Who is really benefitting from this show?I’ve watched a couple of episodes of The Biggest Loser Families and find myself cringing at the extent of degradation and shaming. To see Sarah-Jayne begging through tears not to have to stand on the scales the first time, was harrowing. It was as though she was being led to a torture rack. To hear each contestant declare their name and weight – “Hi, I’m Meg, and I weigh *** kilos” – was like watching a forced confession. Each individual was reduced to the sum of their weight.
This description of last night’s episode, from The Australian’s TV section:
“The trainers aren’t happy with their weight gain after a week of unhealthy food, but they still get the last laugh with an early morning training session and a bio-age test for all the contestants.”
The last laugh? Revenge on the fatties? Trainers hurling abuse and insults? Being punished for a life history of poverty, poor nutrition, unemployment and lack of opportunity? Is this how we encourage public health in this country?
Sarah McMahon, my Collective Shout colleague and co-founder with Lydia Turner of BodyMatters Australasia, who has contributed thoughtful pieces on the MTR blog a number of times now, had this much-needed critique of The Biggest Loser published on 
ABC The Drum Unleashed yesterday.
Episode 1 of The Biggest Loser Australia 2011 debuted on Sunday night. The new series, targeting four family units, pitches being overweight as a problem experienced by individuals – indeed whole families – who are lazy, greedy, and slothful: in short, morally weak. They “do it to themselves”.
Trainers were given a week to “live in the shoes” of contestants. They are presented as barely surviving the experience of being drowned in gluttony and laziness.
OMG- and you have this every day?!?!… I can’t even look!!… I don’t know how you do it, I don’t know how you can physically eat this much food!! – Tiffiny, Trainer.
All that food… I was a little frightened; taken back… how many carbs can you have on one table? – Commando, Trainer.
Contestants were shown continually eating fatty and highly-processed foods. As this atypical eating behaviour was played up for the camera, the trainers (and probably viewers) reeled in disgust. Despite the participants revealing the hardships they believed contributed to their weight gain – such as childhood poverty, bullying and compromised family backgrounds. The take-home message is that, really, they have wreaked disaster upon themselves. Read more>>
See also: Diets and Our Demons by Judith Matz
and: ‘On being round’ from 
This Woman’s Work blog
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Demonising women who happen through no fault of their own to be unemployed and/or earning a meagre income by undertaking below the poverty line paid work is not new. In fact such demonisation of the so-called ‘poor classes’ was endemic during the latter part of the 19th century. Why? Because this conveniently ignores and hides which group were profiting at the expense of the so-called ‘lazy, slothful working classes’ and who might this group be? Why the powerful male industrialists who were profiting by employing women and men for meagre salaries and profiting by this industrialisation.
Then too there is the social factor because despite claims to the contrary rich men are becoming richer and more powerful whereas women and low income groups are becoming poorer.
This pseudo entertainment programme profits in two ways – firstly by exploiting women because it is predominantly women who supposedly have to monitor their weight in order to pass the male inspection gaze and secondly. Obvious is it not? The male-dominated media companies are profiting by exploiting disadvantaged women, their families and then men who are also poor.
Fact is socio-economic power continues to be held by a small number of white, powerful middle class men and this little gem has to be kept hidden because it is much easier for Josephine and Joe Public to blame women and their families who have less economic advantages than they do rather than placing blame where it belongs. With the greedy male-dominated exploitative media and the male politicians, multi-national corporate companies who all profit from paying below poverty level salaries and expecting their labour force to work even harder for less.
Given eating healthily is beyond the means of women who are economically disadvantaged can be ignored because as always it is women’s fault and subjecting these women to sadistic and callous cruelty shows western society is far from being the civilised civilisation it claims to be.
Here in the UK scapegoating is rife and our ‘wonderful’ (sic) conservative male-dominated government consistently blames unemployed women and men for not obtaining work. And yet at the same the powerful multi millionaire males who hold political power are cutting funding to public services and expecting women to ‘pick up the pieces’ by undertaking voluntary work. The fact these economic cuts will overwhelmingly affect women more than men is ignored.
Still this will mean more ‘entertainment’ programmes the media can create and fuel the ever increasing demand for viewing other women being demonised and treated as though they are objects not autonomous human beings. Women hating is endemic and this programme is just one of many similar ones being shown in the UK under the name of entertainment.
The outcome will be poorer health for the many unemployed women because the state benefits to which they just might be entitled to are in themselves not sufficient to maintain a person above the minimum poverty level. UK is swiftly becoming a nation of rich powerful men and poor disdvantaged women and yes unemployed women will doubtless be blamed for their poor health because it is always the individual who is responsible is it not and never the greedy, male capitalists who profit by exploiting women and maintaining male control over resources.
I’ve never really liked TBL, but was pretty shocked by the teaser ads for the current season. Sending the trainers in to live in the shoes of the contestants could have been an exercise in empathy and compassion, but no, it was just another way to ridicule and belittle people for being overweight. Oh, those poor trainers, being defiled by all that gluttony and sloth. Those pathetic fatties, living like that. They should be disgusted by themselves and we should be disgusted too… until they’re thinner. Then we can applaud and welcome them as more worthy members of society, deserving of being treated like human beings with emotions and lives worth valuing. People like that, they need to earn our respect, don’t they know?
Actually, I’ve been almost just as shocked by how many of my friends have been excited about the start of a new season. How many people I love who don’t see the cruelty of setting up other human beings as objects of revulsion. Who think that the contestants ‘knew what they were signing up for’ or ‘really need to learn how to be healthier’. Who don’t realise that their respect for others – and themselves – is being subtly eroded with every episode. So thanks MTR and Sarah for summing it up so succinctly; it’s been great to be able to circulate these articles.