Latest / Chatting with Cara - The Relationship with Food Podcast / Those "fat memes" you keep sharing? They're not as harmless as you think.

Transcript

Those "fat memes" you keep sharing? They're not as harmless as you think. · Chatting with Cara - The Relationship with Food Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello, welcome to Chatting with Cara.
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  I'm Cara, your compassionate life coach, relationship with
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  food specialist, and I'm here to help you understand yourself a
• 0:09
  little bit better each week. However you found your way here
• 0:13
  today, I'm glad you're listening.
• 0:14
  Maybe your friend sent you this episode.
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  Maybe you've been with me from the start, or maybe you're just
• 0:19
  curious about doing things differently when it comes to
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  food, your body, and how you feel about yourself.
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  Whatever brought you here, you're in the right place.
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  Here's what I do on the show. I have honest, kind
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  conversations about the stuff that's actually holding you
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  back. Not the surface level stuff, the
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  deep stuff, the root causes. Because when you truly
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  understand why you think and feel the way you do, then
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  everything starts to change. It doesn't feel hard anymore, it
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  just feels natural. So get comfortable, make
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  yourself great, and let's have a proper chat about the things
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  that matter. This is chatting with Gava.
• 0:58
  Welcome to today's Chatting with Cara.
• 1:00
  Now, I normally hype up episodes.
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  I'm like, Oh my God, I've got such a great episode for you
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  today. It's going to transform how you
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  think and feel about food. But today's episode isn't like
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  that. Not saying it's not going to be
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  a good one, but it's not like that because today I'm just
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  bringing awareness to something, to something that you probably
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  think is actually quite harmless, but it's not.
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  So it's more of an interesting 1 today.
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  It's more of a, yeah, interesting one.
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  Be like, oh, I never thought of it like that type of podcast.
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  And I've been wanting to do this podcast for ages, to be honest,
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  but I've never really had the words to articulate it.
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  I still don't know if I've got the word to articulate it.
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  So Oslo. So just bear with me on this
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  one. But today's podcast I am talking
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  about, you know, on social media when you get like these little
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  silly little memes and I'm talking about them and how some
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  of them are really fat phobic. So I'm going to give you little
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  little taste of what I mean. So on people's stories, people
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  can like re share reels and they can share things that other
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  people have made and I don't know who's making them to be
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  honest, but some people are. Then it gets distributed to more
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  and more people. It's on their stories, more
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  people see it. So it's all becomes more
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  basically. Now I have had a little cert, I
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  went on TikTok for this, but it's on Instagram.
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  It's on Facebook too. I went on TikTok because he's
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  got a really good search function and I put in fat memes
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  and it's come up with loads of two months.
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  I was absolutely horrified and mortified when I was doing this.
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  I was like, oh God. But this is an example of what I
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  mean. Say there's a picture of a pool
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  and a pig doing a little dance in front of it accompanied with
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  the words live footage of me at the pool as my pre holiday diet
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  failed and now I'm fatter than before I started.
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  That's got 410 likes. Then another me which is a video
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  of someone talking into like a really big dessert me seconds I
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  have to complain how fat I am. Then I've got AI think this is
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  like a Guinea pig, a Guinea pig that's superimposed in a kitchen
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  and the wording is me on my way to the kitchen for a snack after
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  crying about being fat. Yep, I've got another one here
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  which is like a don't mean. It's like a chef type animated
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  thing and it goes when I'm already having a bad day and
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  then I remember I'm chubby too. And then what?
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  The other one I've got a person in a larger body who is riding a
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  duck type go Kart on a field with the word in me heading into
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  2006, still fat as fuck and mentally unstable.
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  And I think this one, I, I don't like these, but I think this one
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  might be my best because someone's actually put some F
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  into this one. You Barry from EastEnders, he
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  sang that someone's like did he sang that Donald Trump's
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  inauguration or something? And he's singing and that's been
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  super imposed onto a in someone's house and it's going
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  when you've been crying because you're fat and you need to lose
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  weight me on my way on. Let me start that again.
