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CNN
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Oprah Winfrey was the first Black woman to see Whitney Trotter on television –– and the first television personality to have conversations that impacted young Black girls like her.
But aside from those groundbreaking TV moments, interviews and breakthrough talents, Trotter – now a registered dietitian – remembers that Winfrey was known for something else: her body size and shape.
One moment in 1988 made a mark on so many people when Winfrey went on her nationally syndicated show pulling a little red wagon with 67 pounds of animal fat, equal to the amount of weight she had lost at the time. Immediately people were watching to see when she would get it back, how she would lose it again, and — most recently — if she would use medication like GLP-1 to try to make her body smaller.
Although the public’s attention is specific to celebrities, the scrutiny Winfrey faces at every stage of her body changes is something many people experience, said Dr. Alexis Conason, a psychologist and a certified eating disorder specialist in New York City.
This scrutiny is the result of diet culture, the influences and messages that affect how we eat, based on cultural pressure to achieve an ideal body type, experts say.
“I think that this sense of wanting to tear people down, and especially to reduce women to their appearance and point out their flaws as a way of removing power, is a tactic that has been used for a long time in the media. “And I think it continues (to this day).”
Criticism of Winfrey’s body shows exactly how much of a losing game diet culture is, even if you are one of the most influential people in the world, experts say.
Lose, gain or maintain –– the scrutiny continues
Many people have felt pressured by the diet culture to lose weight, but the expectation is often that the scrutiny will rise when that happens. And often, it is not the only case.
Whether it’s to maintain, gain or lose weight, many clients come to New York City dietitian Kimmie Singh saying they feel like their bodies are under surveillance, she said.
“It’s something that’s so normalized — from the magazines but then also from talking about people at the dinner table,” Singh said, “or people congratulating the person who’s lost weight.”
Even if you reach the body size that society deems ideal, the goalposts move to pressure you to achieve the right body shape, said Trotter, who is a doctor of nursing practice and a psychiatric and mental health nurse practitioner in Austin. Texas.
The myths related to weight and size
Accompanying this focus on other people’s bodies are two harmful ideas: that weight is within a person’s control and that body size is related to moral value, Conason said.
“There’s a cultural narrative that being in a bigger body is morally inferior,” she said. “There are all those relatives with the fat of laziness, people who aren’t as smart, people who aren’t motivated, who aren’t taking care of themselves, who aren’t disciplined.”
People feel more justified in discriminating and being cruel if they believe those associations are real — especially if they think a person’s body size is under their control, Conason said.
“It all comes back to the myth of personal responsibility for weight and body size, that if you just work hard enough, you can achieve this cultural ideal of being thin and being acceptable,” she said.
There is such a perception of weight and acceptance not true, said Dr. Chika Anekwe, an obesity medicine physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital Weight Center and a medical instructor at Harvard Medical School in Boston.
While some of the population is biologically “resistant” to obesity, others can make major changes to their lifestyles and still not be able to maintain weight loss, Anekwe said. And with increasing changes in access to food, exercise and health care, people’s weight is increasingly out of their control, she said.
A 2019 meta-analysis showed that more than 80% of weight loss is regained after five years.
“If people could choose their body weight, size or shape,” Anekwe said, “we wouldn’t have such a booming diet culture industry.”
Even when people seem to be losing weight, they may still be losing the diet culture game.
Due to the popularization of the GLP-1 medication, which was originally prescribed to treat type 2 diabetes but is now often used for weight loss, the idea that a smaller body is a matter of choice has been popularized, said Conason . She noted that it also adds another way society can scrutinize how people lose weight.
“There’s no other drug class where people want to violate HIPAA as much as they do the GLP-1, because it’s like, ‘Oh, I know,'” Trotter said, referring to the law federal that restricts the release of medical information. .
In a hierarchy of what society considers the most “moral” ways to lose weight, medication is heading toward the bottom, said Bri Campos, a body image coach based in Paramus, New Jersey.
“If you are not one of the 5% of people who can maintain a caloric deficit for a long period of time (more than five years), increase your movement and keep the weight off, your weight loss does not count,” said she
Similar reactions happened with Lizzo, Kelly Clarkson and Winfrey –– their bodies looked smaller, and speculation came in about how they did it.
“There is so much like mistrust towards fat people in general,” said Singh. “People want a gotcha moment with fat people to say, ‘Oh, so we caught you with your hand in the cookie jar.'”
People want to trap and shame others for not pursuing a lifestyle that denies them pleasure, Conason said. Some can also face criticism for using weight loss methods that society considers lazy, Singh said.
Whether it’s going on a diet, taking GLP-1 or getting weight loss surgery, “it speaks directly to how we can never be in the eyes of diet culture,” she said.
Since most people can’t find societal approval of their current bodies, they can’t maintain long-term weight loss through restrictive dieting or face criticism for using other methods to lose weight — what so what’s the point of the diet culture?
One idea is that diet culture keeps power in check.
Many successful men are judged by their achievements rather than their looks, but the same is not always true for the rest of the population, Conason said.
Winfrey is one of the most influential people in the world and her body remains scrutinized – a reminder to powerful women that their body size, clothes, hairstyle and adherence to beauty standards will remain a priority, she said .
Campos said she has women, transgender and non-binary people come to her for body coaching. They are in the fields of science, technology and law or who have graduated from the best universities and still feel that their achievements are not as important as how others view their bodies, she said .
“We know this because of Oprah, because of the Kardashians, because of all these people who continue to pursue Westernized beauty, that there is no top where you come safely,” Campos added. “There will always be something else. If it’s not your weight, it will be getting old. There is always something.”
Removing the influence of diet culture from your life is no small feat, but you can start by being more aware of how it affects you, Conason said.
“The more we can understand what diet culture is, what weight stigma is, how it shows up in our lives, the more we will be able to look at it and question it, instead of taking it unconsciously. and absorb it,” she said.
It’s also important to recognize that other people’s bodies should never be a topic of conversation –– even if you think talking about their weight loss is a compliment, Conason added. And talking about celebrities and their weight, it does not make such comments better.
Comments and criticisms you make about other people’s bodies also affect how you feel about your own, Conason said.
“Oprah probably won’t hear what I talk about with my friends or on social media or things like that, but people in my life often do,” she said. “It’s hurting the everyday people in our lives who may or may not be in a larger body, who may or may not be taking GLP-1, who may or may not be struggling with an eating disorder.”
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