting.

 But this is where it gets messy and opinion diverges.   Those applauding this particular business partnership between a curvy celebrity and a diet industry giant are accepting a fundamental  assumption pervasive in our culture.  That’s right an assumption, not a fact.  Thinner equals healthier.   Actually two assumptions.  The other is: dieting will make you thinner (and therefore healthier, right?).  There have been lots of advertising dollars, spin doctors, pharmaceutical industry paid “scientific” studies to prove this too.  And let’s not forget the sound bites and media blitz yelling hysterically about the rise of obesity.  The fact is, Queen Latifah herself probably believes in these assumptions.  So many of us do.

There is another school of thought altogether that promotes healthy lifestyle choices - eating right and getting enough exercise PERMANENTLY — not restricting calories to unhealthy levels temporarily to lose weight and then going back to poor eating patterns. (And healthy eating choices does not just mean only the number of calories that you consume, by the way. It takes into consideration food quality and overall nutritional value as well.) This alternative view, known as Health at Every Size,  also does not focus on the numbers on the scale as the marker of success, but rather how well a body is functioning.  Let me say that again. It is worth repeating:  Health at Every Size does not focus on the numbers on the scale as the markers of healthly lifestyle success. Diet companies do. It’s been proven many times that those that go on big name diets  gain the weight back at an alarmingly high rate within just a few years. And one thing we do know for sure is that yo-yo dieting wrecks metabolisms and leaves people far more susceptible to disease than if they never went on the diet in the first place.  We ran an article by fitness professional Jennifer Portnick awhile back that addresses many of these issues in greater detail that you might want to consult for more information.

Also, there is a lot of evidence out there that doesn’t get talked about much,  especially not from a business that makes its money selling diets to you or a media that loves sensational headlines and imagery:  weight gain may not be the causal factor of a lot of the diseases to which it is linked, but rather is one of the first symptoms of the disease as it takes hold. So losing weight isn’t the cure all it’s held up to be often, either.

So you think that perhaps your lifestyle choices could use improving and you want to better your health, right? You feel sluggish, not your best, and huff more than a little bit climbing stairs.  And you don’t like that.  You want to improve. Yay! That’s great news!  That’s truly the first step to loving yourself - staying in tune with how your body is functioning and taking care of it when all is not well. 

The solution, however, I would suggest is not in the bottom of pre-cooked, over-processed, tiny caloried food boxes of Jenny Craig.  Nor is it in the magic diet pill being sold at the supermarket.  If you are serious about creating a healthier you, educate yourself in what healthy food choices are.  Get yourself to a nutritionist if you need help understanding why not all yogurt is created equal and why whole foods are better than processed (even if the box reads “low calorie” or “diet”). Then work on gradually altering eating styles permanently — and no that doesn’t mean never eating chocolate cake, fried chicken or ice-cream ever again, just maybe not three times a week and always in moderation.  Find a fitness professional who can help you develop a sensible exercise plan you can stick to for life if you find yourself unable to do it alone, or find a walking buddy.  And if you need to, visit a psychologist to help you with any emotional issues you may be linking to food or eating. 

No quick fixes.  No short term solutions.  And very little standing on scales to measure goal success.  Some people, many people in fact (although not all and very rarely to the waifish sizes usually seen as “success” in diet driven literature), find that they lose weight when they normalize eating and exercise patterns.  But, and this is a big BUT,  when weight-loss and fitting into a size 6 (or 10 or 14) dress isn’t the end goal, this lower bodyweight set-point is a non-issue. Rather the reward and goal of changing lifestyle patterns is what it should be…..that an individual can keep up with their toddler better or they find they have fewer colds, their blood sugar evens out or lowers and therefore risk for developing Type 2 diabetes declines, or they just generally are more active and enjoying life more. That is how better health is measured.  So, for those that have bodies that fall on the heavier end of the human “normal” body weight bell-curve there is no failure when weight or size loss isn’t achieved.  Diet companies even when they use the words “health” and “healthy” still measure success by pounds or inches lost, and don’t care much what other parts of your health may have been wrecked in the process.

