"So, there is a new show coming out on WEtv called "Mama June: From Not to Hot". Full disclosure I have not seen this show as it hasn"t been released yet and I probably won"t see it because it seems to be glorifying everything that I am against. I"ve been wanting to write this blog post since I saw the very first commercial, it irked me that bad.
Background in case you don"t know: Mama June is the mother of Honey Boo-Boo, a little girl who used to perform in pageants and had her own reality show. Mama June now has her own reality show based solely on the transformation of her body and the new life she plans to have due to it.
From Not to Hotwhat the f***?!?! Thank you producers of this show for reinforcing the societal ideal that women"s bodies not fitting an unrealistic portrayal of beauty is a "not", nothing, unimportant, but thin bodies with big boobs, apparently that"s hot. That"s just a whole bunch of crap. What does this message say to the millions of girls and women out there living in their average sized bodies? Are they "not"s" too? Should they undergo life-threatening surgery in order to be "hot".
And what did Mama June have to do to her body to undergo this "not" to "hot" transformation? Well, according to the commercial: weight loss surgery, liquid diets, tummy tucks, strength training, breast implants, high intensity training, physical therapy, laser teeth whitening, porcelain veneers, and a makeover. If you want to see the commercial watch it here.
Look, here is the problem with this type of show: it is just another way to pound into societies heads that women in larger bodies are somehow unworthy and should not only want to change the way they look, but they should go through extreme and life-threatening measures to do so. It reinforces that beauty only looks one way, but the construct of beauty is not so confined. Beauty does in fact exist in all shapes, sizes, colors, genders, orientations. ALL SHAPES AND SIZES!
Unrealistic beauty ideals lead millions of women every year into dieting, even though the statistics behind dieting show that there is no diet out there proven effective in keeping off the weight after 5 years AND most dieters end up gaining back more weight from where they started. The pressure to be thin leads millions into weight loss surgery, which can result in death or lifelong complications. The cultural idea that "thin = good" and "fat = bad" attributes to the high incidence of eating disorders. Did you know (statistics obtained from NEDA):"
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