TALKBACK
Kath Hudson • Journalist • Health Club Management
watchdog and the subject of a campaign on
Change.org – raises interesting issues. Although the model is enviably – and
Is healthy off ensive? T
he recent Protein World ‘Beach Body’ advert – which was defaced on a mass scale, banned by the UK advertising
unattainably for many – slim, she’s essentially healthy and toned. This in contrast to the waifl ike, sickly-looking model in the controversial Yves St Laurent advert, which came out around the same time, who looked like she’d just collapsed. Critics claimed the Beach Body ad
was sexist and fat-shaming, presenting an unrealistic image of women’s bodies. However, although the ad was eventually banned, this was over concerns about the
health and weight loss claims made, and last month the ASA ruled that the advert was not offensive or irresponsible. Adverts on the London Underground
were defaced with messages like: “Yes, everyone is beach body ready”, while spoof ads quickly sprung up using ‘real women’ models. However, with new fi gures predicting that almost three- quarters of British men and two-thirds of women will be obese or overweight by 2030, are we right to keep accepting excess weight as the norm? We’re talking health here, not appearance. The UK has one of the worst rates
of obesity in Europe, which directly costs the NHS £6bn a year. With more people becoming overweight, are we
Is this a healthy role model or is it fat shaming? Email us
healthclub@leisuremedia.com
Protein World caused massive controversy and widescale offence with its recent ‘beach body ready’ advert – in which the model, while slim, was healthy and toned. Are we losing sight of normal?
getting a warped view of normal? We’re adjusting to our increased size with bigger beds, bigger clothes, bigger car seats and portion sizes, but is adjusting to being bigger, and urging acceptance of it, glossing over the fact that we have a very serious problem? Obesity and inactivity could bring down the NHS. Children could die before their parents. On the fl ipside, Protein World claims
the ad drove US$1m of direct sales. But just because this approach has been shown to work, is it appropriate to use it? What can the fi tness industry learn
from this debacle? How can we help ease the problem, having conversations about body shape without causing offence? We ask the experts....
ROSI PRESCOTT CEO • Central YMCA
“T
here’s nothing wrong with showing a fit and healthy
model, but this does perpetuate an idealised view which 95 per cent of the population are unable to attain. Being bombarded with this imagery can lower self-esteem
and confidence and lead to extreme behaviours to achieve weight loss. According to our research, 20 per cent of adults skip meals and 10 per cent are considering surgery. Two-thirds of the population know it’s not achievable to
look like the model in the advert, but 70 per cent of women and 40 per cent of men say they feel pressure from the media to look a certain way. The YMCA’s Body Confidence campaign, launched in 2011, was about reflecting what we really look like in terms of age, gender, ethnicities and disabilities. We want companies to understand that you can’t base a business model on insecurity. We’re definitely not saying it’s good to be fat, but to make
the right lifestyle choices you need mental, emotional and social fitness, so people need to be empowered, not shamed. We want to put across the message that you should strive to be the best you can be, and would like the fitness industry to stop using weight loss and appearance to appeal to people.
”
PAUL SACHER Consultant psychologist • Momenta
“T
he population does have a skewed and unhelpful perception of what
a healthy body looks like. However, the resetting of subjective body-size norms due to the increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity is only part of the story. The current visual shorthand within the fitness industry
for what counts as ‘healthy’ – the thin and toned, or highly muscular, body – is a poor reflection of what actual health looks and feels like for the majority of the population. It simplifies the complex notion of health – defined by the WHO as ‘a complete state of physical, emotional and social well-being’ – to having a body that has an arbitrarily defined aesthetic. Repeated exposure to aspirational but unattainable imagery
is driving the epidemic of body dissatisfaction in the UK, which then leads to unhealthy practices such as fasting, laxative and steroid abuse, causing lasting physical and emotional harm. Until recently, the power to decide what kind of bodies
should be promoted as ‘healthy’ has been with those with a vested interest in keeping people dissatisfied. The rise of social media means that dissenting voices now have a powerful platform on which to promote alternative views and ideas about what ‘healthy’ looks like. Vive La Revolution!
” 28 Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital August 2015 © Cybertrek 2015
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