Obesity Group Slams Carson Kressley's 'How to Look Good Naked'
MeMe Roth and National Action Against Obesity blast Lifetime Network's "How to Look Good Naked" hosted by Carson Kressley and sponsored by Hearst's Redbook Magazine and Novartis' Keri Renewal Serum -- NAAO slams series for glorifying obesity and pandering to overweight female audience.
New York, NY (PRWEB) January 10, 2008
www. actionagainstobesity. com -- As America's overweight population is projected to reach 75 percent by 2015, and with more than half of women of child-bearing years overweight and at increased risk for infertility, pregnancy complications and delivering a child with birth defects, Anti-Obesity Advocate MeMe Roth and National Action Against Obesity blast Lifetime Network's "How to Look Good Naked" reality series, hosted by Carson Kressley.
The new Friday-night weekly series promotes itself as a salve to reduce women's self-loathing, featuring women critical of their own bodies. Drawing the ire of National Action Against Obesity is "How to Look Good Naked's" emphasis on "obesity as beautiful" and the dangerous denial of compromised health due to obesity.
"When we observe obesity, we're seeing the effects of self-abuse. To end self-loathing, one must stop self-induced abuse. It's a change in behavior, not a change in word choice -- like calling the evidence of abuse beautiful. It's no more logical to compliment the aesthetics of obesity than the beauty of cigarette-stained teeth or track marks on a junkie's arm," said NAAO President MeMe Roth. "A dangerous characteristic of obesity is denial. Multiple studies show that individuals are in denial about the extent of their own adiposity -- and most tragic -- parents are in denial about the degree of their own children's obesity."
In its first episode 32-year-old Layla is profiled, who feels she is 40 pounds overweight. She is told her current weight is both "natural" and "healthy." Layla then participates in a series of events set to improve her body image including confronting a three-way mirror, having her underwear-clad image projected onto a Santa Monica building for passers by to critique, and then having a make-over and posing for an in-the-buff photo shoot. "How to Look Good Naked" also has a complementary web site where you're asked to "find your body type" amid models showcasing different body types. A severely obese woman is classified as "hippy," and a slim woman is "boyish."
NAAO does not doubt the host's likeable, witty sincerity, yet questions where Carson Kressley will be in the event Layla suffers fertility problems, chronic disease and possibly premature death due to her obesity. Career-wise, at her weight, studies show Layla also can expect lesser pay than counterparts at a healthy weight.
NAAO's position is that Lifetime Networks, REDBOOK's Editor-in-Chief Stacy Morrison, (who appears in a promotional tie-in to advise on camouflaging extra weight), and show sponsor Keri Renewal Serum all have an opportunity to help rather than pander to its overweight, at-risk female audience. NAAO urges the series' producers to enlist experts to intervene on the nutrition, exercise and psychological issues contributing to their participants' health-threatening weight. '"How to Look Good Naked' is correct when it states, 'the average American woman is a size 14 or 16.' That shouldn't make us feel beautiful, but rather set off alarms," said Roth.
About NAAO
Look for the upcoming "Obesity Action Hero: America's Plan to Cut Obesity by 50%"
Through education, legislation and most importantly -- parental action -- National Action Against Obesity works independently and as a consultancy to reverse the obesity epidemic by eliminating 'fake foods' from the food supply, barring junk food from schools and eradicating Secondhand Obesity™, while encouraging exercise across all ages. MeMe Roth, president and founder of NAAO, is host and organizer of the Wedding Gown Challenge, where women enter into marriage at a healthy weight and maintain it for a lifetime. Ms. Roth has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, FOXNews' The O'Reilly Factor, Your World with Neil Cavuto, CBS's The Early Show, The New York Times, The LA Times, BusinessWeek, The New York Post, Playboy Magazine, 106.7 LiteFM, School Administrator, American School Board Journal, BigFatBlog, Nippon TV, The Associated Press and Health Magazine among others. Ms. Roth's agenda: "Let's finally recognize obesity as abuse -- abuse of our children, abuse of ourselves -- and together take action against it." www. actionagainstobesity. com
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