Anthea Turner - fat shaming and disablist (covid)

[FTMF30]

So Anthea Turner has felt the wrath of pretty much everyone for her recent Tweet. Very silly of her, being someone in the public eye.

I felt she was trying to make a valid point but failed terribly with that offensive cartoon. And what did she mean with the caption "Go for it"?
www.google.com/amp/s/www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/anthea-turner-twitter-fat-shaming-covid-face-mask-b919526.html%3famp

Anthea Turner scares me.

I remember when she was on celebrity big brother and she seemed to largely be bring herself inside the house.

Then, when she was evicted (I think early on I seem to remember she was quite unpopular) she literally switched on this grinning TV persona and declared it didn't matter she was leaving early as they'd raise 'a heck of a lot of money' for charity or something along those lines.

The contrast between the person she was in the house was unsettling becuase WE HAD JUST SEEN what she was really like but she acted like we hadn't.

This was years ago and I still think about it and get creeped out by it. I need to get out more I know.

I'm not picking on you for gaining weight I'm picking on you for your attitude.

And it's a tad disingenuous to claim earlier on in the thread that you were once overweight & you understand how difficult it is to lose it but you managed it so others can too.
I mean I left uni as a size 12 (I'm 5ft 10) & gave up alcohol & started exercising for 6 wks to get back to size 10. That is in no way representative of someone who needs to lose a significant amount of weight so I can't extrapolate my experience.

does not change the fact that a third of the population is obese

for the third time I acknowledge there is a problem with obesity.

My point is telling someone to put the crisps down or covid will kill you is not the best tactic but good luck with your campaign.

Protect the NHS is utter tripe.

Protect it from itself maybe.

Its quite old now but this systems map was created for a report commissioned by the government, carried out by Foresight, on ways to tackle obesity.

It shows the wide ranging influences on weight which are still relevant today according to this foresightprojects.blog.gov.uk/2017/10/04/dusting-off-foresights-obesity-report/

This is the atlas which breaks the map up into smaller chunks assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/295153/07-1177-obesity-system-atlas.pdf

That's the second edition of the report assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/287937/07-1184x-tackling-obesities-future-choices-report.pdf

This is the most recent document about encouraging healthy lifestyles which still looks at evidence provided by the Foresight report assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/216096/dh_127424.pdf

The reasons (not excuses as some delightful people on here want to call them) behind obesity and weight are hugely complex. Ignoring that and shouting 'eat less and move more' or other simplistic quotes isn't going to help people lose weight. Nor is making them feel crap.

Blaming people who are overweight for this lockdown and the destruction of the NHS is going to make people feel crap.

So what would work @wowier? How do you get people to lose weight?

@Leakyradiator I understand what you are saying, it’s horrible. I actually think when your weight gain is legitimately because of medications / disabilities, it makes it even worse that those who can do something about it, chose not to

Actually @wowier you were. You were making comments around my personal situation and suggesting I putt mine and my babies health at risk as a result of putting in weight during pregnancy. You were not commenting on my attitude. And my attitude is this - I know how easy it is to let the pounds pile on and not notice. I know how hard it is to get them off again. But for the vast majority of overweight people their weight is a result of eating to much and exercising to little and it is their responsibility to address that

I think with obesity like mental health (have suffered both) it starts with you. You either want to change and take action or you don’t. No amount of people telling you things works. I only worked through depression when I started facing my fears, when I took medication, when I went for counselling, when I stopped drinking. I decided I’d had enough and it was affecting my life and my family’s life. Before that my dh, boyfriends etc could talk to me until they were blue faced and I never did anything about it. I made excuses and hid away. Same with weight, one day enough was enough and I took action. It’s true you have to help yourself. Of course, there are minorities of people overweight due to medication or disability but then not everyone in their circumstances is necessarily overweight either.

@GlittercheeksOakleaf

Of course it is complex, but again, it’s not insurmountable. And even at the heart of those recommendations is the role that individual psychology plays....people do have to decide for themselves that they are going to do something whichever way you look at it

Personally, I’d ban all toxic junk food. It’s just not a very popular opinion...curiously amongst the people who consume it most...who are also overweight / obese

One of the posters below said something about why should we listen to skinny/scrawny celebrities. Anthea Turner (can't stand her, not a fan) is a healthy size, that's what healthy looks like but we have chosen to forget that.

