Episode 154 - Complete
Vinny Welsby56min
Speaker 100:00
You're listening to the best value podcast episode 154 Fat bias in the news let's do
Speaker 100:19
it Hello, welcome to this episode so nice to see you. Thanks for being here. I appreciate it. Today I got my very first subscriber on cofee. I don't know if you remember last episode or if you listened all the way to the end. Kofi is another version of Patreon but one where they give the better to the content creators. Anyway. So for ages, I've been thinking why don't I just make a some type of thing for folks who want to support this free resource, which is the podcast 154 episodes now My goodness. So if you want to buy me a coffee, then go to the link in the show notes for kofi, you could just type Kofi ko FY into the Googles with fierce, fatty and you'll find me and you can, you know, buy me a coffee or if you want to get something aside from the awesome listening pleasure, that is the face value podcast, you can subscribe and you can subscribe for as low as five bucks a month. You can do five bucks, 10 bucks or 20 bucks and depending on what you choose, you will get minimum. The lowest is the size diversity Resource Guide, which is amazing. It's 37 pages. And it's filled with all the resources that you would need as a someone who wants to get more size diversity in their life. So people to follow podcasts or listen to books, shows. Where to shop. And so like things like where to shop, we've got 450 Plus places to shop with, like categories on on what type of clothes they carry, the how much money they cost, where they ship to etc. It's amazing books. We've got over 250 plus book recommendations. So yeah, it's a massive resource. We've also got links to different Facebook groups, science studies, everything it's so fucking good. And obviously I'm biased because I made it but five bucks for that. Yes fucking please. So go to the link in my in the show notes or just Google Kato FYI, Kofi, Kofi, Kofi, Kofi, and face fasci. And you'll find it and you can get that for as little as five bucks if you want something, extra perks, we've got extra perks for the bigger just subscriptions and you can you can do it and cancel immediately if you want. Or prefer if you didn't, if you want to just get it and cancel it those wine as well. And I'm not going to hold it against you. I know I've done that. So, yeah. Today we're talking about as I did, because I was talking to my therapist today. And we're kind of talking about the trauma that I experienced when I was on a BBC show. If you've if you don't know, I was on a show called Who are you calling fat as a two part documentary aired on BBC and October 2019. And what it was was that I lived in the house in a house with I think there was nine of us fat people. Some people liked being fat, some people didn't like being fat, and a couple of people were just in the middle. And you know, they made a poker program. It was kind of like it was pitched as kind of like a social experiment. It was viewed by millions of people. And after it does have to say trigger warning here I'm going to talk about suicidal ideation. So if that doesn't feel good for you skip skip over the next few minutes. Afterwards the trauma of be recording the show. And then the the aftermath of being a fat positive person in the UK and being on the BBC Two awkward about that was tremendously painful, so much so that I became suicidal. And I think it was only because I had had years and years of therapy up to that point. And I had, I was talking to my therapist at that point to, like, I mean, like I always do, that I was able to not die. It was really bad, it was really, really bad. And a lot of what was traumatic was the fact that there was a lack of authenticity in what was presented. And the fact that in the house in the, in the real life, like, Yeah, we had disagreements in regards to, you know, fundamental things, but no one was rude to each other. Apart, there was one creepy guy who was just a creep to everyone and no one liked. But everyone was was, was respectful, and no one had any arguments. And so they didn't have a lot of stuff to make it explosive and interesting, right. So they kind of had to create narratives. And although they were technically true in regards to like, words came out of people's mouths, they did a good job of highlighting certain certain views, or certain things to make them seem extreme. And they did it in
Unknown06:35
I think, unethical ways. Anyway, for the rest of this episode, I'm going to be talking about
Speaker 106:44
Nafa. And a, a FA, has come out with a study that they've done on fat bias in the in the news. And this is just so timely, because this this came out a few days ago, and I have been talking about my therapist, talking to my therapist about this. And my portrayal in the program. I mean, it's been since 2019, that I've haven't been having to deal with the fallout in my brain of that experience. But specifically, what was really awful is they do something called a master interview. So they'll have lots of kind of, you know, casual interviews, where we'll do one that one big interview at the beginning. And this is kind of like getting to know you, this is more kind of here, what are your beliefs. And they will then have more kind of casual things, you're, you're just puttering around the house or whatever. And they'll be like, Hey, what's going on, and it'll just be more casual. And then towards the end of the program, they do something end of the filming lady, something called an unmasked interview, where you go down, and you sit in a kind of properly lit studio, or room or whatever it is. And you look, in this instance, you look directly into the camera, they had a mirror setup thing where there was, there was a couple of mirrors, where you were at, you're actually looking into into the eyes of the interviewer, or producer. And it was actually you're