Wednesday, December 23, 2009

"Fat is Beautiful"- a non-beautiful TV program

Yesterday they put on a new program on Italia1 (a Berlusconi owned station, whose only purpose is to objectify women, I think). It's called "Ciccia e' bella" (i.e.Fat is beautiful) and it's an absolutely disgusting thing, IMO.

The show claims to be able to raise fat people's self esteem without making them lose weight. It seems the only way your self esteem can grow is by taking nude photographs and having them put on a great bill-board in Milan.



Pratically, it goes like this:

1.Fat girl (but not really too fat, just not stick thin) talks about how much she hates herself and her body and how she has panic attacks when looking in the mirror.

2.Stick thin counselor tells her how much she loves her (despite the fact that they've just met) and tells her to place herself among a line of people ranging from a little-bit fat and obese. I imagine it mustn't feel very good to be the one at the end of the line, but anyway. Girl places herself at the end, counselor moves her to her right place (near the beginning) and girl gushes and says she can't believe it.

3.Photo of girl wearing only a bra and panties is placed on a billboard. Passing people are intervewed and asked what they think of her body, while she watches. Most say she is pretty, especially her breasts (tits, they say.) She's happy.

4.People she knows are interviewed and asked what they think if her. They all love her. She's surprised and pleased but says she doesn't care what people she knows think, because she just wants strangers to like her body.

5.Now she takes her clothes off and a photographer tells her what kind of expensive underwear she should put on to look sexy. She puts it on and he says it's sexy.


6.A nutritionist tells her how to eat

7.A beauty expert makes her hair barbie-blond and puts her make-up on etc. At the end she looks pretty much like everyone else on the show-uncreative and plastic-like

8.She models and feels great for having entered history. Because, I mean, what should one wish to be remembered for except looking pretty on a catwalk?

9..She takes a nude photoshoot which will be displayed in public and feels that now she is fully actualized.

10.She goes home and tells everyone how proud she is of having taken a nude shoot! Hooray, self-esteem gained!

5 comments:

  1. 3.Photo of girl wearing only a bra and panties is placed on a billboard. Passing people are interviewed and asked what they think of her body, while she watches. Most say she is pretty

    Ohh you know what that is don't you? Where you are is very important - Italy, there is a story behind it.

    Artists get to decide what constitute beauty, the next time you are in Florence, go to the Uffizi Gallery and look at the women in the renaissance master's paintings - hint they are not sticky.

    Life mimics art, the women of that era would try to look like the ones depicted in the paintings, kinda like how girls today mimic the ones they see in Vogue or Cosmo. What's depicted in art is very important, not that I'm comparing billboards or Vogue to Michelangelo and Raphael, but you take what you can get.

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  2. This sounds a lot like How To Look Good Naked. I've seen the UK and American versions, and the format seems to vary in how good it is depending on the presenter (hint:Gok Wan on UK version is more interesting than American-dude-whose-name-I-can't-remember). In the UK one though they miss 4, 5, 6 and 7. It has got more extreme though, I think the old series were better than the newer ones where they have to pose in a shop window naked (they got a photo that wasn't displayed in public). What is it with tv shows having to be more shocking each series?

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  3. The girls doesn't look fat. Some of them looks average, and some looks "big-boned" or "chubby".

    Perhaps they were trying to convey the idea that you don't have to be stick skinny to be naked... But I'm not sure what nudity has to do with self-esteem. Why not a normal photoshoot wearing nice clothing?

    The most annoying thing about these type of shows are the counselors, in my opinion... Act as if they know it all, or they're gods or goddesses. Ugh!

    Funny how they say the girls are beautiful, but end up hiring a nutritionist to tell them how to eat. Lol.

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  4. The women in the photo you showed are not fat... I've seen bigger women around my country. These women are voluptuous; not fat. Funny thing is: my Mum keeps telling me that I'm getting fat, but it's just my age catching up with me... I'm as thin as I'm gonna get and 36 years old; yet my older brother has a pot belly and he's 38! She never picks on him.

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  5. Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your post and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your posts.Thanks for all your great posts.



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