First Encounter

A few weeks ago I noticed an advertisement near the mailboxes at the apartment complex where I live. The ad was for personal training services. There were no indications of weight loss or dieting or anything like that. Our complex happens to have a few nice gym facilities on site, and it seems that this person was just taking advantage of their proximity to try to get people to sign up for some fitness sessions with her - fine since no one’s paying steep gym fees (they’re built into the rent, I guess).

Though uninterested in the personal training, I was curious what this person’s attitude was about fat people, and so I wrote to the email address on the flier asking as much. Her response was surprisingly good considering the rather bluntness and out of left-fieldness of my question.

She simply said that she sees them no differently than any other people and that we can all benefit from exercise.

Fine, I thought. That was pretty reasonable.

Second Encounter

However, yesterday, I was feeling frustrated and irritable and realized that a visit to the gym (something I’d been neglecting to do for an incredibly long time at this point) might be a good way to boost my mood and shake off my case of agitation. I’m glad to report that I went and did just that.

While I was there, though, I noticed a bunch of postcard size fliers on the table.

The front depicted a scale and what are clearly a woman’s feet (nails painted gives it away though certainly some men do paint their toenails). She’s not standing on the scale but for some reason the scale is registering 40 pounds. Must be broken . . .

Amidst the other information on the front of the flier, the tagline is, “Get a jump on your resolutions . . . “

Words like that on a flier for personal training could be construed as an inducement to resolve this year to exercise more - a reasonable goal, no doubt - but the inclusion of the scale obviously implies that the New Year’s goal should be not just exercise but weight loss.

So, despite not saying anything negative about being fat when I emailed her, this person’s true feelings about “excess” weight came through in her own advertisements. Was it so foolish of me to think that some trainer other than Andrew Duffy and Kelly Bliss could have had a neutral attitude towards fat people?

Do you think I should email her again? What should I say?

As an historian, Jay understands the degree to which our aesthetic judgments are shaped by our cultural surroundings, and he has studied and written about the importance of rights, respect and acceptance for all people. Jay is a member of the Association for Size Diversity and Health.