Adventures of a Maude in Training

This. So, so many times this.

"This is my problem with concern trolling as a general concept -- if people really cared about the health of fat people, they wouldn't be suggesting self-harm via starving, guilt, and self-hatred as some sort of penance for fatness. They'd be supporting a movement that has reconnected fat people with their bodies and their own health, both mental and physical, whatever the state of their health might be.

Because being healthy, especially in alignment with any one person's arbitrary definition of health, is not actually a moral issue, nor should it be a cultural yard stick of whether or not someone deserves quality healthcare or to be treated like a human being."

http://www.xojane.com/healthy/ive-only-got-1-thing-to-say-to-folks-who-dont-understand-fat-acceptance

I suggest reading the whole article.

Last week someone on FB (well I saw it multiple places, but I am referring to one thread here) posted an image that contained what were supposed to the worst diet fads or 2013. Only problem was that link went to website for (and was created by) a "weight-loss retreat". I will not name the company as they have already received shit tons of free publicity form fat activists (unintentionally, but it happened) AND because if you go to their website you will be inundated with ads for their weight-loss programs everywhere you go on the web. Ask me how I know. A friend of mine pointed out that they had been to this "weight-loss retreat" as a teen and it was a bad and not body-positive as the web site claims. So one of the owners/directors chimed in on the thread and spends multiple posts trying to defend the places as HAES and claims they use the weight-loss angle just to get people in the door. WTF? Anyhow, I finally had to comment and wrote:

"I have been watching this conversation for several days and I have become increasingly disheartened. Here's the deal. I looked at the WEIGHT LOSS COMPANY (WLC) Website and on it says right there:

"What We Are: A Healthy Living Retreat for Sustainable Weight Loss
We’ve been helping women develop a healthy relationship with food, exercise and body image for 40 years. We’re about real women getting healthier and happier while losing weight and keeping it off through healthy living immersion."

So, no matter how many ways you dice it, WLC is selling the promise of weight loss. It says it right there in the "Who we are" section of the website. No amount of HAES end-running can circumvent the fact that you (company director) are taking women's money largely based on the promise that they will lose weight. You know, and I know, and all of us reading here know, that this is the big hook...the big promise...the weight loss. If it was TRULY about engaging in physical activity and building self-esteem, eating disorder recovery etc., then there would be no promise of weight-loss. But I strongly suspect that you know that won't sell as well.

I am also EXTREMELY skeptical of any treatment program for eating disorders which has, as one of its foci, weight loss. I just do not see how that is sound practice.

Seeing this discussion and increasingly weird justifications for how your diet institution is not really a diet institution is just really, really distressing. On your website all of the "Success Stories" include how much weight those people lost. Clearly these people are walking away from WLC *still believing* that their weight loss is a salient "success" in their life. And, WLC is using their weight-loss information in your marketing materials, which seems to me like WLC is exploiting these women's happiness/pride around their weight-loss to sell more spots at your "retreat" all while claiming that weight-loss is not important. That is some circular logic right there, and the weight-loss promise is not something that his fat activist is willing to ignore."

So, company owner person responded that hey, that's just their marketing...they are really into HAES and not into the weight-loss numbers. Again, WTF?

So I responded

"Well, COMPANY OWNER PERSON, if your organization markets itself as a weight-loss enterprise then it is not HAES in my book. End of story. Also, because I went to the website I am now getting ads for WLC EVERYWHERE I go on the web, which means WLC is paying to market extensively on the web. ( Note to original poster, this is also why I was upset about the link here--anyone who links it is now getting weight-loss ads for WLC which I totally know you did not intend, but it is happening.) So, yeah, I am now getting ads that *clearly say* "weight-loss retreat" in them for WLC at the top or on the side of web pages I visit. That is some pernicious shit right there. Whether or not you believe your program is HAES, simply by visiting your website I am now being subjected to weight-loss ads for your organization. Gross.

Also, I believe that weight-loss ads are a type of poison and I think it is super-gross that WLC is putting them out there all over the place all the while you are claiming it is HAES-oriented program. I invite you to consider the harm that WLC is causing simply by putting weight-loss ads out there. Please consider how people who never go to WLC are still affected negatively by your website and all its weight-loss promotion and your weight-loss oriented ads all over the web. How many people decide they should diet again based on seeing your propaganda? Do you really think your marketing *only* serves to get people in the door of your resort? Your marketing feeds the larger diet industry and in more personal terms is certainly fucking with the heads of plenty of people out there by telling them that yes, they should consider losing weight, again. Also, your clients will still see all this weight-loss stuff in your marketing, so how can they *possibly* believe in a true HAES model? There is nothing weight-neutral about WLC.

I will close by saying that I find organizations that sell promises of weight loss while claiming to be HAES-focused extremely problematic and WLC is no exception. You cannot separate the experience of WLC from its marketing because the way an organization markets itself and manages its brand is VERY MUCH part of the organization and it very much influences everyone's experience of the organization, from staff, clients, and the general public."

Just putting that all here because this shit is important and deconstructing the diet-that-is-not-a-diet bullshit is super important if we are ever going to climb out of this diet mentality swamp.