Eating disorder experts are questioning an image on Lorna Jane’s Facebook of a young woman in exercise gear and with no body fat aside the wording: “Nothing tastes as good as fit feels”.
The original slogan is a motto supermodel Kate Moss said in an interview that she applies to herself : “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”.
“Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” is used as a source of ‘thinspiration’ for girls. It features prominently on pro-anorexia websites. The slogan is cited to strengthen the resolve of an eating disorders sufferer, to help them exercise ‘willpower’ in their quest for ultra-thinness. It is a slogan contributing to suffering and death.
But does substituting the word ‘fit’ for the word ‘skinny’ really make much difference?
Of course it’s good to be fit. I support and encourage fitness for girls. But the slightly edited slogan is still too reminiscent of the original, still too enmeshed in eating, and the taste of food, to be harmless. “Nothing tastes as good…” implies a sacrifice of the enjoyment of food for the sake of ‘fitness’ which in the minds of many girls is easily interchangeable with ‘skinniness’.
Sarah McMahon of BodyMatters Australasia says Lorna Jane has aligned itself with the pro-anorexia movement :
This is not new – a previous ‘inspirational’ Lorna Jane t.shirt stated “I earn my chocolate one step at a time”. These messages are blatantly irresponsible for any company, especially one which is part of the fitness industry, when we know that eating disorder populations are over- represented in women who exercise regularly. It sends the message that food must be “earnt” or “deserved”, which is a belief underlying the onset of eating disorders and the mechanism that maintains them.
This is a very intentional hijacking of this harmful phrase. It sends a double meaning as it capitalises on wording familiar to those who have been exposed to pro-ana material. It’s quite sickening for a company like this to be capitalising on diseased thought patterns.
However these messages aren’t just dangerous for a clinical population, they send the message to anyone that it is OK not to eat and contributes to our existing confusion about what “health” actually is.
As my Collective Shout colleague Nicole Jameson write on Lorna Jane’s FB page: “I guess ‘nothing feels as good as accepting your body and enjoying food’ isn’t going to sell much overpriced gym wear”.
Some other comments which perfectly capture what’s happening here:
Kristin Wright:
Jemima Strambini:
Lorna Jane, think again.
See also: ‘How thinspiration sites hurt us: recovering eating disorder teen speaks out’, MTR blog
‘New t.shirts encourage girls to starve themselves to death’, MTR blog
10 Responses
Possibly a poor choice of slogan by Lorna Jane, but slamming the fitness industry seems a misguided response.
Obesity, poor diet and a lack of exercise are far and away the more likely threat to young women’s physical and mental health. Anorexia, horrific as it is, gets a disproportionate amount of attention for its actual prevalence. Ironically, it’s the ‘sexy’ body image issue.
If you are genuinely concerned about young women’s health, then let’s see the same level of outrage directed at junk food campaigns.
By the way – as a former athlete, I can assure you the model in the LJ poster does not have “no body fat” – she’s trim, sure, but she looks strong, healthy and muscular, which for my money is a far healthier ideal than the atrophic flesh of most female models.
I will never, ever look like the girl in that photo, but I’ve spent my whole life believing that ‘more willpower’ would be my salvation – if I could just learn to eat less, deny myself more and exercise instead of eating, then everything would be fine and I would be “normal” – ie, thin. Every time I ate something with fat or sugar I believed I’d failed, and that I was overweight because I wasn’t strong enough, and hadn’t exercised enough to counter the food. Food and exercise have been linked in my head for so long, and seeing a slogan like that completely reinforces it. Yes, it uses the word ‘fit’, but the message is “deny yourself, ignore your body’s nutritional needs, have some willpower, exercise instead of eating ‘bad’ foods, and you will look like this.”
Inspiration that links denial of food with health or fitness IS dangerous. The fact that fitness is a good thing is completely irrelevant. That slogan is NOT about fitness; it’s about self-denial and willpower… and those are eating disorder trigger words.
Great piece MTR. I think people could easily brush this aside and say ‘Oh, it’s just about encouraging people to keep fit.’ However, once you really take a hard look at the sneaky marketing strategies behind this slogan, the beast begins to appear!
I was really sickened by Lorna Jane’s co-opting this phrase to push their product. I am so tired of watching people I love succumb to ‘body challenges’ and other programs in the name of ‘health’ and ‘fitness’ which do nothing but play on their insecurities and feed their body hatred. Overexercise is just as dangerous as undereating, and none of them are going to address the root cause of the problem – people who profit from making us dissatisfied with ourselves.
Sorry Lorna Jane, but I’ll be sticking to my old t-shirt and paint-splattered leggings when I get out to exercise. The only thing that feels better than getting out for a run, is doing it free of corporate slogans and hijacked lies!
Great article, I totally agree!
I am disgusted by LJ. I love their clothes however they should know better than this. It is not a matter of “slamming” the fitness industry, I dont think this blog does that at all. It is simply about responsible advertising.
@Sally the idea that the odd anorexic is a smaller price to pay is very pimitive. It is like saying “lets screen people for breast cancer using radation and if the odd person gets skin cancer from the treatment then it doesnt matter because breast cancer is a bigger problem”. Shame on you! The irony is not that anorexia is a “sexy” illness- but that the motto actually helps people who are fat lose weight!
Great article!
I am really sick of seeing skinniness being represented as good health. Good health is not limited to or even always apparent in those with a petite physique.
It is irresponsible of Lorna Jane to promote such a narrow ideal of fitness and attractiveness in their advertising- but paired with that slogan is unbelievable.
I preferred uplifting slogans and words on their clothes, like “Inspire” LJ tank. I have to say I feel a little uneasy wearing my LJ clothes to the gym after this.
@Sally – eating disorders are not restricted to anorexia and bulimia. People with eating disorders come in all shapes, sizes, ages and genders, and you can’t always tell just by looking. What they DO tend to have in common, though, is a belief that food (or certain foods) are ‘bad’ and their consumption must be controlled – either by avoiding them completely, by purging through vomiting or laxative abuse, or by ‘purging’ through excessive exercise. Exercise then becomes not about fitness or health but about a balancing act. “If I eat this, I am bad and must be punished by exercising for three hours to try to make up for it.” “If I exercise and burn X calories then I’m allowed to eat Y.” This ad feeds directly into that mentality.
Yes, poor diet, obesity and lack of exercise CAN BE health issues. The problem is when they are automatically linked together. The Lorna Jane ad implies that a single poor food choice automatically leads to poor fitness, and that poor fitness is always a result of dietary choices. Absolutely not true. Given their choice of photo, it also implies that overweight people cannot be fit. Again not true. It’s great to encourage people to eat a nutritious diet and to exercise to be healthy. It is NOT great to imply that denying yourself of food, or certain food groups, is the path to fitness, good health and slimness.