looking into the lens of the camera. And so you could see their eyes in the lens of a camera. It's kind of weird, I don't know how to explain it, but and so you weren't allowed to during this mock master interview, you weren't allowed to do the normal things that you do. In your conversations in regards to looking away, I do a lot of little to think I do a lot of looking away. And a lot of, you know, like movements you might do or, you know, getting yourself comfortable in the chair or anything like that you sat in a chair and you look at having to stare directly into the camera. And this interview goes on for hours. And they start soft with things like let's say soft, that is about your childhood and all the traumas that happened in your childhood. Basically, they're trying to get a reaction they're trying to get good content of you crying, have you shouting at them? Have you storming off or whatever. So they start soft with you know, like, tell us about your childhood and how terrible it was and and then they get into trying to provoke a reaction from you. And and you'll see this in like shows where they're confronting someone like say, if there's a you're watching a show, and you know, you've got someone who's done something bad. And then the interviewer is, is then confronting the person saying, Hey, why did you do this bad thing, and eventually the person will take off their mic and leave the room. You what you don't see is the the lead up to that. What it looks like is someone's like, Hey, say hi. Tell us about you. And they're like, Oh, my name is John Smith. And they say oh, so Did you do anything bad to people and then John Smith is like, I'm not dealing with these questions and A Pic takes off their mic and leaves. But the reality is there is so much that happens between the first and the last. And that it makes John Smith or whoever look like they're very hot, we've caught them. Haha. And now I know this I'm like, oh my god, what they're doing is really, really abusive. And you know, someone's really actually done something bad, you know, someone's murdered someone or whatever then you know a conference rate, you know, confrontation whatever. But when it's it's just, you know, soft issues then I think what they're doing is really inappropriate because in my interview and I obviously I can't speak to all of them but I wonder like how do they get people to react like that. And I guess some people have a short temper, but I don't think that that's true for everyone. And it's not true for me. Like, I'm not the type to be shouting at people. I'm not the type to be storming off. And they never caught me. They never caught me doing that, because that's not really my personality. And so they just kept asking me really intrusive, really intrusive questions, if you can think of a question that you really wouldn't want someone to ask you that you'd be like, I Narottam the answer that, you know, so things like how much money do you make? How much money is in your bank account? And, you know, what is your your worst memory what's, you know, you know, things like, you're just like, wow, really, luckily, because I've done so much therapy, there's lots of traumatic things that happened in my life that I'm able to talk to talk about without crying. And so that was probably frustrating for them that I was telling stories about, you know, all the trauma that's happened in my life, and I wasn't crying because you know, that's great TV. And then I got down to them, asking me, I can't remember the question exactly. But But basically, they wanted to get me to say that I don't want to be disabled, that being disabled is bad. And I wouldn't say that, because the question they asked, I can't remember the exact words of the question, but it was an ableist question like, what's the prep the premise being? Is disability inherently unworthy and undesirable or something like that? Then it say like that, but but that was the the crux of the question. And I was just like, I'm not answering that question. And they asked me, that hit him. This guy. He asked me so many times. And I kept saying, I don't feel comfortable asking that question. That is an ableist. Question. Probably asked me 20 times plus. And I just kept saying, Can we move on? And he'd say, okay, and he'd go, you ask something else, and then he come back to it, you put it in, no one's gonna find out. If you say that you don't want to be disabled? We will, you're not going to get in trouble with anyone. So manipulative? And I was like, no, because I'm not. I think that that is an inappropriate question. And that's what they ended up hearing is me saying, I'm not answering the question, because you're asking me if I would prefer to be non disabled or not disabled? And that's an ableist question. That's all they got out of me out of this whole kind of traumatic thing. Anyway, so, you know, only a few snippets from that master interview aired. And really, the whole premise of that interview is to, to use you to get reactions to get content to get to make a story. And what they got from me was probably not what they want, and they want to, you know, they wanted me to be badly behaved and that's just not me. But the story that they crafted is that I was this kind of decade basic, but it's ugly, and I'm and I'm not. But you know, I knew going into it, I knew that the public would be like, Oh, fuck this person because they're fat and they don't hate themselves, obviously. You know, it's awful. But so I was expecting that what I wasn't expecting was that kind of face to face into personal bullying and or, you know, just a really awful experience. And, and obviously, still, when people have these all these reactions, still difficult to, it's difficult to to know that millions of people have watched you and the vast majority of them don't like you because of your views of that fat people should be treated with respect and dignity.
