Fat Children in the Media

In Farrell’s book Fat Shame, she explores how the media exploits fat people and turns them into “spectacles of humiliation” (119). Fat children are not excluded from this group. There are many television shows which focus on fighting and fixing childhood obesity. Obesity is labeled as an “epidemic” which adds to the idea that fatness is taking over our country in a negative way. Children are being told that their fatness is a disease that must be cured…does anyone else see this as cruel? The media conveys the idea that fatness is an unwanted burden that must be removed. In response to this “epidemic” the media has created television shows that illustrate how to rid children of obesity in a “healthy” way through over exercising and extreme diets. Is the main intention of these shows to help or humiliate children? If we are using Farrell’s definition, these shows do not help but rather exploit and humiliate fat children and their parents to create ratings and profits.

TLC’s show “Too Fat for Fifteen: Fighting Back” follows young teens as they struggle with obesity and losing weight. The five teens are brought to a weight-loss academy by their families where they diet and exercise to lose weight. Similarly, MTV’s show “Fat Camp” and “Return to Fat Camp” follows a group of teens to a fat camp for the summer and tracks their weight loss. The main purpose of these shows is to achieve a “healthy” weight and bring attention to the emotional disturbances from being fat. Some aspects of the show draw attention to teens experiencing conflicts with peers, fighting with their trainers by refusing to participate in exercising activities and having self esteem issues. Both shows exploit the fears and struggles of obese teens in today’s society.

Before the teen’s arrival, in both shows, they are portrayed as lazy, over fed young people who do not care about themselves. This helps to reinforce the negative stereotypes of fat people as being out of control, irresponsible, and unworthy of being thin. The parents are also stereotyped as uncaring and inattentive to the foods that their teen is eating. Farrell notes that the parents are being blamed for their teen’s uncivilized and out of control appearance because when they were children they were seen as “innocent and not responsible for their own actions” (161). Their obesity began in their earlier years and thus is reflected as being the fault of their parents. The media works to label parents of fat children as “unfit” to be legal guardians, which works to take advantage of the fears of being a parent (163). Parent’s of fat children are looked at and regarded with the same stigma as their children because they were “supposed” to have taken better care of their child by monitoring their health. Do you agree with this? Are all parents of fat children “unfit”? Are they abusing their children by allowing them to have unhealthy foods and no exercise? Or can we place the blame on the child who is fat?

Farrell has made it clear that to have full citizenship, one must be thin. In both shows, the teens believe that when they are thin, they will finally feel beautiful and will accordingly be accepted in society. This idea reinforces that a fat person lacks citizenship or a sense of societal belonging. These teens and children are being denied citizenship because of their physical appearance. Visibility is everything to a fat person. These shows do not promote a healthy lifestyle, but more a standard of what beauty looks like and how to achieve it. The parents that put their children on this show are buying into the ideology that being thin is better. Children are victims of America’s fat aware culture, which helps to develop body image issues and eating disorders. Do you think that fat teens are judged less harshly than fat adults? Does peer fat judging take place more in teens or adults? Do you believe that the parents of fat children lose their citizenship along with their fat child? How does the media influence the idea of citizenship? Is it fat discrimination to have shows strictly devoted to fat people being told they are ugly and need to lose weight to become part of society?