Sears

In preparation for my presentation at Western’s ‘Flaunting It’ conference next Friday, I revisited a paper I wrote last year about weight discrimination. My research focuses on how this affects hiring practices and employment, but it certainly affects overweight people on a larger scale.

In some developing countries, people are starving and malnourished due to poverty, but obesity rates are increasing around the world exponentially. Fortunately, people are taking note of these statistics, such as the producers of MTV’s I Used To Be Fat. The show completed its first season earlier this month after introducing viewers to nine high school graduates who devoted their summer to losing weight. Motivating viewers to meet their weight loss goals is a positive step forward, but it does not change the fact that far too many youth are binge eating, out of shape and lazy.

Before reading Barry Popkin’s The World Is Fat, it never occurred to me that people have developed such a sweet tooth that youth are not only overindulging in soft drinks, but also adding additional sugar. For many overweight people, being weight is not a conscious choice; sometimes it’s merely a matter of genetics. Deliberately sweetening drinks like that is outrageous though. Even after government regulations ensured that all food and beverage packing include nutritional information people are ignoring this data, or at least dismissing it as unimportant. Education is an essential tool to discourage such unhealthy lifestyle choices. This is important for not only nutritionists, doctors, and food manufacturers to reiterate, but also fashion designers and advertisers.

On Tuesday afternoon, I had the privilege of listening to the inspirational entrepreneur, Ben Barry, who spearheaded the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, once again. Ben’s tenacity helped him convince Sears Canada to include models in their catalogue that resemble their customers, unlike the twigs who typically posed for their glossy pages. Since then, he continues liaising with fashion and marketing executives to help them sell products to their target demographic by hiring models who customers can identify with. The average soccer mom does not look like a toned size 2 woman with flawless skin and Ben asks advertisers to recognize that and promote their products accordingly.

As someone who started a business at age 14, Ben strongly believes in the potential of youth entrepreneurship and youth’s ability to inspire others and make great changes in the world. With Ben’s message in mind, I have changed my opinion about the MTV reality show because even if those nine kids inspired 100 people to start exercising, that’s better than nothing. Their reunion episode for the season finale allowed the participants to reflect on the show and prove to audiences that they have since created a social network amongst themselves and offer each other ongoing support. This is what people truly need: support, friendship and motivation. Whether this comes in the form of fat acceptance amongst hiring managers who should change their attitudes about candidates’ physical appearances, or clothing manufacturers that should produce high quality clothing that flatters overweight people, everything counts.

Ben Barry, November 2008, Queen’s University