So Joy Nash's new video has gone down in a storm--a shit storm, that is.
Honestly, it's not hard to see why. (If you can't watch it, or if she's taken it down, it's a satiric ad for a 'weight-loss' product--sticks to make you vomit!)
I'm a fan of facing the dark parts of oneself by mocking them, but this is not that, and here's why:
It's not so much that Joy is making fun of BN*, it’s that she’s making BN seem like an extension of vanity. It’s not funny because it’s been done a million times. Like, seriously. A million times. I think that it’s getting strong reactions from those who, like I, deal with an ED, because this common-public-opinion-but-totally-WRONG idea that ED's are just about appearance is the number one thing that gets thrown in the faces of people with ED’s.
”You’re just doing this to be thin! If you just got over yourself, you would be able to stop!”
It's just because you want to be prettier, not because you have a serious mental disorder!
Supremely unhelpful.
Eating Disorders are mental disorders. They are OCD in a different form. They are not a weight-loss plan, nor a diet, nor a Totes-Not-A-Diet-Weight-Watchers-Totally-Not-A-Diet diet. And, in the same way that OCD is not about how many times I turn the light on and off, Eating Disorders are not about the weight, loss or gain thereof. I.e., they are the symptoms, not the actual problem.
This was disappointing to me because I feel that Joy is more original than this, and has no need to rely on old, un-true, and hurtful tropes to destabilize the Diet-Is-Best Establishment.
And that's where FA comes into this: Joy is a proponent of the Fat Acceptance movement. She is not a spokesperson for ED Recovery in any way. And she tells us exactly what her intent is:
PLEASE NOTE: My intention was definitely not to offend or hurt anyone suffering from an eating disorder. I was attempting to satirize the cavalier way that the weight loss industry will push disturbing and harmful "products" under the guise of promoting health.
I really apologize if I've missed the mark and offended you.
I'm definitely considering removing this.
The thing about intent, though, is that it's not an eraser. Just because you didn't mean it that way doesn't mean that it isn't, actually, that way.
The point she was making was that the diet industry does not give one tiny little mouse poop about the long-lasting physical damage its products do to people. And that's a great point! It's a super-valid, super-important point that needs to be made, over and over, louder and louder, until the FDA start actually giving a shit about fat people.
But this video showed BN behavior, not a ridiculous diet product. And that's where it falls down, for me.
On the plus side, Joy is actually listening to this response, instead of telling us to suck it up and get over ourselves. (Because she is AWESOME, as I've told you.) She is considering taking the video down.
*For the record, I don't think she ever would make of an ED on purpose. But it is possible to do these things without meaning to.
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