Fat Shaming In School Locker Room

In addition to empowering messages to inspire health, one school has taken to fat shaming young teenage girls in their changing rooms.

Having struggled with an eating disorder for most of my life, I try to look for positive ways to teach young women how to stay healthy and take care of their bodies. The recent trend of fat shaming vs. thin shaming is taking this conversation to a whole new level. Where does the line end?

Recently, when visiting a school for years 5-7 in London, I noticed something truly disturbing. In addition to several motivation posters encouraging young women to exercise and be healthy, the school had decided to hang up two posters of fast food, snacks and a sports drink highlighting the number of calories and what you need to do to burn off the calories from eating each item.

Now at first glance this may not seem like a problem, but when you are a 14 year old girl getting changed in a girls locker room, the last thing you need hanging over you is a shaming poster. It is a vulnerable enough place to be at that age without the negative stimulus provided by the school. The images are also very misleading, a pile of donuts with a calorie count of 452 without stating how many donuts, saying it takes 4 hr and 3 min to burn off a burger and fries without stating what assumptions are made, and a common sport drink included in a gym locker room (I assume anyone drinking that would feel shamed).

Why not replace a shaming poster, with positive enforcers? Replace the fast food with reminders of what good food can do? Find healthy alternatives and highlight those to inspire young women instead of making them feel bad.

I understand the intention behind the poster, but the execution made me feel absolutely disgusted. Instead of promoting positive images, we are striking fear and shame into young women which is more likely to lead them to throw up or skip eating rather than direct them to healthier alternatives.

Promoting positive body image and inspiring them to live a healthy life is what society should strive for. Not this negativity and shaming which we have recently succumb to.