Speaker 115:03
Yeah, so so so so so with that in mind, understanding that, you know, with my personal story, and it's not everyone's story, but in the UK, there have been people dying by suicide after being on television, and lives being ruined after being on television. And I always think about these people that we're, we're the people that we are able to clearly see Oh, that is the, that's the villain of this story. That person on social media, I really hate them the way that they behave and the things that they say and, and all that type of stuff. They're really bad. And that person is really nice. And, and how, how much of that? Do we have to have shades of grey thinking around? Because in reality, that villain is probably not as villainous in real life that the person who is in who is so sweet and kind is probably not the most perfect person ever. And of course, if someone's saying awful things, and they said those awful things. But yeah, so so the way that we're we're viewing any programs where people are framed in a certain light is thinking twice about how they're being portrayed. And is it absolutely accurate? And no, no. And in regards to the way that fat folks were portrayed in this show, the the fat people who hated themselves, here's an example the fat people that hated being fat, you we got shots of them eating salads, right? We got shots of doing good fatty things. The people who liked being fat, we got shots of them eating cake. me eating Pringles, when we'd all had salad, and then we'd all had cake. But they showed the the good fatties eating the salad and the bad fatties eating the cake. And that was just a, you know, a prime example of manipulating what they're showing to to to say, well look at them bad fat ease. At least they should have some dignity and try and not eat cake all the time and Pringles all the time. And instead just be good, have salad and try and beat them. Even just talking about this stuff, I feel like there's a trauma response happening in my body. I feel my heart is beating my my breath feels like it's it's shallower, and I feel tense in my body. So I'm going to move off this subject because it's, it's still very difficult for me, I'm still working out how to how to deal with it. And try and try to convince you. I'm a good person, you know, I'm not this villainous character that maybe some people saw. And I don't know, and is that helpful for me to try and do that? Working through all of this, all of this trauma is difficult, but it's important for you to, you know, for me to share my personal experience because it wasn't okay. And also, let's be cognizant of how we're consuming all types of media. But today, we want to talk about fat bias in the news. And we have a gorgeous, amazing report from Nafa, which is the National The National Association to Advance fat acceptance. It has been around for more than 5050 years. And you can find this report on their website. I'll link to it. What they've done is they've looked at the news and seen what how fatness is talked about. And you're, you're probably like, Vinny, I know how fatness is talked about. Yes, but now we have the evidence to show and if you ever want to cite any of this, and you've got that right now, so I'm just gonna read the introduction here. The report is fat bias in the news, actually, is it it's called the size of it fat bias in the news. Okay, so welcome in August of 2022. television host Bill Mayer is it may I don't know who he is really. Apart from the fact that that he did this claimed that quote, this country has gone from fan acceptance to fat celebration. We at Nafa, an organization that has been advocating to improve the lives of fat people for more than 50 years I really wish that Mayor was right. But as happens a few times a year, somebody with a national platform says terrible things about fat people generates a lot of chatter on social media and popular media gets a lot of attention and then goes back on TV to do it. Again. Mayer is one of many who wringing their hands about how the world is, quote, glorifying Oh word, when what is actually true is that fat people are neither fully accepted nor celebrated in our culture. Instead, bias against fat people is pervasive, persistent and life limiting, the pundits shake their heads. Meanwhile, fat people continue to face discrimination and injustice in nearly every aspect of life. Despite some advances of body positive body diversity in popular culture, health research and elsewhere, implicit bias against fat people has risen while other kinds of biases have decreased. The news media is contributing to this with a constant stream of fat panic, weight loss content and erasure of all other kinds of stories about fat people. Those of us who navigate the world and fat bodies know this through experience, but we also know the power of research and evidence. So we asked Pamela Mahir a nationally recognized expert in media research to review the past year of coverage of weight in the media. So we've got a few bullet points of what the findings show and then we're going to talk about the methods and some more details. So the findings show, there's going to be