February 24th, 2010 
Stiletto Siren Trigger Warning: I will be talking about The Biggest Loser and the negative effects it can have on a person’s mental state.
I have written about my love/hate, mostly just hate relationship with Biggest Loser before. While I admitted to watching it for shallow reasons I also can argue how ridiculous the show is and all those other FA preachy things. Anyways the point is, I have been loving these last 2 weeks with no Biggest Loser to invade my home via the good old boob tube.
While the Olympics have been on the Biggest Loser has been on hiatus and at first I was a bit irritated, the last episode kinda left us at a cliff hanger challenge between Darrell and Cheryl (HA that rhymes, oh so clever is me!) over who would be the one to go home, but then I realized that it was definitely a small price to pay for not having the negative effects of watching the show that week. Those negative effects for me being a bit of unnecessary guilt, a lot of ranty anger time, and those tiny moments where I begin to question myself and my beliefs.
I think no matter how pro fat or body acceptance we are, and how knowledgeable and self loving we can be, there are still be moments where the media can find a way to get under our skin and make us doubt even for just a split second our happy fat lives. It is completely ridiculous that the media and that this bull shit show can have that kind of power. I consider my self to be very strong with tough skin and enough confidence and overall love for myself that nothing should be able to rattle my cage or shake up my values, and I think it took having a couple weeks of no Jillian Michael’s guilt, or Dr. H your gonna die drama, to make me realize that just watching this fucking show could really be damaging to my mental health. Wow, if it’s this bad for me, who has the wonderful fat blogsphere, the knowledge, and the gung-ho positive body image, then holy shit what is it doing to people who haven’t found fat acceptance yet? Fucking scary.
It is completely messed up that BL can make us feel these horrible things especially considering the dangerous nature of their show and how unachievable a similar lifestyle would be to obtain. We are watching these fat people, who are fat just like us but are determined to change their ways, and the attempt is made to make us feel guilty for not spending 6 hours a day in the gym, for having not every healthy food at our fingertips and for having absolutely nothing else to do besides think about what the scale is going to say at the next weigh in. These people are taking time off from real life, from their family and job responsibilities, from fast food on every corner, from real life shit and real life problems to live in this alternative reality. They come across as heroe’s who are making their life changes, but really this is not their lives, this is their lives on the ranch/planet of endless weight loss possibilities. Thats too much fucking pressure for viewers and its teaching fat people to loathe themselves more for not being able to meet these high expectations. Though motivation for other fat people is what they promote as the reason for this show isn’t it just teaching unrealistic ideals that lead to more fat hate and discrimination, to more self loathing and to more yo/yo dieting which in the end takes a bigger unhealthy toll on our bodies then being fat in the first place? I think so, and that is why I have enjoyed these last 2 weeks with no Biggest Loser being pushed in my fat face and after this 2 week reprieve I am not going back. I will not be viewing the show again and I hope others will give it up as well.
Hell if your starved for TV and don’t want to be faced with the idea to starve yourself turn off that damn Biggest Loser and switch over to something more good for your mental health and in the long run your physical health. American Idol is the choice for me. Plus Ellen DeGeneres is too adorkable and fiercely herself , to miss!
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the thing that really sticks in my craw about the biggest loser is its promotion of anorexic-like behaviors. I mean the ONLY time i ever worked out 6-8 hours a day is hwen i was at the utter height of my exersize bulimia….they eat under 1000 caloires a day and the steps they take to get weight down at the horrible weigh in day would read like a pro-ana website. Contestants have been told not to DRINK for 36 hours beforehand. Its going to take someone DYING to stop it…they have alreayd had to kick people off the show for health problems. (incoming blog plug) i just talked about this recently at http://erylin.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/biggest-loser-unsafe-says-experts/
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I watched half an episode of BL once. I just happened across it and sat there with my jaw on the ground for half an hour before I could move on. That shit is messed up.
I think Erelyn is right; someone will have to die before the ‘game’ is cancelled…and even then they’ll say in the press that it’s because the dead person was too fat to save. They’ve said that before about people who have collapsed from the excessive exercise combined with insufficient caloric intake.
Me? I’m sticking with Project Runway. Even their ‘average woman’ challenge of the season this time didn’t include a lot of hand wringing over working with fat women, and the dress designed for one of the larger women actually won!
If Project Runway can become less fat shaming, I can enjoy my Tim Gunn (Call me, Tim! I’ll bake scones!) time with a peaceful heart.
I have actually liked reading your articles. You obviously know your stuff. I also really like it that your website is so simple to navigate. Ive bookmarked it in my favourites and will for sure be returning for more.
Hi there – first off, been a longtime fan, but this is my first comment. I thought I should probably say thanks for posting this piece, and I’ll be back!
You raise a VERY valid point. It really doesn’t matter how strong your sense of Self is or how well you can ignore outside messages. They are GOING to get through and they are GOING to effect you perhaps positively but, as is usually the case with media and fat, it’s more likely to be negative. This is what it’s DESIGNED to do. EFFECT you.
I recently read an article in the NYTimes concerning an Advertising Guru who claimed the MOST attention getting noise was the sound of a giggling baby. If advertisers are deliberately trying that hard to drill down into peoples subconscious just to get your attention, how can anyone suppose that everything else they hammer us with all day, every day, has no effect?
THIS is why messages the media sends need to be considered carefully. This is why the ‘War on Fat’ is doing so much more damage than it is good. More often than not it just becomes war on a certain class of PEOPLE and, in this country at least, that is SUPPOSED to be unacceptable.
[...] I didn’t miss The Biggest Loser [...]
i was beginning to believe i might possibly be the only human being that cared about this, at least at this point i comprehend i’m not mad
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I think that is an interesting point, it made me think a bit. Thanks for sparking my thinking cap. Sometimes I get so much in a rut that I just feel like a record.
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