{"id":44239,"date":"2012-01-24T12:45:04","date_gmt":"2012-01-24T17:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=44239"},"modified":"2012-04-07T17:20:38","modified_gmt":"2012-04-07T22:20:38","slug":"new-obesity-prevention-campaign-rife-with-fat-shaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2012\/01\/24\/new-obesity-prevention-campaign-rife-with-fat-shaming\/","title":{"rendered":"New Obesity Prevention Campaign Rife with Fat-Shaming"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) sponsored\u00a0two new billboards in Albany, NY<\/a>, warning residents that cheese makes you fat in what is possibly most irresponsible way ever. The first features an obese man\u2019s disembodied torso and the words, \u201cYour abs on cheese.\u201d The second features an obese woman\u2019s butt and thighs and the words, \u201cYour thighs on cheese.\u201d The images make a very clear statement: fat people are disgusting.
\n\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>The PCRM advocates for a vegan diet. The aim of this campaign is to get Albany residents to reduce their cheese intake, as cheese is a common source of saturated fat and, according to the PRCM, a major contributor to obesity in the United States. In Albany, home to several dairy farms, 63 percent of adults are obese. This is higher than the statewide obesity level of 59 percent. Obesity prevention is a valid cause, to be sure, but at what cost to other health issues?<\/p>\n

According to their\u00a0website<\/a>, the PCRM is \u201ca nonprofit health organization that promotes preventive medicine, conducts clinical research, and encourages higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in research.\u201d For an organization so concerned with ethical standards, the PCRM has sunk pretty low with this offensive and damaging campaign. In the jargon of health communication ethics, the PCRM have committed a common and classic misstep: the failure to consider the unintended consequences of their message.<\/p>\n

Just like a single food item (in this case, cheese) is not responsible for the entire obesity epidemic, obesity is not the only serious health problem facing Americans. We are also struggling with our body image and self-esteem as we cope with the barrage of photoshopped and unrealistic \u201cideal bodies\u201d in the media. The\u00a0National Eating Disorders Association<\/a>\u00a0states that \u201cin the United States, as many as 10 million women and 1 million men are fighting a life and death battle with an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia. Millions more are struggling with binge eating disorder.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the medical hegemony, physical health tends to outrank mental health in \u201cimportance.\u201d But the line between physical and mental health issues is not always clear, especially with the confluence of obesity, body image disturbance, eating disorders, and self-esteem. The PRCM is wearing blinders to these interrelated health issues in their dogmatic pursuit of a singular, isolated objective.<\/p>\n

Physicians are taught to \u201cdo no harm.\u201d The PRCM needs to understand that insensitive words and pictures are\u00a0absolutely<\/em>\u00a0harmful to our health. There are better ways to educate and motivate people to make healthier food choices; ethical health campaigns do not sacrifice one health issue to promote another.<\/p>\n

————————<\/p>\n

Leah Berkenwald is a graduate student of Health Communication at Emerson College, in collaboration with the Tufts University School of Medicine, and holds\u00a0a MA in American Studies from the University of Nottingham. She is currently designing a social marketing campaign on body image for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She also works as the Online Communications Specialist at the\u00a0Jewish Women’s Archive<\/a>,\u00a0and blogs at\u00a0talkinreckless.com<\/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":"

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) sponsored\u00a0two new billboards in Albany, NY, warning residents that cheese makes you fat in what is possibly most irresponsible way ever. The first features an obese man\u2019s disembodied torso and the words, \u201cYour abs on cheese.\u201d The second features an obese woman\u2019s butt and thighs and the words, […]<\/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":[155,218,244,2124,252,23704],"class_list":["post-44239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-animals","tag-bodies","tag-fat","tag-foodagriculture","tag-healthmedicine","tag-public-service-announcements"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44239","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=44239"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45890,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44239\/revisions\/45890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}