Lola Berry is a nutritionist and author from Australia. According to her website:
Once you see Lola Berry, you’ll remember both her and her message! She has a whole heap of fresh ideas and a talent for presenting them in a way that inspires people to actually use them to better their everyday lives.
Her “inspiration” for the new year is a “four week weight loss plan” (seriously, four weeks?) that, in her infinite wisdom she chose to call “STOP BEING A FAT BITCH!” (Capitalization strategy and exclamation mark are her own.) From her Facebook:
Available at [url that I will never publish] #stopbeingafatbitch is something I used to say to myself over and over … this program is not just about the food plan and recipes, it’s also about changing your mindset to achieve your health goals! Can’t wait to hear what you think!!”
What do I think? I think this is the biggest pile of crap I’ve ever heard. Or at least I thought that until I saw the bigger pile of crap that was her response to the overwhelming number of people (including psychologists, eating disorder specialists, doctors, and human beings who are able to grasp why fat shaming is not ok) who told her how absolutely messed up this is. Her response:
The whole point of the title is to display how bad self talk IS and the importance of a positive mindset and self love.
And if you believe that, she’s got this bridge for sale. Let’s get past what I think is the complete lack of plausibility of this explanation and discuss it as if it were true:
First of all, when you suggest that calling ourselves fat is “bad self talk” you are saying that it’s bad to be fat. That’s a problem since many people are fat, whether we choose to call ourselves that or not. When you suggest that accurately describing my appearance/body composition constitutes negative self-talk, you are fat-shaming and that neither inspires me, nor does it better my everyday life.
When you confuse behaviors with body size you are buying into and reinforcing appearance-based stereotypes. There is a word for people who that, it’s not a good word, it’s not a word I think you want to be.
Bitch is another reclaiming term. Women don’t have to like it, use it, or agree with its reclamation, but a woman using it in combination with fat to describe someone who doesn’t follow her (four week?!) weight loss plan is certainly not uplifting anyone as far as I’m concerned.
Thinking about justifying this, or telling me that it’s not that big a deal or that I’m over-sensitive? Feel free to head on over to this post.
Lola continues:
Thank you for your honest feedback my intention isn’t to offend anybody my intention is to make a positive change.
If this were an attempt at melted crayon art, it would get a million hits on Pinterest Fail.
“I’m really sorry the name of the eating plan has upset lots of people, that’s not my intention at all,” she wrote.
Lola apparently suffers from the heartbreak of NAS (Non-Apology Syndrome.) Let’s try that again with the bullshit filter turned on: “I fucked up and I’m sorry. I can’t believe I didn’t realize how offensive that was, I’ll do better in the future, thanks to everyone who did me the courtesy of taking time time out of their life to help educate me.” There, fixed it.
“The content is all about changing your mindset to achieve your health goals. So, I would love you guys to name it. What would you like it to be called?”
I’d like to call it “Lola Learns to Apologize, Understand Research About Weight Loss, Focus on a Health at Every Size Approach, and Stop Fat-Shaming Forever” but I’ll admit that lacks pith. I will say that she accomplished one thing from her stated goals – I’ll definitely remember Lola and her message. And from now on, every time someone calls me a FAT BITCH! for insisting that I get to exist in a fat body and be treated with basic human respect at the same time, I’ll feel a little bit of extra pride.
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