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  So I've got Barry EastEnders singing when you've been crying
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  because you're fat and you need to lose weight me on just eat,
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  ordering a Chinese. I haven't said that one, baby,
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  whatever. But these are the things I'm
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  talking about, these memes that I see on Instagram and there's a
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  couple of people who do it all the time and can we stop it,
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  Please? Can we stop it?
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  Because you might think, oh, Cara, these are just harmless.
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  They're a bit harmless, but there's not they're not because
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  this is diet culture. This is diet culture
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  infiltrating social media. Obviously it's rife, rife in
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  social media, but this is like in your face diet culture.
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  And you won't be like, Cara, what is diet culture?
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  So let's go back. Diet culture is a system of
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  beliefs that worships thinness and equates it to health and
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  model virtue it makes so basically if you're thinner you
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  are better person. It promotes weight loss as a way
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  of being like a higher status and it demonises ways of eating
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  whilst elevating others. And it oppresses people.
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  This is the one, this is the this is the key bit.
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  It oppresses people who don't match up to the Sposes picture
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  of health, which disproportionately effects
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  women, people in larger bodies, people of colour and people with
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  disabilities, damaging both mental and physical health.
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  That is a definition of diet culture.
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  At farm Chrissy Harrington, it was a certified intuitive eating
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  counsellor. That's the one that I use.
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  So diet culture is a really damaging thing and it's really
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  been normalised for so long. And now my job is to educate you
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  as saying, oh, look, these memes are diet culture and they're
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  damaging to people's mental and physical health so that if you
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  feel safe and comfortable to do so, you can call it out.
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  And then these memes get reduced.
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  And then we don't have this diet culture in our society on our
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  social media and it all gets reduced.
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  That is the plan. That's the plan.
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  Are you with me? Because I don't know about you
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  but I hate seeing these memes because and I'm just I'm in a or
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  say a straight sized body and I have pretty good body image how
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  I think I feel about my body. But if I was in a larger body
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  and I was seeing these things, especially if they're being
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  posted by someone in a smaller body than me, how could that
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  make me feel? It would make me feel pretty
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  rubbish. It would make me feel like my
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  body wasn't worthy, that I wasn't worthy, that I wasn't
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  good enough, that they were better than me.
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  There's a whole load of feelings that would come up.
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  I would also create fat phobic feelings.
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  So for the person who's receiving it, for the person
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  who's looking at it. But actually this isn't really
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  very funny. Like I don't find a pig dancing
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  in front of a pool saying that they're even fatter than when
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  they start their diet funny. I certainly don't.
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  But for the person receiving it, it's quite damaging.
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  It's stigmatising, fat phobic, and the less we can have in that
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  society the better to be on this.
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  But for the person who's reposting it, I want to be like,
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  are you OK, let's have a little chat about this because this is
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  sort of thing that's can become sort of like, oh, it's really
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  funny, but actually becomes more of like a self fulfilling
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  prophecy. You're like, oh, I just cry
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  because I'm really fat. And then I go in order to
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  Chinese and that sort of becomes normalised.
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  And it's like, well, no, actually, let's have a look at
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  your body image. Let's have a look at what's
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  going on so that you're crying. Let's have a look at what
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  emotions you're feeling so that we can put in some strategies to
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  help deal with those emotions. And then let's put in some tools
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  that you can use in that moment. Instead of of calling for a
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  Chinese, it becomes normalised. And it's like, no, actually it's
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  might be a bit funny. You might be a bit.
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  Yeah. Oh, yeah.
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  I've just come in. I'm really fat.
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  And then we're not in Chinese. But actually, if you're that
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  person that's really unhappy in their body, really unhappy that
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  it's making you cry, but you haven't got the emotional
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  awareness to deal with it, and therefore you go to your coping
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  strategy, which is using food to deal with that feeling, then we
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  need to break that pattern because that coping strategy
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  that you're using to to deal with that feeling of fatness is
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  not helping. It's a big circle and that's one
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  of the things that I do in my coaching, one to one coaching
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  sort of bread and butter stuff that I do that is break cycles,
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  breaking cycles. So some, well actually, yeah,
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  there's quite a lot of dysregulation there.