a big surprise surprise, like the findings show exactly what you think the findings might show. So the findings show that diet talk still dominates discussion of higher weight individuals. So when weight is discussed in news, it is dominated by diets, so fat people, and the news is always linked with diets. That fat people are almost exclusively discussed in stories about health and health care. And the vast majority of these stories make a baseline assumption that fatness is associated with or causes poor health. So what we're learning is from the news is that fatness is the assumption that fatness is associated with a causes poor health. That too few of these stories include the perspective of actual fat people, and almost none offer the perspective of fat activists and others talking about fat liberation. Yeah. So a lot of what it is, is thin people talking about the problem of fatness. What are we going to do with this this terrible problem that we have these terrible, unhealthy fat people and it's thin people who were doing the talking about it, and definitely not people who are committed to the liberation of fat folks. And finally, to many of these stories, quote, and then we've got quotes, experts, who are part of institutions funded by diet companies and drug manufacturers, giving them a vested interest in continuing fat panic, and encouraging weight loss. So we have people who are quote unquote, experts on fat people who who do not have the lived experience of fatness because they're a thin person being paid by diet companies and drug manufacturers to talk about how fatness is unhealthy and fat people need to diet. So let's go into the methods of this this research. But first, you know why the news matters? Like why is this important and, and why why this is really important is because it this is how we get our information, right? News, especially certain publications, not all publications, but certain publications have a level of respect, and a level of idea that the content of what we read is is valid and researched and is true, right? You know, like so with me doing the BBC documentary. The reason why I did a BBC documentary is because I had the idea that the BBC is this long running institution that has a responsibility to report factual
Speaker 124:54
things and has this level of Trust, right. And so why is like BBC, I think I feel like I can trust the BBC. Now, the BBC is not making its programs, it's, it's sent out to production companies. And so there was a production company that made the program for the BBC and the BBC by the program, right. And so, by extension, that company was, was getting in my mind the same kind of respect that I had, had no longer have for the BBC. And, and so I was like, it's fine, I can just be myself because they're not going to, they're not going to, you know, make me look like a clown. Whereas if another company like ITV, or Channel Five in the UK approached me, I'd really go, I know, they'd be like, really terrible, and they probably would have been even more terrible, but
Speaker 126:07
I lost my train of thought, but, but still, but still, the BBC was still still bad, right? And so and so saying that is sometimes we have this brand recognition of certain publications, where it's like, well, what this what this publication is saying is true, because it's built up this this brand reputation. And so we can let our guard down a bit and versus, say, you know, when you read something off some random person's blog, or, or some, some some news website, which is that you've not heard of, you probably know, like, Oh, is that true? I don't know. And so a lot of times, we we will treat news as like an educational device. Because we don't have in our brains, we can't, you know, every time that we listen to we read a news article, are we going to be like, Okay, I'm gonna do some due diligence and see, you know, who's been quoted, and this is true, and another getting research money from, from from other people. And in regards to fat activism, that's what the fat activists are doing, right? That's what we're doing is we're looking at that stuff. Where is he, you know, the average person who is not interested in certain causes and is not breaking down, line by line, person, by person contributed by contributor, you know, of, what is this really about? And so we just take it for granted, right? There's probably so many things I've read that I'm just like, oh, that sounds true. You know, and just, you know, and now I believe it. Because it has no great bearing on my life. But you know, now I now I've gone through life thinking that an aluminium is is bad to put in the oven or something, I don't know, I'm, I'm trying to think of something that I used to believe that was, well, that, you know, fat people are all unhealthy, you know. And then when so many other people are kind of just buying into that as a as truth, then it becomes everyone knows, everyone knows that it's bad to be fat. And it and it just becomes written in stone. And as well, when we're presented with images and stories of fat folks, in a certain way, we can not help but let those stories get into our brains and, and