New York Magazine is framing this as Bloomberg going after fat people and trying to make New York skinnier, but I’ll posit that it’s a good idea — and it’s not about making people skinny. It’s about giving people access to physical activity even when they can’t afford a gym membership.
A good idea
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walkable streets and livable neighborhoods, yes. It’s better to walk to the corner store for a quart of milk than to nag yourself to drive to the gym.
I see it as a potential good idea. It all comes down to execution. Will pressure be placed on overweight people to participate? Will there also be initiatives to make it easier to get activity in other ways if people don’t have the time to participate?
On paper, this is an awesome idea, but I worry that it has the potential to turn into a fat-hating circus of fail if it’s handled poorly.
A nursing student worked hard, got good grades, paid her tuition–but she never graduated. The Sisters Without Mercy said she was too fat.
http://kmareka.com/2009/10/01/from-a-fat-old-nurse/
Bloomberg has the power to change the structural problems that lead to obesity and yet he keeps using this ‘blame-the-individual’ model to “combat” the problem.
Wtf is a personal trainer worth if I literally work so many hours (on top of school), just to barely pay my rent (forget eating healthy), that I don’t have time for one?
NinaG, while I agree that the personal trainer won’t change structural problems, won’t work for people with crazy schedules, and probably won’t make a dent in people’s health….I personally would love to have a personal trainer, and think there are probably at least 1600 people in New York who, like me, would also love it but couldn’t afford it. For them, Bloomberg’s program would be awesome. I’m in school and work, but I know I have an hour every day when I read blogs/cook food/take a shower/sleep 7 hours a day. I’d be willing to trade one of those things two or three days a week for the chance to have someone motivating me to exercise and making sure I’m on track.
If it’s awesome for a few people — and by New York City standards I understand sixteen hundred is a few — but reinforces fat-hatred and shaming and blaming individuals for structural problems it’s not really fixing anything is it?
But it doesn’t reinforce fat-hatred or blaming individuals for structural problems. Or at least, I’m not seeing where it does that. It doesn’t fix structural problems, but that isn’t the same as reinforcing them.
And yes, it would be great if Bloomberg could fix the structural problems that contribute to bad health in this city, but there is only so much a mayor is capable of doing. Do I wish he would do more? Yes. But when it comes to health initiatives, I think he’s actually done a pretty good job — banning trans fats, smoking in bars/restaurants, creating more public spaces for walking and exercise, etc. There’s always more that can be done, but offering personal trainers to low-income New Yorkers? That’s great!
The NYPost’s coverage is even more noxious, with the headline, “Mayor puts out fat-wah.”
Until the Mayor does a better job of communicating his intent in ways that challenge fatphobia rather than reinforce it, relatively small-scale programs like this make it that much harder to be fat in NYC.
When programs like this are publicized in this way, those who remain fat are maligned for failing to take advantage of programs that could “fix” them.
Yeah, I agree that the coverage is terrible. But… I mean, it’s The Post. I have a hard time blaming the Mayor for that newspaper being terrible. They’re terrible and hateful in their coverage of everything.
This program explicitly tells fat people they must be skinnier — we will pay someone to badger you into exercising! That by being fat they are unhealthy and they are harming society by being all fat and expensive and stuff. It depends on shaming attitudes and untrue things ‘everybody knows’ and yeah in referencing those structures uncritically and not challenging them they are reinforced. It’s great if you believe fat people are a plague and a menace. It’s less great if you don’t. How awesome is it when you’ve got a city-paid personal trainer telling you to exercise more and eat better and there’s no supermarket in your neighborhood? Is the city going to pay for cab fare for people to go shopping in nicer neighborhoods with better stores? Get people who only have hot plates access to kitchens?
This is a distraction. “Look we’re doing stuff.” The public health program that wasn’t public or healthy.
I agree that 1600 isn’t much in NY, but considering that there are people with gym memberships, and that 1600 is much more than 0, I also think this is a good thing. Certainly a step in the right direction at the very least.
“This program explicitly tells fat people they must be skinnier — we will pay someone to badger you into exercising! ”
Offering a free service is the same as badgering?
Maybe I’m missing something, but where does it say that? Offering free exercise classes =/ telling fat people they must be thinner.
Look, exercise is hard work. Being motivated to exercise is hard work. This program offers that extra motivation to a handful of people who want it / feel like they need it. It’s not an end-all be-all solution, but it’s better than nothing and it’s not harmful. I honestly get awfully tired of people complaining about every single program that helps people just because it doesn’t fix the entire problem, or because it’s a very small stop-gap. This is hardly the only thing that NYC is doing to improve the health of its residents. It’s a teeny tiny piece of the puzzle, but for the 1600 people who take advantage of it, it’s a great service.
I agree Jill, The only fat hatred I am seeing is from New York magazine. I do think is a fail of Bloomberg to say this is strictly about getting folks to exercise as opposed to targeting the fatties. But how on earth would they enforce that? Take people’s BMI before they register for a free class and then turn them down if they aren’t fat enough?
I honestly get awfully tired of shaming large groups of people based on bad science and prejudice. Y’all don’t want to see the harm in it I certainly cannot make you.
I just don’t see how offering free exercise programs is “shaming” large groups of people based on bad science and prejudice. Weight aside, exercise is generally good for people. A lot of people in NY don’t have access to exercise, and especially to personal training, which can help teach people the proper way to work out — i.e., how to not hurt your back or knees, how much weight you should be lifting, how to exercise without equipment, etc. Offering free, totally voluntary fitness programs is not fat-shaming.
Offering free programs because New York is fat and people need to lose weight is shaming. Offering them because exercise is healthy and often expensive and the city wants to provide more opportunity is not. Unfortunately, the city – and the original messaging – is concentrating on the former and trying to spin it as ‘yes, but, it’ll benefit some people’ doesn’t *change* that.
The individual benefits do not outweigh the problems inherent in the shaming – and, of course, the further promotion of the myth that fat = unhealthy. Yes, it could potentially be good for a few hundred people. But it’s an ugly message being sent out to a far greater number.
Offering free, totally voluntary fitness programs is not fat shaming – unless you’re doing it because you think they are too fat – in which case, it completely is.
Ok, so maybe that’s where I’m missing something — where does the city say they’re offering the program because they think people are too fat? That’s what New York Magazine says, but I can’t find where Bloomberg or the city said that.
From the NYC gov parks website:
“That benefit has assumed even greater importance in the face of a national epidemic of obesity and overweight from which New York City is not immune. In fact, two out of three adult New Yorkers are overweight and even our children are at risk. “
I hate Mayor Bloomberg, but I’ve got to admit that he cares about structural barriers to public health. He put his private fortune where his mouth is: Bloomberg endowed an entire public health school at Johns Hopkins (and had enough money left over to buy himself another term as mayor of New York, more’s the pity). He’s not a knee-jerk fat-hating bigot.
So does anyone know how you get in on this thing?
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