I did modelling as a teen & plenty of those normal sized people were far from healthy. The camera does add weight, how many people have actually seen celebrities, most are tiny.
Anthea Turner who is super healthy but actually discovered she had osteopenia.

The reasons (not excuses as some delightful people on here want to call them) behind obesity and weight are hugely complex

Exactly & we need to look at these.
I would have more focus on PE/sport in school not just 1 hour a wk. Offer a range of activities as opposed to just netball or whatever.
Learn about cooking & nutrition etc in school.
I'm not sure banning junk food is the answer it's ok to eat everything in moderation.

@Melange99

Whenever there is a thread on obesity, the amount of normalising that goes on about being overweight far outweighs any so called fat shaming comments. The vast majority of people who are overweight are overweight because of unhealthy habits. There is a small percentage who have medical issues (including mental health) and medication side effects.

A lot of overweight people want their size normalised so that taking no personal responsibility for their health is excused and they can carry on eating in an unhealthy way because they don't stand out. They want the thinner people to be the odd ones out. One of the posters below said something about why should we listen to skinny/scrawny celebrities. Anthea Turner (can't stand her, not a fan) is a healthy size, that's what healthy looks like but we have chosen to forget that.

Exercising is good for fitness, but not being able to exercise is in itself not an excuse for being overweight. Primarily it is calories in. All those cliches like you can't un run your fork, or abs start in the kitchen are a pithy way of saying you are what you eat. If it is within your gift to do the best for your body, you should do it. There are lots of people for whatever reason, are bedridden, disabled, etc who would like the opportunity genuinely improve their health but can't. For the vast majority of overweight people, that isn't the case.

@Melange99

There is certainly normalisation going on, and it needs to stop. However the point a lot of people are making is compulsive overeating is a behaviour akin to compulsive drinking. It needs to be fixed, but people who use food in an addictive way need to approach weight loss understanding they have a different relationship with food than the average person, and need to put measures to manage the psychological addiction as well as the practical healthy habits.

I make this point because for a person with a troubled relationship with food, acknowledging this makes it easier to loose weight, whereas expecting yourself to be able to easily manage food just makes it harder.

Another issue is that some overweight/obese people don't think they really are overweight, or that it's not as big an issue as they think.

I was overweight, at one point borderline obese. I made all sorts of excuses to myself - its just because I have big boobs, its genetic my mum is overweight and so am I, BMI calculators are wrong it would show a body builder as obese, I eat healthily so I cant be overweight, I have recently had a baby so its OK to be obese. And so on.

So a lot of people probably see the covid statistics but think "it doesnt apply to me". Same as smokers who don't think they wont get lung cancer because their grandad smoked 40 a day and lived to be 90.

Models are not normal sized though, they tend to be the other way, a lot thinner because the camera adds the pounds on. So they were unhealthy because they did the opposite to the obese. Like jockeys, they curtail their calories whilst in the sport, but put weight on afterwards. Anthea Turner looks like a size 10. Her medical condition comes with age, I doubt the fact she is a normal weight contributed to it, but if she was heavier it would be more detrimental.

Her point is totally ridiculous, even if we could accept that some people just deserve to die because they have made bad choices and therefore we are ok not wearing a mask to protect them (this is really what she is saying, isn;'t it? that we should't have to wear a mask to protect fat people because it's their fault they are fat, right?) if we refuse to wear masks and generally not follow the rules, it's not going to be just obese people who die, is it? what about people with heart disease? cancer? asthma?

If you refuse to wear. a mask how are you going to make sure you only infect people who deserve to die?

How are we even having these conversations?

I had a relative who almost drank themselves to death but after yrs of rehab & therapy has now been sober for a long time. Telling them not to drink & that they were killing themselves unsurprisingly wasn't enough to make them stop.

@gottakeeponmovin my point is your attitude is judgemental & a tad hypocritical. But like I said good luck with your campaign.

In our new world of assessing essentials....junk food is non-essential. And harmful to health

It inflames the body (medically not visually) and causes so many issues, one of which is susceptibility to COVID.

If we truly wanted to save the NHS, we need to tax the shit out of every toxic food just like we did with cigarettes so it becomes extremely expensive to use that poison.
The whole ‘in moderation’ thing is a strange one to me...smoking in moderation probably won’t cause lung cancer but most people know not to even go near it because it’s addictive and could cause damage

The same could be said of junk food.

