Mmmhmmm.
A few weeks ago, a lovely dietitian came to speak to one of my classes about what she does in the field. I admire her work and enjoyed hearing her presentation. One thing that caught me off guard, however, were these horribly sexist pamphlets on teen weight she passed around.
Featuring socialized gender at its finest, the pamphlets come in pink for girls and blue for boys. The messages on each perpetuate the horrendously false belief that weight management should be about strength for men and about looking good for women.
The pamphlet design makes it abundantly clear that these weren’t printed any time post-1995, but why do they still exist? Are we not over this yet?
Yes, weight management can be about strength, and yes, it can also be about looking good. But I know plenty of men who want to look good and plenty of women who want to be strong (and vice versa). In the end, shouldn’t it all be about being healthy? Living a long time? Caring for the vehicle that will carry us through life with just half the care and attention (and money) we put into the vehicles that carry us around town?
I certainly think so.
Sweet Tater Blog 
Wow, I’m just in shock. What a horrible message to be sending to teens and to future dieticians! Did you at all speak with the woman who visited, maybe to suggest an alternative way of presenting that information?
Glad you’re thinking critically at what’s being handed to you– many people don’t.
Barbie agrees: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO0cvqT1tAE
Oh god. That is so awful!
GENDER!!!!!!
That is crazy.
How horrible. That makes me so angry that health education materials like that were even allowed to be printed.
sadly this does not surprise me. there is such a disconnect between education and health and there seems to be less and less interest/money to put towards this. the gender targeting is very interesting as well i still think its kinda nuts to separate girls and boys for the “talk” about “maturing”
Wow. It’s hard to believe that something like that still exists. I remember wanting so badly to know what the boys went to the gym to talk about while we watched that lame movie on our changing bodies. But that was 30 or so years ago.