for us to hold stigma, you know, all those images of the headless fatties. And so when I say headless fatties, when you see new stories, you know, and they've got associated images or video with it, you've got the covert filming of fat people with their heads chopped off to give them dignity so that they are not we don't see who they don't get the shame of seeing whose face but if they saw themselves I would 100% know it because I would recognize their body. And you'll see you know of them, images of them walking images of them eating almost exclusively will be eating food that people deem as unhealthy. And it's really dehumanizing and fucked up. Fucked up. So this stuff matters, right? This stuff matters and the way that we're talking about fat people is not cool. So let's talk about the methods of this. This research so quoting to better understand how the news about weight stigma is framed. I collected and reviewed recent national route news coverage and so that i is Pamela me here. As the researcher specifically, I use the LexisNexis database to identify news stories that referenced any variation of the term weight stigma, weight discrimination weight bias, published in the US new pet newspapers or wires between December 1 2021 and November 30 2022. From carrot comparison purposes, I also quantified how many stories during the same time period reference terms like weight loss, body positivity, or fat justice. So the quantitative numerical analysis, I reviewed articles for quantitative data about when and where they were published and conducted keyword searches to assess how often different terms and phrases like oh word, or policy, etc, appeared. I also assessed whether articles were traditional news stories, or opinion pieces, the qualitative descriptive analysis, I then selected a random sample of articles to review qualitatively. Drawing on more than 10 years of experience as a media researcher with expertise in ethnographic graphic content analysis. I reviewed each article in the same in the sample to identify sources quoted the main topic of the article and how weight stigma was framed and other variables. So basically, what's happened here is that Pamela has has searched for for news stories and wires for stories featuring fatness and then has selected for a sample of those to then go in and read exactly what is being said and what is being reported. So, news about weight stigma was spared us. Okay, so the news about fatness almost exclusively was about weight loss, or losing weight. So there was 127 articles that use the phrases, weight stigma, weight bias, or weight discrimination. By contrast, almost 18,000 articles published in the same time period included at least one reference to weight loss, losing or losing weight. Well over 1000 reference body positivity. Only 24 articles use a term like fat liberation, fat just as fat divest or fat activism. None of the articles about weight stigma also mentioned fat liberation. So this is a chart here if you go and have a look at it. The first the first line, we've got 17,955 articles, when talking about fatness in the news 18,000 instances were relating to weight loss or losing weight, then we go down dramatically, right? It's like the kind of difference in on this chart. It's a difference between a huge skyscraper and then a tiny house, you know, huge difference and we've got a 1200 instances of body positivity being talked about with fatness, then underneath that tiny, tiny, tiny 127. So this is compared to 18,000 127 mentions of weight stigma, weight discrimination, and only 24 of fat liberation, fat justice or fat activism. So that's huge, right? Huge. The difference between what has been reported on on weight just a handful on the fact that that weight discrimination exists or that fat liberation exists versus the gargantuan 18,000 In regards to weight loss or losing weight. So the next big thing here is that medical professionals and researchers dominated the coverage. So medical professionals and researchers were regularly quoted in news about stigma among the researchers most commonly quoted was Rebecca pool of the UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and health. And so Paul talks about weight stigma, right? Pull. Rebecca Paul is a thin woman and she is the The almost majority source on talking about weight stigma, which isn't a problem in itself, right? That is great that we have people talking about weight stigma, but it should be fat folks who are getting the media coverage to talk about weight stigma. And I mean, you know, it's Rebecca has done done research, right. So, you know, that's why that's that's happened. fatness was most often characterized using medical language. So even though
Speaker 135:31
