No Fat Talk Week sparks controversy

Modeled after a similar initiative by a national sorority that does not have a chapter on campus, the goal of the campaign is to raise public awareness about body image problems. Fat Talk Free Week, organized by Delta Delta Delta sorority on 35 campuses, took place Oct. 18–22.

“The idea of the week is basically to ask people for one week to give up saying negative things about their bodies or other people’s bodies,” explained ECA co-president Julia Kearney ’11.

Peer advisers from ECA provided information, wristbands, pins and an opportunity to sign the No Fat Talk Week pledge at a table in Frist Campus Center. The peer advisers also went to various residential college dining halls during dinner.

Some students have expressed criticism toward the event, citing the obesity epidemic as a reason not to criticize any discussions of weight.

One such student, Brian Borden ’11, said that it is important for people to know the difference between an average weight and an unhealthy one.

Borden added that some people who “suffer from weight-related issues”, such as many members of his own family, would benefit from discussions about weight control and that refusing to talk about weight is counterproductive to the prevention of obesity-related diseases.

“I think that should be something that people are aware of even more so than this idea of body image,” Borden said. “When you look at the United States, the things that are killing people the most are issues related to ... being overweight, not being underweight.”

While the ECA recognize this concern, Kearney said body image is still an issue because “over 50 percent of Princeton students think they are overweight, [and] if you look around campus, [it] kind of makes you wonder what’s going on.”

In addition to those voicing substantive concerns, other opponents responded to campaign advertisements sent to campus group listservs by sending fat jokes and links to “inappropriate” YouTube videos and pictures, Kearney said. She explained that she was concerned about these negative e-mails “filling inboxes of people who might be at risk for an eating disorder.”

“The things that have been most bothersome to me and to the rest of the group is the criticism that has come from some responses that were purely negative and not really intellectually based,” Kearney said.

These responses, regardless of their level of appropriateness, brought added attention to the campaign.

“A lot of people thought that it was funny and it seems to have been a good way to start off the discussion about the whole issue and it really did,” Shim Reza ’11 said.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Reza responded to a Tower Club listserv message about the week with a joke comparing fat women to mopeds.

After other members berated him on the listserv, Reza sent a follow-up e-mail to club members: “No Fat Talk Week, in my impression, is more about political correctness and less about women. As someone who is definitely imprisonable, and probably punishable by death, for a politically incorrect opinion ... in my own country, I am sorry, but I actually do not support No Fat Talk Week, or any other initiative that promotes political correctness over open discourse. Tower should be a safe place for dissent too.”

Reza did not provide any Tower listerv e-mails to The Daily Princetonian.

Similar conversations took place on other eating club listservs.

And while some students did not agree with the goals of this event, they agreed that it contributed to campus dialogue.

“I think that it ended up being productive,” Reza noted. “No Fat Talk Week itself managed to spark a lot of discussion ... It had a really good unintended consequence.”