So yes, I’m hugely disappointed by the this big business partnership. She may not be their spokeperson, but rather is accepting advertising dollars as a sponsor for her “Trav’lin Light” album (three guesses why they wanted to be linked with that slogan) tour.  But most people won’t see the fine line of who is sponsor and who is sponsored.  The Queen has fallen far in my esteem and affections.  There are so many healthier causes she could have aligned with than the yo-yo diet industry.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Joy Nash’s original Fat Rant video clip took the internet by storm earlier this year.  Since then she’s become a talk show guest taking on the likes of MeMe Roth and gotten neck deep in national size-acceptance issues.  She’s smart, well-spoken …. and yes fat.  But not in the media stereo-typical way that seems to delight in images of sloth when portraying fat people.  She’s very cute and curvaceous, fashionable and well dressed. And, let’s not forget funny, but unlike the usual fat comedian, not in a self-deprecating (might we even say self-loathing) way that we usually see.  No Kirstie Alley self-hating antics for her. 

 Check out Part 2 of her Fat Rant.   Kudos! 

Now excuse me while I go feed a sleep addiction and take a nap.

Popularity: 9% [?]

They Did It Again: Fashion Magazine Slims Curvy America

by Elegant Plus Magazine

They just can’t seem to help themselves.  Fashion magazines, I mean.  Schizophrenic messaging …… one minute they are celebrating women of all shapes and sizes, the next they are photoshopping [is that even a word?] a celebrity or model to shave off any signs of a real woman’s body.  It’s as if they just can’t reconcile the need to sell magazines which requires bowing to a bit of public pressure and demand for more realistic body image and their own, silly concepts of beauty which only embraces one body type………the thinner the better, baby!

Glamour is the culprit this time. But we all know it could be any of them.  September’s issue features the super-hot star of Ugly Betty, America Ferrera.  Yay!… right?   Well, maybe not.  See the little photoshop elves in the art department, rubber stamped if not outright encouraged or directed by the Editor in Chief, worked a little of their digital diet magic.  And poof!  America is no longer a healthy size, what, 8? (She isn’t plus-size by anyone’s standards but Hollywood or fashion). She is now miraculously somewhere between the coveted fashionably sized 2 to 4 on that glossy magazine cover (see above, left compared to un-slimmed right image).  Maybe they thought we wouldn’t notice.

What’s even funnier is that the tag for their on-line interview with the star states:

 “America Ferrera, star of Ugly Betty, is climbing Hollywood’s A-list—and she’s ignoring the unwritten rule that says stars must be blond and Twizzler-thin.”

Now, did someone forget to watch Ugly Betty?  Or are they just too dumb to get the message?  How about The Devil Wears Prada?  Nope, the irony in that one went flying over their heads too. Hmmm.

I thought maybe Glamour was starting to get it with spreads like this one back in April of 2007:

Plus Model Kailee O’Sullivan in Glamour, April 2007

I guess I was wrong.  America - keep doing your thing. Ugly Betty, Real Women Have Curves, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants….. they are all inspirational roles compared to the air-brushed ‘perfection’ these fashion magazine tout. And, oh…. take a page from Kate Winslet: raise holy hell over this manipulation of your already highly attractive body.

And for a little education - check out this link on fashion and digital image altering: If Looks Could Kill: Digital Manipulation of Fashion Models

So what do you think? 

Did Glamour go too far?  Or did America need some slimming to become “Hot”?  And even if she did, do you think fashion, magazines and the media play a part in girls’ body image issues and maybe even a role in the rise of eating disorders?  Is it ethical to digitally alter images to make celebrities and models thinner?

Popularity: 24% [?]

