Dear Dr. Oz,
You got off easy.
Oh sure: you had the scrutiny. The congressional hearing. The media circus.
But the world has already moved onto the next outrage, and I'm still getting spam for "miracle" drugs with your name on them in my junk mail folder.
The trouble is that, while it was not wrong for you to be called out on your "flowery" endorsements of snake oil super foods, this whole PR event* missed out on the truly insidious and damaging nature of your message.
A few weeks ago, in a regular supermarket in the suburbs, among the usual Enquirer-esque rags filled with celebrity exploits and wrong-doings and more than enough women's health magazines to keep a woman cycling in and out of diets until she disappears, we found a copy of For Women First magazine, which boasted a cover with your smarmy smile, hands folded humbly beneath the headline:
DR. OZ'S RX FOR BOTH KINDS OF UGLY FAT
Underneath that, the headline went on to call out our bulging bellies, jiggly hips and thighs — and, just in case those two kinds of "ugly fat" weren't enough, there's a bonus mention of our back fat!
Look, Dr. Oz, before you begin to protest too much, let's make something clear: I don't care if you sanctioned that cover or if your name was used without your permission.
The fact of the matter is that your herbs and veggie extracts and protein powders and diet plans are seen by women (and men) as a way to get healthy — if "healthy" means losing their "ugly fat."
Let me put it in terms that hopefully you can understand: Health and weight loss are exclusive terms. Not all health includes weight loss, and not all weight loss causes health.
When you position "body fat" (no matter how much you actually have) as the opposite of "health," you create a dialogue around our bodies that creates fear, shame, and self-loathing. Yes, we understand that "weight-related" illnesses are on the rise, but is "fat" the real problem here? Or is it food deserts and agricultural subsidies and ridiculous public policy that we should be fighting instead? Is the problem that people are fat or is the problem that people don't have the resources, time, or education to take care of their bodies? Additionally, while unhealthful behaviors may lead to fat, there are plenty of fat people in the world who are healthy and take great care of themselves, and they are suffering from brutal discrimination due in no small part to messages like yours.
Moreover, when you position "skinny" or "lean" as the expression of "health," you open the door for perfectly healthy, disease-free people to look in the mirror and see sickness written in the size of their thighs.
That false sense of sickness creates fear, as you well know, Dr. Oz. It plants the seed in peoples' minds that they need a cure for their disease. The drive that sends us to WebMD every time we get the sniffles is the same drive that keeps us watching your show week after week, hoping that our chronic fatigue, our cholesterol, and our size 10 jeans can all be cured by whatever supplement you just dragged out of a rainforest.
It's the fear that disempowers us, making us believe that we can't live healthily in our own bodies unless we lose weight by listening to someone like you.
Whether your sales pitches health discoveries are for profit or made purely out of your concern for our national health, the way that you are going about it is creating, or at least contributing, to a culture of people who feel entirely disempowered by their own bodies and would do anything to change them, if only they had the right pill or recently discovered Amazonian berry extract.
And here's the perhaps the crux of the whole argument: we know that you have to make a living. We all do. And you can't go on selling the same weight loss cure forever, right? You have to keep people coming back for more, don't you? And if you don't sell people weight loss, they won't have a reason to listen when you do tell them honestly about how to prevent heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, true?
False.
There are coaches and nutritionists and health professionals out in the real world who are not only making a living without selling weight loss, they are actively empowering their clients to live healthier, better, happier lives in their own bodies.
In fact, some of those coaches have something they'd like to say to you:
When we make health about weight instead of what it's really about — behaviors — we feed into a discriminatory system that ascribes social status to body size and denies the existence of body diversity altogether. Ironically, this miscommunication encourages unhealthful behaviors just as often as it does healthful ones, as so many of us will do whatever it takes, regardless of health, for the love, respect, and dignity we believe comes with a smaller body size. As a coach, I refuse to sell weight loss as a substitute for what people actually want: to love and care for themselves, and to receive that love and care from people around them
– Isabel Foxen Duke, Emotional Eating Expert, isabelfoxenduke.com
"Ugly fat"?! Really? Because we as a culture need more reasons for self-loathing & preoccupation with our bodies, right? You're not alone with these headlines, I get that. As a "Doctor" though, is your responsibility not to the PEOPLE versus the industries? Women look to you for their well being & health. Maybe take a moment to consider the women in YOUR life, and the messages you'd hope they would hear about their bodies, before you so carelessly assault the general public with body-shaming beliefs & headlines. America's women are looking to you Dr Oz. Don't abuse that privilege.
— Emily Jean, Certified Holistic Health Coach, yourEVOLvedLife.com
As a health and fitness professional and body positive advocate I wanted to express my concerns and disappointment as it appears self image and esteem has been disregarded as the foundation of physical and mental health by your recent cover of First for Women Magazine. Further, the health claims laid out by Dr. Oz are simply irresponsible and highly questionable.
Here are my concerns:
Did you know that on average women have 13 negative body thoughts per day and that a recent US study noted that out of one hundred 3-6 year old girls almost 50% of them are worried about being fat?