the Oh words are slurs, almost Mote the most way that we have been talked about is we're using the O words so almost two thirds of articles included at least one reference to medical terms, the O words to refer to fat people. Indeed, a number of articles referred to the O word as a disease. A widely reprinted printed article, for example, ran under the headline, one in five children stricken with a word in different articles. Many stories that described Oh word is a disease with EDS written by medical professionals. Terms like fat people or plus lies appeared far less frequently in the coverage. A high profile article from the New York Times about eating disorders, for example, describe efforts of a small vanguard of professionals experimenting with ways to improve treatment for people with larger bodies. Oh, it's that one that I did a. A you don't look anorexic, the one where they talked to? That was good. The one where they talked to fat Pope folks with anorexia. Okay, so most articles frame stigma in the context of healthcare. So the majority of articles framed weight stigma in the context of access to medical care, as noticed elsewhere noted elsewhere, the overwhelming majority of stories that reference weight stigma were press releases from companies or research institutions releasing data or announcements of new weight loss products. thinking negatively ding ding. So this is something that we talk about on the podcast the fact that weight loss drug companies manufacturing companies, bariatric surgery companies are co opting the language of fat activists and talking about weight stigma. And their solution to weight stigma is to get rid of the fat people because if there's no fat people, you're not going to experience a weight stigma. Great idea not it's so infuriating. And so people can people like Yeah, yeah, that's a great idea. We do need to stop weight stigma you know people who who don't know better. We do need to stop weight stigma. Yes, it is a great way to take take your drug to lose weight. Great idea. Okay, let's do it. Because it's not that egregious fuck the fat people. They have to get smart with their marketing messages right? Only rarely did articles address the impact of weight stigma on health and emotional outcomes for adults and children. Aha. One op ed author, for example cited data illustrating that the emotional toll of weight discrimination alone may be enough to manifest negative consequences. Another widely reprinted reprinted news article focused on Oh word as a disease to be cured, but did include quotes from a doctor who lamented the way that we treat children and adults who have high weight is really shameful. When people do not meet a certain societal ideal of children, young children feel the same. Yeah, so here's another thing that we see is that articles that talk about weight stigma, still really struggle you can see that the author really struggles with well, we can't just say the fat people should just be fat. That would be irresponsible. So we shouldn't be mean to the fat people. But it needs to be could you know like this one? This right here this example saying? That it's a disease and it needs to be cured. So sometimes you think that you get you think that you're reading something that is that is that positive? And then you're like, wah, wah, wah. Oh, shit. No, you really excited you're like, Yes, this is great. And then at the bottom, you're like, what still we do don't be fat, you know? Nobody so fat guide and even like this one, okay, so this is the one that they've quoted like, it's called Yes, you can be both fat and healthy. So if I saw that I would be like, yes. But immediately goes into kind of things that not so great, you know, not so great things. You know, someone who's well meaning someone who's well meaning but Like so for example, as of 2021, weight based discrimination remains one of the only lasting legal and socially accepted forms of discrimination in the United States. Okay, so I hate when people say it's only it's one of the only lasting socially accepted forms of discrimination in the United States. Okay, so this is kind of like oh old school fan activism to say socially acceptable legal yes that's that's true in in a lot of different places not exclusively because there are other other ways that isn't you're legally allowed to discriminate against people but socially accepted forms of discrimination. It is of course socially acceptable discriminate against fat people, but it is is of course, also socially acceptable just discriminate against many other marginalized identities, without reprisal without thinking twice. And you may say, well, not for me, but it is for many people. It is for many people absolutely a okay to be transphobic a okay to be racist a okay to be excetera. Right? A okay to be misogynistic? Are we thinking about what's his what's his name? me who's, uh, who's like the most Googled man, Andrew Tate. I watched the vice documentary on him last night. I mean, his millions of followers, would they say that it's okay to discriminate against women to be violent towards women to to pursue as a woman? Yes. So is it the own is Wait, wait based discrimination, the only socially accepted form of discrimination? No, no, it's not. But I see what people I know, understand what people are saying. Anyway, moving on, we're getting into the weeds. The weeds of you know, little things that I might add is not true.
Unknown42:05
But I you know, it's kind of like a well meaning. Misconception, which I have previously made until someone corrected me a few years ago.
