Glorifying obsesity

[Poppybob]

I find it bizarre that media and social platforms are glorifying obesity. Am not talking about people putting pictures of themselves on social media and living their lives in general, and am NOT saying overweight/obese people should be hiding.... but actual social media stars who are promoting obesity and how good/gorgeous they are etc etc. It's unhealthy!!! Takes 10-20years off your life! The Co - morbidities from being dangerously overweight alone can shorten your life. It's on par with smoking it's so bad for your health. And I worry about my kids looking at this and thinking that it will be OK for them to be very overweight.

Unpopular though your opinion is, I agree.

I know it's unpopular and am going to get ripped to shreds

Me too.

I agree with you. It's everywhere and it's crazy. Advertisements can't show smoking or drinking (within limits) but obesity is glamourised.

I'm overweight myself btw.

I agree, obesity is a disease, not something to be glorified.

Im obese, (less than I used to be) and Im surprised at the number of really overweght/obese women in adverts. Theres the car selling one where she dances, the iceskating one (not sure if that is for sanitary protection), the deoderant one where she is at an exercise class

Im sure theres more but these women are very large.

Absolutely right. It's not to say you're against bigger people but to glorify it is basically saying yes you can be this big and all's good. Bus as said, the health issues are constant in people of this size. Before anyone wants to kill me for sayin this I'm not saying it's wrong to be bigger, just that it's a bad message to say it's completely ok without revealing the wider implications

I agree totally. Obesity should not be glorified, it puts a huge strain in the NHS. As well as smoking and alcohol.

I wish being underweight wasn't glorified too, with catwalk models etc.

There is nothing wonderful about being fat. It's painful, restricting and bloody horrible ime. I'm fat (really really fat!) and it's no life . It's not healthy and we should stop pretending it is.
Saying something isn't healthy is not an insult. It's simply a fact.

Also overweight. Also agree. Its liferuining.

I think there is a minimum bmi for models now

I was at an event last night and saw a similar ad which surprised me. What shocked me was the huge number of people there who were grossly obese - not just overweight, and most were young.
I also work at a secondary school and we had the year 6 transition event recently. The higher number of obese children was noticeable. The fall out in terms of the impact in their lives and healthcare provision in the future is going to be huge.
It seems to be a topic no one who can make change really wants to tackle meaningfully though.

Agree with you re: underweight being glorified, as being underweight is just as unhealthy. But I feel that models etc nowadays are a healthier weight, I think they have to be within the normal bmi range now.

Normalising overweight and obesity is the single worst thing we could do for non communicable diseases.

And I was morbidly obese.

It's terrible for your mental health too.

Is it a Sunday without a Mumsnet 'Oooh, aren't fat women disgusting?' thread?

Are these not just showing normal women in normal situations?

I tend not to watch tv or buy magazines, but if these are examples of glorifying obesity I’m not sure I agree.

Whatever the ideal standard is, for health or beauty, there are people who deviate from that. A large proportion of the population is overweight or obese, of course they are going to be fairly represented in adverts, because they are normal people appealing to other normal people. Do you expect fat people to be shut away and shunned?

If you’re talking about magazine articles claiming obesity is great, then fair enough, I agree. I’m obese and know it’s not healthy.

Go read the Nik Naks thread if you want to see the root cause of the obesity epidemic.

People really don’t understand how harmful these food like products are.

George Keywood is an example of this and it's scary- young people seeing this on social media

I used to be 24 stone and now I'm 8.5 stone and my life has changed for the better- I'm a better example for my children. I couldn't walk much before and now I'm so active.

@NeverDropYourMooncup this post is not intending to say fat people are disgusting.... but it's discussing the implications of promoting obesity.

It's ok, people constantly make you aware your body is unacceptable. It counters any notion we're allowed to live peacefully amongst you.

i hope that reassures you.

Yeah, we all know being fat is bad. Luckily, most people still aim to be thin and couldn't think of anything worse than being overweight.

I tried googling and apparently thin models need to pass a health check, I wonder if this applies to overweight and obese models too?

I'm morbidly obese and I agree with you. It's a terrible idea to normalise being like this. There needed to be a change in how people viewed obese people, because being seen as disgusting and inferior is obviously unhelpful, but they seem to have overshot rather.

Its difficult to say, on the one hand they represent me of course

But on the other hand if they were as underweight as they are overweight they wouldnt be able to be shown on TV.

Also you're right to say 'normal women in normal situations' and isnt that the problem, that we have all seen this as 'normal' and therefore 'ok'.

Years ago I couldnt have imagined that I would have got as big as I got, it would have been like, yes Im overweight but not like THAT

But you dont see it because everyone else is the same (not that Im blaming anyone else of course)

Ive never disliked myself but my health was certainly impacted and now its much better.