This week, I reflect on “Making the Shift, a three-hour online session produced by Weight Watchers and hosted by Oprah, who discussed the current climate around weight and body image with celebrities, influencers, writers, a psychologist, a sociologist, and an endocrinologist. I found the discussions powerful and inspiring, so I wanted to share my insights.
My biggest takeaway is that the tide is changing. People’s perceptions of body types need to change, and it is changing. I don’t think it’s going to change 100%. People will still have their prejudices, as many still do, about race, sexual orientation, etc., and it’s been in our society for so long. I hope it will come to the point where we can authentically be who we are without having to worry about changing, so we just need to be a little bit braver, each of us.
The leadership of Weight Watchers has accepted that losing weight is about biology, not just about willpower. As more of us come together and have these conversations, we will be better able to decide what is right for us and work toward whatever that is. We will be in a stronger position to bring necessary changes to impact the perceptions of others, influence what’s acceptable in the media, bring laws and employment policies that ensure fair treatment, etc. If each of us is just a little bit braver to join together, to speak our minds, we will keep getting closer and closer.
Some main points from the video:
- Oprah discussed how what should have been one of the best moments of her life turned into a painful experience. On her first Tonight Show appearance in 1985, substitute host Joan Rivers focused on her weight and challenged that if Oprah would lose 15 pounds, she’d lose 5. Oprah was so embarrassed but felt shame, not anger, toward Rivers because deep down, she felt she deserved it for being overweight. Watch this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib4Fnb-FU_M. I know there were times when people treated me poorly, shamed me for my weight, etc., and I felt more shame than anger because I was the “bad” one.
- Body Acceptance Advocate Kate Sturino, author of Body Talk, met Weight Watchers CEO Sima Sistani. Sturino criticized Sistani for not apologizing on behalf of WW for “getting it wrong” that willpower was the only way to lose weight. Sistani noted, “As humans, we want to celebrate the success stories.” It appears that WW, which now offers weight loss drugs as part of its weight loss solution, is shifting the focus to being healthy, not just about losing weight, and that it’s about biology and not just willpower.
- Jen Hatmaker, “author, speaker, blogger, and television presenter,” spoke about how many of her “community” accused her of fat shaming when she posted a picture of her and friends on vacation celebrating that they worked together to get more physically fit. Picture below. View the original post: https://www.instagram.com/jenhatmaker/p/Cdb8NZTOB1n/?img_index=1
- Psychologist Dr. Rachel Goldman discussed how shame affects how we treat ourselves. We can slowly make shifts by unlearning negative perceptions and moving past the judgment of others, including doctors. We internalize what others say about ourselves. We need to focus on what we can control. We can’t control what people think or say, but we can control how we perceive it. Everyone has her own story. Everyone has her own body.
- Sociologist and author Tressie McMillian Cottom, who wrote about Oprah’s weight loss journey in her column in the New York Times, noted that when she saw Oprah on the special about the weight loss drugs, Oprah seemed freer and wanted that for herself. Like many of us, especially women of color and women with weight issues, she sees herself in Oprah and feels that if Oprah can achieve that, so can we. The main point is that to accept yourself is different than to love yourself. Oprah said, “It’s hard to love yourself when the world is constantly telling you that what you look like isn’t enough.”
She also discussed “the obesity penalty,” where research shows that women who are perceived to be overweight are more likely to make less money and less likely to get jobs and promotions. This is not the case for men! I wonder if this is for women who have tried as much to ask for raises and promotions or how much is because the women may be less likely to ask because of a lack of confidence. Either way, it’s just wrong! (In the video, I incorrectly said that McMillan Cottom is a psychiatrist.)
McMillian Cottom also discussed that we not only want to feel better about ourselves but we also want other people to treat us better. To do that, we need to treat other people better. This will happen if we focus on creating opportunities for people to access the care that they need, to make it illegal to discriminate because of weight, etc.
- Businesswoman and author Jamie Kern Lima, whose book Worthy I read recently, talked about how to improve our mindsets so that we feel worthy of having what we want, the body we want, to be treated the way we want. Be mindful of the words you use to yourself and how you refer to your body. Her final words, “Don’t wait on your weight.” Don’t hold off doing things you want to do until you lose weight.
- Actress Rebel Wilson discussed how her acting career benefited from her being overweight because she was unique. Many around her advised her that losing weight could ruin her career. Her wake-up call was a doctor telling her that being overweight could hinder her chance to have a baby. She decided she wanted to be healthier and “to be released from the prison being told who you are. My spirit is so much bigger than that.”
Wilson’s book “Rebel Rising” sounds very interesting. Let me know if we should start a book club and read it and some others mentioned in the video!
- Actress Busy Phillips discussed how she sees society’s perception of women’s weight and body types as another way of controlling women and their bodies. She told of reading a woman’s story about looking back at pictures of her children, but there were no pictures with her. I have the same issue, and Phillips realized that she did. She called on us to “get in the picture!” She noted that in her career, she was often told to lose weight and was dropped from a show due to the weight gained when she had a baby.
- Ania M. Jastreboff, MD, PhD, of Yale, is an adult and pediatric endocrinologist with expertise in obesity medicine and weight management. She noted that the body is “super smart” and stores energy. Food noise is the biological function that tells your brain when it needs energy. Our bodies are different, so how food noise works for us is different for each of us. Jastreboff explained how the U.S.’s obesigenic environment, with lots of processed foods and other unhealthy stresses and habits, tends to cause obesity due to the poor performance of the hormones in our bodies that tell the brain when we need energy or food. Weight loss drugs treat this, but we must pair them with healthy food, exercise, and stress reduction. “It’s about biology, not willpower. It’s not about weight loss. It’s about improving our health.”
I hope that this information, my video (if you watched it), will inspire you to be a little braver and take action to find what you want of yourself and your body, what’s right for you, and connect with others to make the world a better place. See the suggested action below, which was discussed during the show.
Take Action!
🌸 Every morning for the next 30 days, when you wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and offer a kind word to yourself about how you are remarkable. This is how we will change the world, one kind word at a time.
🌸 Let me know if you are joining me on this journey and how I can support you better through Zoom calls, a Facebook Group, a book club, etc. Email me at admin@raisingyourvoice.com!
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