(Courtesy of Tri Delta)
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Earlier today, a friend of mine sent me a link to an online video promoting this week as “Fat Talk Free Week.” As described on the Web site, it is “an international, five-day public awareness effort to draw attention to body image issues and the damaging impact of the thin ideal on women in society.”
I watched the video and read the statistics, but nothing really stuck with me. In the end, I ultimately set it aside so that I could move onto other things. But as the video rolled around inside of my head, I began to think more about what was being represented, and instead of just seeing the words and hearing the numbers, I was able to link it to something I had actually seen not a week earlier.
I was sitting in a typical fast-food restaurant when I saw a young, college-aged male walk in with two female friends. While he proceeded to the counter to order a Greasy Combo #4 with extra cheese, his female friends hung back to look over the menu. I happened to be close enough to overhear the conversation.
“Do you want to split a salad with me?”
“Sure! But don’t get any dressing, I don’t need something that fattening.”
“Oh, believe me, me neither.”
And so they sat, the male enjoying his meal and the females “enjoying” their respective halves of a small cup of lettuce. Everyone seemed happy. However, when the male friend departed to use the restroom, a very interesting thing happened. Both girls exchanged a look with each other, and then bent over and literally attacked the male’s remaining French fries. One by one, the girls didn’t just eat them, or even consume them—they devoured them. Soon, the fries were all gone and the girls were quickly covering their tracks by throwing away all the trash. They met up with the male as he was exiting the restroom, and the trio left the restaurant.
At the time the experience puzzled me, but after having looked at the “Fat Talk Free Week” video I see it in a different light. The girls were so ashamed of their apparently forbidden desire for something other than the socially-approved cup of lettuce that they had to divulge themselves in secret. No one they knew was allowed to witness their transgression. After thinking it over, I can’t help but feel that it was not their desire for French fries that was unhealthy, but rather it was their attitude toward their body.
Delta Delta Delta has created this movement to help eliminate weight-based discussions in our conversation and instead make them health-based discussions. As a friend of someone who has struggled with an eating disorder for years, I have seen first-hand the amount of damage that unkind words can do. This program is something that a college town like Boulder absolutely needs. In a city where people often perceive a socially accepted thin body image as not just something to be desired but rather the norm, “Fat Talk Free Week” can become a powerful tool to help combat the problem.
I highly encourage you to visit www.EndFatTalk.org and see what the movement is all about.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Nathan Bellis at Nathan.bellis@colorado.edu.