Obesity Contagious! Beware of Fat Friends and Other Nasty Headlines

from Elegant Plus Magazine

In a week that saw the opening of the delightfully fat friendly, feel-good movie Hairspray and the celebrated third installment of Mo’Nique’s F.A.T. Chance self-esteem and size-acceptance television special on the Oxygen Network, a study of an entirely different nature reared its head in the esteemed New England Journal of Medicine from researchers at Harvard and the University of California.  Within hours of the related press-releases stating “Obesity is Socially Contagious” hundreds of articles had appeared and news outlets across a variety of media picked up the story.

What raised the alarm bells first for me was realizing that unlike many “stories” that make daily appearances in our culture in the infamous War on Obesity, this one had more legs than most.  Thoughtful news shows like Jim Lehrer on PBS and columnists at the well respected New York Times took up the story, while more tabloid type outlets gleefully declared that you should beware of fat friends and family members because they could make YOU fat!  Yet not once did I hear any real examination of the science behind the study, NOR a consideration of the implications such thinking might have on the lives of large individuals who are already targets of bullying and ostracization.

As an academic who has been trained to cast a critical eye on scientific methodology and underlying assumptions  before accepting the conclusions of any study as fact no matter from which institution it comes,  the media’s tendency to embrace every study that comes out of a laboratory as fact with a capital F has always disturbed me. Perhaps especially so because of the prevalence of hype and sound bytes throughout all types of media in the United States today.   Equally disturbing is the frequency of Junk Science and statistic manipulation used for a whole host of agendas, not the least of which is the support of the diet and pharmaceutical industries.   My first inclination was to contact NAAFA (National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance) to see if their health experts had addressed this specific study and invite them to write a guest article for Elegant Plus.   I received a cordial reply and the press release they had prepared on the subject which didn’t seem to really target this specific study, but more the general underlying hype surrounding the media’s War on Obesity, with the promise of a Guest Article if I wanted one.  I encouraged the latter option and sincerely hope one comes.  I am very interested in  publishing an educated and well informed rebuttal from someone equiped to take a critical look at this study for our readers.

So far, the only clearly argued discussion that refutes the specifics of the study based on data and methodology that I’ve seen comes from Sandy Szwarc’s blog Junk Food Science.  She’s a nurse with a biological science degree that equips her better than most to think about health related studies critically.  I highly recommend reading her article “Oh what a tangled web we weave” to begin to bring the hype on this particular obesity study into a balanced perspective. 

But regardless of the rightness or wrongness of the science there is another very real and dangerous repercussion from this type of media spin, especially on women.   Many of the lead drummers in this charge to “fix” what they view as a  looming public health crisis, fail to take into account the impact of their language, rhetoric and social messaging.   Screaming headlines like “Obesity is Contagious” and “Fat Friends Could Make You Fat”  does not effectively guilt anyone into changing lifestyle patterns, which is their purported intent.  It only makes people feel worse about themselves, lowers self-esteem and now piles on the guilt of harming the people closest to them.  How could this be a positive and productive state of affairs?

 In fact equating weight with lifestyle is one of the dangerous underlying assumptions permeating society.   The two are so enmeshed in popular thinking that fat, obese and unhealthy lifestyle are considered interchangeable synonyms (as are the equally false thin, slender, healthy lifestyle) , the first two the current synonyms of headline choice.  We, as a society, somehow think that simply by looking at (or weighing) an individual we have the ability (and sadly the right to judge) how well they take care of themselves.  But the fact is weight and obesity are far more complex than that, with some individuals naturally heavier than others, others suffering from medication side-effects and a host of other medical reasons.  There are women who eat healthier than most and run marathons who will never be slender.  There are skinny minis who eat chips and soda and junk food every day, and rarely lift so much as a  toe to get any exercise.   Simply, you cannot tell by someone’s weight alone what kind of lifestyle choices they make. 