Speaker 142:20
Okay, policies to address weight stigma were rarely discussed in depth, in depth, though 1/3 of stories did include at least one reference to policies few articles or stances substantively substan tively address policies designed to address weight stigma. A rare example was an op ed from the press of Atlantic City that argued a proposed bill for prohibiting prejudice on the basis of weight and all height in hiring housing and educational practices. The Editorial Board concluded the bottom line is that judging someone's natural appearance, and holding it against them in any way is unfair, and she'd stopped. That's nice. That's nice to hear that they said their natural appearance, saying that wait is just a natural appearance appearance. The limitations on this analysis is limited to English, English language, print news sources, it did not include other forms of traditional news media, such as television or radio. In addition, although I'd head as closely as possible to best practices in ethnographic content analysis, I was not able to conduct inter rater reliability testing or use multiple coders to assess content. So they have recommendations. There are many ways that the media could improve coverage of fat people to accurately reflect our lives and to reduce stigma. You know what I was just watching the tourist a tourist on on prime. It came out a year ago and I was like finally I can't wait to watch it. It has Danielle McDonald in it. Danielle MacDonald was Patty cakes in Patty cakes. She was also in dumpling alongside Jennifer Aniston, amazing Australian fat actor. She was great. Anyway, so she's in this. She's the second star in it. Excited and so I started watching it first episode or what do you think her story line is? Oh my God. Is it that she wants to lose weight? Yes, it is. She's at a weight loss meeting. Yes. And is her partner a dickhead to her. Yes, he is. He's also fat and he is mean. But then actually, you know what? That was the first episode. I feel like it gets better like there is not any continued weight loss tool. And there is a surprise in one of the episodes I'm not going to say in case you watch it, but, you know, that's just how fat people are perceived like she's like, in a shit relationship and wants to lose weight. Oh, Bowl ring, ball ball ring. Yes, I know that that's many fat people's realities. But really, can we get some more stories? Can we get some more fat Joy stories because the overwhelming representation of fat folks is a sad sack, you know? Anyway, okay, so journalists, journalists and editors can This is how we can do it better. tell more stories about fat people's rights, and how we overcome stigma, weight bias and outright discrimination at work at play. And among family and friends. Yes, can you imagine if there was a story about like a fat person who was like, encoded in their office workplace culture that no diets was allowed and then other people were like, This was amazing. My workplace is really cool now thanks to that fat hero. And then the news was like, This is amazing. We should we should treat fat people like people. Oh, and it just be a feel good story. When that be cool. Decreased reliance on medical research to drive story ideas and write fewer stories about fat people in health, wellness and disease context. Yes. explore other markers of health and interventions that increase people's wellness including systemic changes that increase access to health, healthy healthcare healthy behaviors and reduce stigma. Yes. Expand your definition of experts on fatness beyond people with a medical or public health background include academics doing research and fat studies as well as folks active in and leading the movement for fat fat rights and fat liberation. Imagine that a story about fatness where fat people talk about it. Why yield where it's not thin people? Dough you that is too much too much to handle. See now seek out fat experts for your opinion pages including those who question or have rejected weight loss culture and die goals. When coating when quoting researchers or medical professionals identify connections they have to dye industry and pharmaceutical funding that may influence their perspectives. Oh, that would be so good, wouldn't it? It would like quote, fat people need to lose weight says researcher who has been donated 100,000 by weight loss drug companies. But I wouldn't be so ragging good. Or just not even quote them adult include more fat activist and fat liberationists In your coverage of civil rights elections and other social justice issues. Yes, amazing. Language. Avoid the Oh words. When speaking of clothes, use industry term plus size, extended size or big and tall. Never use a phrase for everybody or for all sizes. Yes, that gets on my flaps. We're making clothes for all sizes we go up to we go up to x owl say oh my god, everyone can fit now. Fat activist and fat liberationists or often refer to themselves as fat and that term should be used at the subjects request, including a short explainer. Treat fat subjects with care and dignity using language and descriptions that they prefer. Imagery the recommended recommendation on imagery is include larger bodied people in your photos and illustrations of stories that don't have anything to do with body size. We exist in other contexts. Yes. include pictures of our full body when practical versus the headless fatty. Avoid weight loss before and after juxtapositions do not use filters or Photoshop to make us appear