That’s not to say ‘ban cakes’ but we should be banning the shitty toxic cakes in supermarkets that are full of horrific toxic fats, preservatives, things you can’t even recognise as food ingredients

Cake, properly made, in moderation...fine! But that’s not what we are eating

@wowier

Communications campaigns aren't just limited to pamphlets through the door though are they?

Well i was being facetious but i think it's unrealistic to launch a national campaign to promote the benefits of exercise & healthy eating against the backdrop of a pandemic & all the restrictions that's comes with that.
Mask wearing is not really comparable.

Well there lies the problem. Even an international pandemic is not prompting the government or others (like yourself) to take a better look at seriously pushing fitness and nutrition. The whole "now is not the time" attitude is utterly tragic. Now is most certainly the time.

@missperegrinespeculiar

Her point is totally ridiculous, even if we could accept that some people just deserve to die because they have made bad choices and therefore we are ok not wearing a mask to protect them (this is really what she is saying, isn;'t it? that we should't have to wear a mask to protect fat people because it's their fault they are fat, right?) if we refuse to wear masks and generally not follow the rules, it's not going to be just obese people who die, is it? what about people with heart disease? cancer? asthma?

If you refuse to wear. a mask how are you going to make sure you only infect people who deserve to die?

How are we even having these conversations?

I don’t think that’s the point

It’s the hypocrisy that exists in seeing someone who clearly doesn’t look out for their own health, demanding that others do

This is just one has been celebrity's interpretation of the situation.

She - (nor should anyone ever) point out the race or gender of the majority of Covid deaths would she, on social media.

Fat shaming / lifestyle choice shaming isn't helpful, no one asked for a pandemic and god knows there's no support for the people that will need help with combatting these addictions right now.

Models are not normal sized though

Plenty of celebs are the same size to fit into samples. My point was celebs are often not a healthy size in real life (they do use the same cameras as models for one) & plenty have disordered eating.
Osteopenia is often linked to diet & exercise (not the right foods or exercise type).

Maybe we should all just wear a mask and not moan about it? Unless you are being suffocated by your mask or are allergic to material on your face, we should just get in with it. This is it for now. Wear a mask.

If we truly wanted to save the NHS,

If that's the goal then we also need to talk about our ageing population.

Anthea Turner is just jumping on the outrage bandwagon because she has nothing else to offer. She’s an appalling hypocrite, and deserves just to be ignored.

And can we just please lay off the fat-bashing. So much obesity is driven by emotional eating. There is no quick fix for that, and hectoring, nagging and fat shaming make it worse.

[quote gottakeeponmovin]**@Downton57* I was replying to @Gwenhwyfar* but haven't got the hang of the bold font yet [/quote]
And you haven't got the hang of mn. It's a group conversation and anyone can pitch in and challenge you on anything you say. If you want an echo chamber you won't find it here.

@wowier

The reasons (not excuses as some delightful people on here want to call them) behind obesity and weight are hugely complex

Exactly & we need to look at these.
I would have more focus on PE/sport in school not just 1 hour a wk. Offer a range of activities as opposed to just netball or whatever.
Learn about cooking & nutrition etc in school.
I'm not sure banning junk food is the answer it's ok to eat everything in moderation.

Exactly this.

Along with acknowledging that food addiction is a real thing and treating it like any other addiction and that binge eating disorder is part of the spectrum of eating disorders.
Offering psychological or even psychiatric treatment in extreme cases.
Referrals for talking therapies, CBT etc to learn different coping mechanisms for situations that would normally lead to binging or to work through whatever set them off on that road in the first place.
Decent exercise facilities accessible to all.
Decent nutrition education right through from Early Years.

I don't have all the answers, I wish I did. I'm slowly losing weight because I'm no longer depressed, I'm working full time and not sat at home bored and sad and eating. It has taken me 34 years of using food as a coping mechanism for the self-hatred that started the day I was sexually assaulted as a four year old and someone seeing past the fat I carry as a punishment to myself and offering me a job I've always wanted to reach the point where I am ready to lose weight. Since September last year I've dropped dress sizes from a 28 to a 22/24. Its not melted away and it wasn't the thought of Covid killing me (which frankly terrifies me) that set it off. It was feeling good about myself for the first time in a very, very long time.