Brand Thin

It might be easy for me to justify to you spending $5 on a name-brand window cleaner versus a $1 generic one. But what happens when you can't justify your $100,000 body?

I'd like to preface this by stating that I am not a lawyer, not a psychologist, not a sociologist, and not a marketeer.

We live in a society that judges by appearance. I question how much of it is internally driven and how much of it is societal, but it's the fact of the matter. Marketing thrives on this: the way you look, what you wear, what clothing you buy... all of it is "important". My $165 Burberry shirt is better than your $10 Costco one because I paid more for it. My $56,000 Hummer H2 is better than your $5k 1992 Ford Escort.

That mentality plays into bodies, too. There are people who invest thousands of dollars into their bodies. They might do it in a very conspicuous way via plastic surgery and flaunt what they bought. Or they might choose the path that millions do, and buy Diet Product X, and foolishly invest time and money into it, and then move on to Diet Product Y when necessary. The goal here seems to be, "My $100,000 body is better than your $1,000 body." There is an issue, however, when fat comes into play. Some fat people have dieted all their lives. Some have dieted half their lives. Some haven't dieted at all.

But it's not outwardly visible, is it, unless there is a defined "before" and "after" point? And that's oft defined as being able to fit into some sort of byproduct of our biased society: a seat with arms at a restaurant. A size 4. A 36" waist. An L instead of an XXXL.

So in that regard it seems that on the purely financial level, investing in dieting is much like throwing one's money away. It's a bad investment with not much return, if any. On the emotional front there can be a sense of empowerment and happiness; money's involved, though, so it is temporary and not permanent. This ties into the idea of buying one's body, as well: if I spent $40,000 on diet pills and crap during my lifetime, I'd better be able to show it. Flaunt it. So that people can realize what I am, and judge me in a positive manner. I'm powerful because I spent more on my body than you ever could.

But not everyone has $40,000 or $50,000 or $100,000 or even $100 to blow on diet pills and/or plastic surgery. That means that people who don't have the means often can't afford to pay to fit into the thin ideal of society. However, by giving in to the diet industry, one who chooses a diet mentality is actually doing both: fitting in by losing weight, and going away by possibly pretending to not be poor. The social stigma around being poor is that great.

And why pay to play? Because you're told terrible things if you don't. You'll die sooner. You'll get paid less (ironic!) You'll never find someone to love. You'll have health problems. You won't be as well educated. You're told this all the time, pretty much. And coincidentally, there are "cures" for all of this... that cost more money.

And there's a lot of marketing dollars behind that message, the "thin is good" message. There's been a shift lately, and it's been pointing towards "health is good" - but let's be honest here: when "health initiatives" come down from higher powers, they're lightly cloaked anti-fat measures. "Health" is the new codeword for "thin". Thinness is rebranding itself into something that will, "They" hope, appeal to a bigger market. And that's targeting us!

We're the bigger market, because we're discussing and promoting Health At Every Size. "Oh sure," Brand Thin says, "We can do that too. Live your life at any size! And be sexy at any size! And lose weight... at any size!" But really, as Pattie Thomas said at FATA last weekend, it's a co-opting of language; I'm extending that statement by saying that the goal is to continue to market the thin ideal as the Healthy Ideal.

Brand Thin is now Brand Health. Look in the archives. Look around you. Fat has been positioned as the unhealthy brand using soft language and taking what we're fighting for. We need to rebrand ourselves and take back our language. We can partake in Brand Health, too. We can partake in all of the supposed benefits of the $100,000 body - without needing to invest dollar one in what they're selling us.

In the end, what we're fighting against is a money-lined marketing campaign.