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Weighing Reality

Who's Really the Biggest Loser?
Weighing Reality
Article by Jacob Anderson ..., Illustrated by Ai Tatebayashi, appeared in issue Anniversary; published in 2005; filed under Broadcast; tagged beauty standards, body image, eating disorders, fat phobia, health, obesity, reality tv.

“Obesity,” declares Charlotte Cooper, author of 1998’s Fat and Proud: The Politics of Size, “is just a word used by people to medicalize fat.” Extra weight, once considered a genetic short straw, is increasingly characterized as a crisis threatening the physical, political, and moral health of our nation—even as large bodies are becoming increasingly visible in popular culture.

Period Pieces

The Last Taboo of Reality TV
Article by Wendy Weiner, appeared in issue Home & Away; published in 2005; filed under Broadcast; tagged menstruation, period, reality tv, survivor.

Detailed discussions of diarrhea (Survivor). On-camera vomiting (The Bachelor, The Biggest Loser). Extensive cosmetic surgery (The Swan). Endless hot-tub makeout sessions (take your pick). On reality tv, no subject is too personal to reveal, no biological function too intimate to discuss—except for one final taboo too terrible to mention: menstruation.