{"id":40178,"date":"2011-10-13T12:05:04","date_gmt":"2011-10-13T17:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=40178"},"modified":"2011-11-09T13:52:17","modified_gmt":"2011-11-09T18:52:17","slug":"looking-for-more-attention-drop-some-lbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2011\/10\/13\/looking-for-more-attention-drop-some-lbs\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking for More Attention? Drop Some lbs."},"content":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted at Jezebel<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

At least that\u2019s what Skinny Water is promising in their latest advertisement. The ad shows a woman facing a throng of cameramen snapping her picture, elegant earrings dropping to the top of the headline which says: \u201cSkinny Always Gets the Attention.\u201d Take a look:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Below the headline and photo of the various flavors, it also says \u201cZero calories, Zero sugar, Zero Carbs, Zero Guilt.\u201d With all that\u2019s not in this water, you might wonder what it does offer. The website tells me that depending on the flavor of water, they\u2019ve added vitamins B3, B5, B6, B12, C, A, and E. They\u2019ve also thrown in magnesium, folic acid, calcium\u00a0and\/or potassium.<\/p>\n

Despite paltry efforts to market itself as healthy, Skinny Water is instead\u00a0perpetrating the cultural message that the best — or only — way to ensure that women get attention is by being skinny. This of course positions them well to try to push their product on those women who have been pulled into this lie.<\/p>\n

In fact, Skinny Water is\u00a0doing precisely the opposite of what\u00a0a health-conscious company and product should be doing. Promoting the idea that those who are skinny deserve attention more than others creates communities that support harmful diet-related behaviors and disordered eating for the goal of a wispy appearance. Not to mention reinforcing\u00a0the ever-present\u00a0undercurrent of bias against the overweight — or even normal weight! — it reinforces the idea that women\u2019s size and appearance is the most important thing about them.<\/p>\n

In defiance of that, let\u2019s remind ourselves why Skinny Water is wrong. While the website details the added\u00a0vitamins and dietary\u00a0minerals of each drink, it\u2019s far better to get your needed supplements through a healthy diet rich in cruciferous\u00a0 and dark and leafy vegetables, fruits, whole grain and lean proteins. Washed down, in fact, by regular old water that keeps you hydrated and helps your body process and absorb nutrients. Skinny Water is\u00a0telling its buyers that by adding these vitamins and minerals to their product, one can, perhaps, eschew a calorie-free but vitamin-rich manipulated water diet. For example, the \u201cPower,\u201d \u201cSport\u201d and \u201cFit\u201d drinks <\/a>are all\u00a0fortified with calcium, magnesium, and potassium \u2013 to help activate metabolic enzymes, keep your blood regulated, and support strong bones and teeth. Do you know what else can do that?\u00a0 Bananas, yogurt, kale, almonds and cashews, and quinoa.<\/p>\n

These are madly marketed products that don\u2019t substitute for a healthy, well-rounded diet. Instead, they capitalize on the now-entrenched notion that women care more about being skinny than anything else.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: <\/strong><\/span>Jezebel reports that this advertisement has been retired by Skinny Water, thanks to objections from consumers.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

Larkin Callaghan is a doctoral student at Columbia University studying\u00a0health behavior\u00a0and education.\u00a0She is\u00a0particularly concerned with gender disparities in access to healthcare and prevention services, and has done research on adolescent female sexual health, how\u00a0social media operate as an educational platform,\u00a0and differences by gender in the effectiveness of brief health interventions. You can follow her on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0Tumblr<\/a>, and\u00a0at her\u00a0blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you would like to write a post for Sociological Images, please see our\u00a0Guidelines for Guest Bloggers<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted at Jezebel. At least that\u2019s what Skinny Water is promising in their latest advertisement. The ad shows a woman facing a throng of cameramen snapping her picture, elegant earrings dropping to the top of the headline which says: \u201cSkinny Always Gets the Attention.\u201d Take a look: Below the headline and photo of the various […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[218,235,244,2124,2103,252],"class_list":["post-40178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bodies","tag-dietexercise-industry","tag-fat","tag-foodagriculture","tag-gender-bodies","tag-healthmedicine"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40178"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41695,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40178\/revisions\/41695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}