Much to my enjoyment I attended the 2011 WAM LA conference a few weeks ago. One of the presentations was by Brianne Widaman, President and Founder of Revolution of Real Women. I enjoyed her presentation immensely, and was inspired to write some strongly worded letters afterwards. One of Brianne’s main points is that consumerism’s focus on a thin body image is so overwhelming prominent that it is incredibly dangerous. It is not the individual products necessarily that cause the atmosphere of obsession with unnatural and unhealthy thinness, but it is the collective of all these products stacked on top of one another. She used the examples of Skinny Cow products, the new Pepsi ‘Skinny Can’ and thinkThin bars as just a few ways in which we are constantly bombarded with the skinny ideal.
Brianne mentioned that the thinkThin bars are carried at Trader Joe’s (which I confirmed at my local store), and being a huge supporter of TJs, I decided to write a letter and ask them to stop carrying the bars, in the name of positive body images. Before sending the letter however, I did some research on the thinkThin company, and thus encountered a huge conflict. While I do not like the name of the thinkThin bars, and completely understand that the name is contributing to a collective obsession with thinness, upon review of the website, I actually like a lot of the messages that the company puts forward.
So what do you do with a company that puts forth both damaging ideas about weight and body image and also really positive ones? On the front page of the thinkThin website is a short video clip of Lizanne Falsetto, CEO and founder, promoting not only her products, but positive ideas about food and nutrition. She uses the term weight wellness, which has completely different connotations than thinness, she promotes a positive interaction with food and she really emphasizes awareness of the kind of food we put in our bodies. The emphasis is on nutrition, not thinness, despite the ever looming notion of thinness that the name itself promotes. Thorough review of the rest of the site provides the same positive ideas of weight wellness and nutrition. thinkThin defines weight wellness as such:
This is the optimal weight range at which our bodies feel happy and healthy. This is not defined or dictated by aesthetic, shape, weight or tape measure — it is the emotional outcome of feeling good, energized, funny, confident, sexy and living a life filled with joy and laughter. Once we focus on being healthy and happy, our bodies will follow and align.
I posted this question on the Revolution of Real Women facebook page and tweeted some thoughts, wanting to engage in constructive dialogue on the intricacies of the negative body image that consumerism obsesses over, and what to do with companies that are both damaging and supportive. Unfortunately I didn’t receive any response at all. I’m not trying to be controversial or adversarial, I’m only trying to engage in a constructive conversation.
As a community of feminists, we cannot just ignore comments that we disagree with or ideas that might challenge our arguments. The way to effect change is to recognize different perspectives that we may not have seen before and have an open dialogue. Since I cannot engage the people at Revolution of Real Women, I ask you–What do we do with thinkThin and similar companies that are not strictly binary, but have both positive and negative messages?
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