DeepSummary
The podcast episode features an interview with journalist Virginia Sole-Smith, discussing her book 'Fat Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture' and the importance of changing the way we talk to kids about fat, weight, health, and self-worth. They discuss the concept of 'anti-fat bias' and how it is deeply ingrained in our culture, and the need to create a foundation of body acceptance for children.
Sole-Smith emphasizes the power of parents' language and modeling around their own bodies, and provides suggestions for how to respond when doctors, teachers, or others make comments about a child's weight or body size. She advocates for using the word 'fat' as a neutral descriptor, and helping children develop tools to interrogate diet culture messages.
They also explore the limitations of the 'body positivity' movement, and the need for systemic change in addition to personal body acceptance. Overall, the episode aims to equip parents with strategies to combat anti-fat bias and foster a healthy self-image in their children.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Combat ingrained societal anti-fat bias by modeling body acceptance and neutral language around weight and size for children.
- Use the word 'fat' as a neutral descriptor, not an insult, when discussing body size with children.
- Respond to external comments about a child's weight or body size by affirming trust in the child's body and challenging weight-based assumptions.
- Foster resilience in children by unconditionally loving and accepting their bodies, regardless of size.
- Recognize that body positivity and aesthetic self-love are unrealistic ideals; instead, focus on appreciating bodies for their functionality and inherent worth.
- Seek systemic change in addition to personal body acceptance to combat ingrained anti-fat bias in society.
- Have compassion for generational differences in ingrained societal messaging around weight and body image.
- Engage children in developmentally appropriate discussions about interrogating diet culture messages and beauty ideals.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “Your body is not a problem to fix.“ by Virginia Sole-Smith
- “I do think we have to work real, dig real deep and find compassion for the boomers because they decades upon decades of this messaging, they have. You know, it is not easy to be a boomer woman.“ by Virginia Sole-Smith
- “And what I want to do is reclaim the concept of fat talk. First of all, it's anti fat that we're using that as the research term. Like, we mean body berating. We mean body shame. It's. We're immediately saying, like, well, what is the bad body? It's the fat body. Right. So there's, like, some bias we need to untangle in the fact that that's being used as a research term and that that is even, like, a pop culture concept that people kind of get.“ by Virginia Sole-Smith
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Episode Information
Good Inside with Dr. Becky
Dr. Becky Kennedy
4/25/23