I was intrigued when I came across the online ad for the ShakeWeight exercise product (please note that this link is not an endorsement to buy this product - please don’t buy this; just enjoy the ridiculousness of the video). ShakeWeight is a jiggly dumbbell that helps, apparently, work out the upper arms and chest muscles. My skepticism about the product’s validity didn’t keep me from thinking that it could be fun or that it could work (after all, I like trying fun new ways to exercise), but when a thin woman in the advertisement happily announced that the ShakeWeight would make me more attractive - as if that has anything to do with health and fitness or more than personal preference - I got annoyed.

While watching the full video I was ticked off by the way the advertisement exploited the insecurities of women regarding their arms. With the tagline, “Now it’s your turn to go from flabby to fabulous,” the marketing team of ShakeWeight is clearly playing on the widespread fear that society will value someone less if she has flabby arms. After all, the sentence clearly juxtaposes flabby and fabulous as if flabby could not be fabulous! While the product itself could be a fun invention and a great way to exercise, I refuse to purchase a product or tool whose primary purpose is stated as fixing my “unattractive” arms.

First of all, the attractiveness of my arms does not depend on their flabbiness. Second, arms (just like people) come in all shapes and sizes. I always had more defined arms than thighs, though I never focused on working out my upper body. That is just the way I am (and my Mom and her Mom - we’re bigger bottom people). Third, arms become flabbier with age and there is little we can do about it. My Mother, who works out almost every day, has much flabbier arms than I do, though I don’t work out nearly as much as she. My Grandma has some seriously flabby arms (though, to be fair, she has not been exercising for a while), but I truly love how she is so cuddly and gives the best hugs with those lovely, flabby arms.

So many ads for ab machines and butt crunchers talk about how making our abs harder and our butts tighter and leaner will ultimately make us more desirable people. The problem with this, is that many people begin to evaluate and value themselves based on their success achieving these tighter and leaner results, with or without these products. Being self-conscious about these features of our bodies makes many of us more insecure about our appearances. In addition, these products often set us up for failure because ultimately, they’re not going to give us any of the features they claim - at least not long-term. In the promotions, it’s even claimed about ShakeWeight that results can be achieved almost immediately, with only a few minutes of product use per day. Shenanigans!

Do we really believe that the “real users” of these products portrayed on screen spend 6 minutes a day for a week with the get-fit-machine and develop the anatomic features shown on TV? Yet, if we don’t achieve the promised results (money-back guarantee, of course) we often begin to think that there is something wrong with us because the product is not working for us.

I encourage everyone to try new exercise products that seem fun and would help them find the joy in movement, but please don’t buy these items because you think they’ll make you “more” attractive. You’re beautiful the way you are.

Want to work on understanding that even more? Check out Golda’s blog, Soul Food: Nourishing the Inner You.