Hey kids, Move Your Body

               “Eighty percent of children have been on a diet by the time they hit fourth grade”, both an overwhelming number and a believable statement. Children these days are becoming more and more overweight; fatter. America has come a long way in the need of making sure our kids are as healthy as the ‘average weight’ for their age and size. As a child, I was overweight, I too was fat. My doctor told my parents that I needed to pick up a sport in my spare time. Where has this need come from to keep our children ‘healthy’, to make sure that they’re at their physical best?

                On page 35 of Fat Shame by Amy Erdman Farrell, she states that “records from the American Medical Association indicate that many doctors needed to be convinced of the relevance of weighing children”. This was in 1949. In current time, 2011, doctors are obsessed with weighing those of adolescence. “Oh, you’ve seemed to have gained some weight since our last visit.” “Are you eating healthy?” “Do you exercise?” All the seemingly innocent questions or remarks can be hurtful and damaging to a child that age. Society has us, as Americans, conditioned to believe that stepping on a scale is the right thing to do, that losing weight is important, that being thin is superior. This societal movement towards being thin has been conditioned in our brains to attack those who may struggle with their weight, causing a chain that leads down to children.

                Last year, Beyonce was asked to change her song “Get Me Bodied” to “Move Your Body”, a weight-loss song for kids. (See video at bottom of page.) In the song, the lyrics are all different dances that were popular, and still are, at the time, such as ‘The Dougie’ and ‘The Catdaddy’. Throughout the song there isn’t a point where you aren’t moving. Last year in school, we decided to try and learn the dance and our results show that it definitely makes you sweat. This song/dance was partnered with First Lady Obama’s Anti-Child Obesity campaign, and was performed by a group of kids at a neighboring school.

                The fact that our First Lady and a popular music artist are both encouraging kids to get out and move their bodies shows just what our society has become towards the ways of fat shame. However, these two influential people aren’t the only ones pushing children to explore other possibilities. Every year for an entire day Nickelodeon doesn’t play any TV shows and instead has a scrolling screen telling kids to get out and move. When I was younger, I would just change the channel, and I’m sure I’m not the only person to preform this act. Yet, the purpose behind this day shows that even television companies whose main goal is to have child viewers put aside days each year to make kids move away from their TVs and exercise or just get outside.

                In the book, Farrell also touches on the movie Wall-E. Although she doesn’t aim her points at childhood obesity and the culture’s obsession with correcting children’s weight problems, which is what I thought of while reading about Wall-E. This Pixar movie shows what our society can become if we decide to let our weight go and allow machines to take over for us. We too could be carted around on machines and not have the correct muscles to stand. Wall-E shows kids that 'letting your body go' isn’t the right way to go about things and therefore should make sure to get physical exercise.

                Our obsession with children’s weight has increased a lot since the days where doctors didn’t even want to weigh them. In doing this, are we helping children and sculpting them for their futures? Or are we just helping our own opinions and making ourselves feel better?