MalNutrisystem

[tikistitch]

It being January, they're running the NutriSystem ads again (along with the Weight Watchers ads, and special gym equipment-as-used-by-Chuck Norris ads).

One thing that occurs: when the ads feature men, the "success stories" go from huge to....well, not quite so huge. Really, there's at least one with a guy actually patting his somewhat-less-expansive beer gut.

When the ads feature women, however, they all go down from size 10* (!?!) to size....negative 2 or something. Really, they're all in bikinis. And the bikinis are nearly slipping off. Because none of them have hips any more.

We're not saying, OMG Nutrisystem sexizm DOOD!!! No doubt their marketing mandarins have studied this, and have figured out women and men respond to different things. And count us glad they don't show some of those male "afters" in bikinis. But, still.


There seems to be some disagreement about it, but according to a UCSF link on the web, the average dress size for an American woman is size 14, and a Christian Science Monitor link gave it as 12 or 14.

Comments

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

Sigh. Meanwhile, I need to lose, like, 100 pounds. :p And my goal is to be a size 18. No, really. I'd be happy with an 18. Sigh.

[mmymoon.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, so would I! I'm large framed, but you know, 16/18 is a nice size! You can like, attempt to fit into the very edge of the range of somewhat normal clothes.

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

That's exactly my goal--90% just to save myself hassle and have more than one store to shop at easily.

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

100 lbs is what we scientists term, "a lot." Though, you seem smart and reasonable, so I'll guess you're not aiming to get down to size 0.5 in 6 weeks by eating nothing but raw cashews and hibiscus tea. But I'd be remiss if I didn't warn you, go very slow, maybe talk to an actual nutritionist. I can't vouch for them personally, but I've had a number of friends praise Weight Watchers as being quite helpful and reasonable. I personally found it quite helpful for Mr. Tiki to be in on the madness, given that then we could jointly banish all the "naughty" foods from the house, and elbow each other awake when it's time to get out in the dark and mud and rain and run around the park.

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

Oh, I figure it'll take a really long time. :) Actually, the only people I know in person who've lost anything like that much weight have done kind of extreme things (like bicycling 10 miles a day every day), which I'm not really willing to do. I saw a nutritionist at Stanford a while back, and she felt pretty much the same as I did--my biggest problem is sitting on my butt all day long. So we'll see how the current exercise plan turns out.

Alternatively, I just go live in Asia for a year. :p Taipei was the only time I've ever lost weight, and it was so easy...

[spazzygirl19.livejournal.com]

There was an interesting 'For Better or Worse' comic this week (I think). It was going 'back in time' when John & Elly were fairly young parents. It alluded to men getting 'love handles' (a semi nice name), whereas women just get fat. :-P

[twotone]

I can understand the logic in wanting to show the most dramatic changes possible to appeal to their target audience... but it seems vaguely fraud-arrific to me when practically every slim-down diet plan ad has an asterisk to say 'Results are not typical. Weight loss may vary. Seriously, most healthy women will not go from 300 lbs to 100 lbs in 5 months.'

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

I can't help but think there should be some major Nanny State regulations on this one. I mean, it's not as if your floor wax didn't make your kitchen as shiny as the one on TV.

[nitasee.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've noticed all the NutriSystem and others ads. It hadn't occured to me before, but you're right about the sexism. I don't know why I hadn't realized it before, but you're right.

And the one with the woman who's gone back to a size 2 (!?!) after pregnancy? Pleeze. First of all, she's not a size two. She has boobies and a shape and more than two dimensions. Second, why is it so very desirable to be a size 2. Real women are not size 2. Stick fiigures with anorexia are size 2. "I love being a mom and I love having my body back." Really? Did some one kidnap your body and but an a strange one in its place?

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

I'm probably splitting hairs, but I wouldn't go so far as to accuse Nutrisystem itself of sexism (though I definitely think sexism is afoot somewhere up the line). It's a stupid company that want to make $$$$. What happened I think is they want to increase their market share, and they've noticed that it's mostly women who are already on diets, so they try to (1) convince some men to actually go on a diet, and (2) convince women who ARE NORMAL WEIGHT TO BEGIN WITH to go on a diet. It's kind of like what I think about those drug companies who suddenly find "new" uses for the same old drug - hey, even if you're not depressed, there's now Social Anxiety Disorder! Or, whatever.

Did some one kidnap your body and but an a strange one in its place?

*rotfl* "Help! Aliens have abducted my body!!" I'm gonna use that one the next time I gain a few pounds.

[nitasee.livejournal.com]

It's kind of like what I think about those drug companies who suddenly find "new" uses for the same old drug - hey, even if you're not depressed, there's now Social Anxiety Disorder! Or, whatever.

Yes, my pet peeve with the pharma racket! If they could find a way to do it, they'd be selling something for female erectile dysfunction! Just to make few more megabuck$.

[avalonjones.livejournal.com]

Wasn't Marilyn Monroe a size 16?

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

According to Snopes:

http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/mmdress.asp

It was probably a size 12, but close enough.

[avalonjones.livejournal.com]

Well, there you go. Thanks for the link!

I got pretty steamed a few years ago when I'd gone to a Target looking for clothes, and their "plus-size" department started at SIZE 10. Somehow that just seems a bit wrong. I know everybody's proportions are different and stuff, but the last time I fit into a size 10, I was about 12 years old and weighed about 95 lb...

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

Size 10 ain't what it used to be. It's partly messed up by what they call "vanity sizing" - you may have noticed that a particular size is more, shall we say, "generous" that it was several years ago? For some clothing manufacturers, what used to be an 8 is now a size 0!!

the last time I fit into a size 10, I was about 12 years old and weighed about 95 lb...

I saw an interesting doc on BBCA where they had a couple of normal-sized women try to get down to size 0. It ended up being horrible, and one of them started acting like she had an eating disorder! But one interesting fact I gleaned was that sizes like 0 and 2 (Bristish sizes - not sure what they are over here) are actually the size of the average LITTLE GIRL! "She's trying to slide into pants sized for a 5 year old." Kinda puts things in perspective.