Did you also know that 91% of North American women would change something about their body and chronically diet to reach their "ideal"? These statistics are a result of the deafening messages that thin is in and the insane notion that anything else is ugly, as you put it. The weight loss and beauty industries are worth billions of dollars at the cost of women's esteem and dignity. I find it ironic and irresponsible that the magazine in question is called: "First for Women," which implies a dedication and platform for women. What part if any of your headlines support women?
Rather this magazine and Dr. Oz's claims push propaganda all in the name of profits by honing in on the man made insecurities of women designed for profits. Claims such as these are affecting our most impressionable minds as young as 3 years old. Lose UGLY fat from jiggling hips and thighs and bulging bellies, lift SAGGY breasts, HAPPY is within reach ... is a fucking outcry and doesn't support women in the least. Shame ON YOU.
Most health professionals want to be part of the solution not a contributor to the catastrophic problem, as long as publications and claims such as this exist, women don't stand a chance. "Profits First, Women Last" is much more suited.
— Louise Green, bodyexchange.ca
As a physician, Dr. Oz, I would hope that you can recognize that true health is not about aesthetics. True health includes mental and emotional well-being. And fat-shaming and body-shaming is not something that promotes mental or emotional well-being. Get real Dr. Oz, and let's talk about REAL HEALTH!
— Krystal Thompson, Yoga Instructor, thelusciouslife.ca
Stop burying women's worth in your hate-filled, body shaming, lower-than-low marketing. The real ugliness is in your disregard of ethical guidelines to prey on women's body image to make a buck. Using shame and name-calling to encourage "health" is making us all ill. Whole-body, whole-self, sustainable wellness comes from a sense of worth, of belonging, of connection and of personal agency. Women's essential beauty & authentic, deeply meaningful whole-self health cannot be bought and sold.
— Hilary Kinavey, MS, LPC, Co-founder Be Nourished, benourished.org
Most women who come to me for coaching aren't just deeply dissatisfied with their bodies but they flat out hate every single part of it. The feel that they're somehow inadequate because they can't get to that illusive size 6, 4 or 2 and are therefore never enough a.k.a. allowed to be happy and feel beautiful.
To say that the message that weight loss = happiness is destructive and ruins lives is an understatement. We've got to stop selling the lie that being skinny is healthy and achievable for everyone and that therefore 98% of all women are unhealthy and should never have the right to love the skin they're in.
Let's be responsible and share the freakin' TRUTH about health, weight and beauty. Lives depend on it.
— Anne-Sophie Reinhardt, Body Image and Life Coach, annesophie.us
When I was recovering from my eating disorder, one of the most challenging ideas I had to face was the belief that thin equals healthy. Now, working with my clients, I come across the same obstacle: how can I convince them that weight is NOT an indicator of overall health when they read in magazines, are inundated with advertisements, and hear on TV from a doctor they trust that thin and beautiful is the way to happiness?
Please join us in teaching the next generation that, just as there is no miracle pill to make people thin and beautiful, there is no miracle body shape that can make a person happy and healthy.
— Kelly Boaz, Holistic Nutritionist, kellyboaz.com
Marketing weight loss solutions and quick fixes feeds the body shaming, low self-esteem and judgement that exists in our culture. This leads to stress, disordered eating and other health conditions. Pointing out appearance based flaws that need to be "fixed" in order to make a profit is unethical. It only perpetuates this idea that one's life will be perfect if we live up to an "ideal" appearance. Show the world that you can do better by promoting health and self-love.
— Summer Innanen, CNP BBA, summerinnanen.com
"The emotional drive behind weight loss efforts (and weight loss marketing!) is self-loathing. It means you hate your body enough to summon the willpower to change it, and it means you restrict, control, and punish yourself. Do you make it down to a smaller size? Statistically, it's not likely. What happens if you ever achieve that smaller size? The control, guilt, and self-loathing don't go away. The weight inevitably goes back on. What's the deal? Weight loss can't be the priority. It doesn't heal the body or the mind. Only health does. Only loving yourself enough to be loyal to a healthy diet does. Only accepting and forgiving yourself enough to move forward positively does. Not punishment, or discipline. But the good health you need to feel and live your best.
— Stefani Ruper, author, Sexy By Nature and paleoforwomen.com
The point here, Dr. Oz, is that you have a responsibility. As a leading public figure in the health sphere – whether rightly so or otherwise – you command a tremendous amount of attention from some of our nation's most vulnerable people: people who have participated in a culture of fear and sickness (and also "fatness" no matter how much body mass they actually have) for so long that they know no other way than to seek out the miracle doctors who will make them well (and thin!) again.
But this is your opportunity to empower those people to realize that they are the arbiters of their own wellness. They carry within themselves that immense power for healing, and sometimes that immense power to be well takes up a little more space than your mythical last-ten-pounds message would have us believe.
While I can guarantee that our eat-less-exercise-more-and-don't-forget-your-superfood society is never going to put you on trial for teaching people how to believe that the shape and the weight of their bodies are horrible diseases that must be cured, you have the chance now to be proactive and change the conversation.
For some reason, Dr. Oz, people look up to you. Why don't you start playing the role model you've been pretending to be?
With concern–and hope,
Kaila Prins, @MissSkinnyGenes