 Think how differently the emotional impact of this research would read if the headlines said “Unhealthy Lifestyles are Socially Contagious”.   That truly is a different meaning than the one currently screaming across our media sphere, since not all fat people have an unhealthy lifestyle and many thin ones do.  Not only would the scientific data have a better shot of upholding such a theory which is already debatable as junk science, but the social implications would be less damaging to individuals already judged strictly by their body mass.  This leads to a downward spiral of social and self-loathing that adversally affects an individual’s mental health.  Now add in other’s fear of just knowing a fat person and we have a recipe for permissable discrimination.  I don’t think that is the path most of these so called “health advocates”  truly had in mind.  But it is the one we, as a society, are fast going down.  

Popularity: 18% [?]

 Women, Self Esteem, Body Image and the Media

Musings from the Editor’s Chair, Elegant Plus Magazine

Images of women are everywhere in our media. Wildly unrealistic and unattainable idealized images, that is. While we are getting older and heavier as a population, those ideals are increasingly becoming younger and thinner.  Although advertising campaigns, such as the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty that sells beauty products with “average”, “real” models do exist and are successful in meeting company economic goals they are exceedingly rare. Most rely first on destroying our sense of self worth so that they can sell us the “cure”.  If you are never thin enough in your own mind, you are more likely to buy the latest fad diet book, plan or pill. If you are only attractive if you look under the age of 30 in your own mind, you are more likely to buy the latest wrinkle cream or hire the services of a cosmetic surgeon. And the list goes on and on of created markets through advertising.  The formula works so well that we have culturally internalized these standards. We are at a stage in our society where we do half the work for them with destructive self talk, value judgments on our peers, and barrages of criticism directed at our loved ones.  This self loathing is at an all time high and is poisoning our lives with a focus almost exclusively on the outer packaging.

While you’ve heard us speak before of paying attention to the messages you are broadcasting through appearance and dress, we advocate first focusing on the positives and then working with what you have, instead of chasing after what you don’t.   Fashion, style and dress in the realms of non-verbal communication is a tool to get you where you want to go. In our opinion, you control it. It should not control you.  What has changed for plus-size women in the last five years or so, is the availability of fashion tools and resources to take control of our personal message. More clothing than ever before is available in sizes larger than 14 - and it isn’t all black and/or a shapeless sack. Our heads and hearts, however, seem to be lagging behind the opportunities. And many of us don’t know how to take back control of the message. 

One of my colleagues always looks meticulous, beautiful, confident and radiates the kindness and intelligence for which she is known. Is she a size 2, 6 foot tall, blond, 25 year old? No. Does she understand fashion, style and using her assets for greatest impact? Absolutely. When she looks in the mirror does she make a mental list of all her flaws?  No, she’s checking to make sure her skirt hem is straight or that she doesn’t have lipstick on her teeth. Does she think about what she is wearing and how she looks after she walks out the door in the morning? Rarely, if ever.  

Once the business of getting dressed and putting herself together in the morning is accomplished her mind and day are filled with the important aspects of who she is.  In other words, the outer packaging, the polished appearance  - it’s an inside out proposition that lets people see how fabulous she is on first impression. It doesn’t run her life.  She doesn’t focus on the fact that she is a size 18, 5′5″, 45 year old and doesn’t look anything like the airbrushed models draped across magazine covers.  That’s not what fills her inner most thoughts and propels her through her day.  She does care about keeping healthy - eating whole foods, getting some exercise, finding things she likes about herself both inside and out, and spending time keeping her life in balance …. but not with the guilt ridden sense that she is never doing enough and that she is never good enough, that colors so many of our lives. Most women and men who know her think she’s one of the most beautiful people they’ve ever met.

That’s what a healthy, balanced view of  self and the world looks like. How close do you come to finding that sort of life?  Do you value yourself and others for inner qualities? Can you focus on the physical positives of anyone when you meet them, or only the negatives? How big a part does the advertising world and media environment play in your sense of self?  It’s something to think about.

Additional Resources

Below are some links to organizations and resources that track, examine and watch advertising, media and women:

• About Face
• Beauty and Body Image in the Media
• Jean Kilbourne: Specialist in Women in the Media
• Media Education Foundation
• Real Women Project

Popularity: 19% [?]