less fat. Do not use a non anonymized fat people ie no heads no faces. Many stock photo galleries only feature fat people in stereotypical portrayals or in weight loss pursuits. If your publication typically uses it utilizes stock galleries plan for the possibility that you may need to arrange for alternative photos that show fat people diversity and authentically. Yeah, you know what, like, for example, you can go to the companies that are talking about weight bias and how it's bad but also that fat people don't need to exist. They often have stock photos available. And all the stock photos are fat people at the gym fat people eating an apple fat but you know and It's like really? Do you really know anything about weight stigma if all of the photos that you have, are fat people doing these things associated with health? No, yeah, yeah. Make sure photoshoot locations are accessible for larger bodies. In conclusion, this report shows that the media has a long way to go to accurately and compassionately port report on fat people, and our efforts to improve access and opportunity. However, we do see progress. And we know that progress is possible. As we have witnessed them, the media contribute to better understanding of LGBTQ people, victims of police violence, and more. At the time of this writing, there are active campaigns for legislation to protect fat people from discrimination in three states and the city of New York. This is an important moment with many more to come. And we hope the media takes this opportunity to cover these groundbreaking campaigns and their impact. Because ultimately, the way that the media covers fat people in weight bias is not a matter of semantics, consideration or kindness. contributing to a better understanding of fat people, the challenges we face and our efforts to alleviate those challenges can be life saving, can be life saving intervention, if we can reduce stigma and increase access to healthy healthcare, housing, employment and all the markers of a full and fulfilling life. Unified, loving it. So yes, you can go get there. So you can go and quote it and whatnot. I'll go and I'll make this report into a social media post that's easily shareable. And amazing, thank you for to NASA for doing this work.
Speaker 151:57
Love it. And here's a little tip for you, you know, when you're consuming the news, if you see something that is anti fat, just don't read it. Just don't watch it. Unless you're doing some type of analysis for some reason. Just don't do it. Don't put yourself through that. Don't give them the clicks, just you know, just don't. And if you're not sure if you'll see something, which is you're like, oh, this could be positive. Here's a little trick trick tip for you. If you're reading it on your on your computer, or your phone or whatever, do a CTRL F. Find, do find, find and just put in the Oh words. Don't put My words write them out, actually write them out. See if they come up and see in what context? Is it like, quoting the O words like we don't use the O words in SRT? Because they're fucked up? Or is it like, oh, word people are greedy and honorable? Then you can blame? Yeah, well, this is not great. Or if it's like, quoting an O word expert and researcher, who, if they're calling themselves an O word, researcher, you know that they're, they're steeped in weight bias so so protect that gorgeous little brain of yours, not little brain, you've got big, juicy brain, just protect it, protect it. And yeah, look out for those, those things. Because, you know, honestly, I've been doing this for years. And still, if I'm exposed to bias, it will affect me, you know, is it's impossible for it not to and so if you're newer in your journey, then it's gonna, it's definitely gonna affect you. If you're newer in your journey. That's more evidence to prove that your body is bad, right? So be really careful about that stuff that you consume, because it's even if you even if you're like, this isn't true. You know, it could be just nits just seeping into your brain, you know, osmosis or something. Yeah. All right. Well, go go share that. That Nafa report analysis. And if you would like to contribute towards the show, buy me a coffee or subscribe and get some goodies go to cofee link in the show notes. And I'm gonna go and try and destress from thinking about I'm feeling so much shame right now. It's so much shame when thinking about that show. No, I shouldn't feel shame. or shame is such a motherfucker, right? I did a whole Brene Brown course on shame. Shame is such a big driver in my life of of trying to try to keep me small, is my brain is like I'm going to shame I'm going to shame them. And it's it's it works. It works. But I'm guessing that we all feel shame. Most of us will feel shame. And so I'm going to I'm going to proceed assume that you're gonna hold me in that feeling of the shame. And say Vinnie, you don't deserve to feel shame. You deserve to feel good and happy. And here's my message to you is you don't deserve to feel shame. And you know, sometimes shame is helpful, right? Like if you if you go around kicking kittens in the face and you know that shame is probably good to feel but, uh, you know if it's if it's a shame, that's that's, you know, unhelpful and, and undeserved and something that's you having to work through then I hope I hope you get relief from it, and I hope I get relief from it too. Yeah. All right. Well, thanks for hanging out with me today, and I'll see you on the next episode.
00:0000:00