Let’s talk a little bit about fat phobia and the media shall we? So the Super Bowl happened this weekend. I for one am not a huge football fan, but I did see some of the game and Lady Gaga’s halftime performance because it happened to be on while I was a captive audience getting my nails done. What really astonished me was what I saw on social media about her performance after the fact. No one was really talking about her actual performance (which I thought was pretty awesome by the way), but seemingly everyone was talking about one thing-her stomach. Yes this women just preformed at the Super Bowl (no small achievement), and what we are going to focus on is her stomach? Really?

What is the impact of comments like the ones that were made about Lady Gaga this weekend all over social media? First of all, it further reinforces the idea that women’s bodies are constantly up for critique. More importantly, it reinforces the idea that our bodies are the most important thing about us. It also fuels this obsession our culture currently has with dieting and weight loss in a big way because we are getting more narrow messages about what bodies should look like. I saw many people online essentially making statements to the effect of if this is what our culture has to say about someone living in a thinner body, what does that mean for those of us living in larger bodies? These poor people were essentially wondering how their body would be criticized if "even her body" (referring to Lady Gaga) wasn't ok, If we want to be a society that is free from eating disorders, where women can be viewed for who they are as whole people rather than just bodies, then we need to change the conversations we have around weight and bodies in a profound way. We need to shift the focus away from weight and appearance.

Questions about fat phobia or anything else food/body related? Feel free to get in touch!

Photo: Getty