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  That dysregulation can be regulated.
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  You just need to know a few tools and strategies and that's
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  exactly what I do want to want coaching.
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  So yeah, it's normalised for the person who's posting it.
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  It's stigmatising for the person who's looking at it.
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  And I don't know about you, but I certainly don't want my
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  teenage, not teenage because she might, she might still be like
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  23. She's only 11, stepdaughter,
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  looking at things like this. I certainly don't want it, no.
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  So here's what you can do if you feel safe and comfortable to do
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  so. Call it out.
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  Call it out and say, oh, look, I don't really think this is
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  appropriate. It's not very nice.
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  And I always go back to the thing like, is it kind?
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  Is it kind? If it's not kind, don't post it.
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  Just open up conversations with someone who does it all the
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  time. I've got a few people who I see
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  and I'm like, oh, let's not do this, let's not do it.
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  You can also mute them. You can also block them.
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  You can also report them, especially on Instagram and
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  Facebook. But it's normally like a bit
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  nicer just to educate people and be like, oh, I feel like this is
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  a bit unkind. I feel like it's fat phobic.
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  I feel like if I was in a larger body and I was seeing this, I
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  wouldn't really like it. Yeah, you might get pushed back.
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  You might get a bit like being called woke.
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  But you know what? I'm fine being called woke.
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  I'd rather be called woke than damage someone's mental and
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  physical health all day long. But it does need some awareness
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  to bring into it. It does need some like, oh, you
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  know what? This isn't great.
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  This is diet culture and diet culture does does a job on women
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  to be honest. It keeps women obsessed with
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  their bodies, what they look like instead of focusing on
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  taking over the world. Because let's face it, we if we
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  took over the world, the world would be a better place.
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  So let's change the paradigm shift.
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  Let's go from diet culture. Let's just reduce it one single
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  meme at a time. So that's your job.
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  This podcast is just to bring some awareness to these things
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  that you probably might see every day.
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  And then if you feel comfortable to call it out and then educate
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  the person on the other end of it.
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  And then let's reduce that diet culture down.
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  Let's get it out of our society. Let's get it off our social
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  media. Let's break the generational
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  cycle for the next generation. That's your job.
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  That is today's podcast. If I've said anything and you're
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  like, oh, Carl, I've post these memes or you're like, Oh yeah, I
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  know someone who does that, then just send me some examples.
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  Like send them to me and I will talk you through like how in one
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  to one coaching, I will just break them down like that one.
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  Like, oh, I'm emotionally eating, I'm feeling fat.
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  And then I go and eat and order Chinese.
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  No, let's look at why you're feeling fat.
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  Let's look at your body image. Let's look if you're body
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  checking, let's look at what actual feelings you're feeling
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  because fat isn't a feeling. You're feeling something else.
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  What's going on for you with that situation?
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  Why is food your coping strategy?
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  What does a Chinese give you? How can we implement some other
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  healthier and more direct coping strategies that feel comfortable
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  to you, that regulate your motion that is in line with your
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  longer term goal? Let's have a look at that.
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  Yes, that's what I do in one tone caching.
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  So yeah, let's stop sharing the memes.
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  Let's stop liking the memes. Let's call the memes out.
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  And on that, go forth and educate.
• 14:28
  Thank you. Thank you so much for listening
• 14:32
  to me today. If something in this episode
• 14:34
  landed for you, if you've had that moment when you thought,
• 14:37
  oh, that's me, I want you to do something with it.
• 14:40
  Don't just let it sit there. Share this episode with someone
• 14:43
  who needs to hear it. Send the link, tell them you
• 14:46
  need to start listening to Chatting with Carla because this
• 14:49
  work spreads when we talk about it.
• 14:51
  And if you're ready to stop cycling for the same patterns
• 14:55
  and actually do the deep work, it changes everything.
• 14:58
  I'd love to work with you one to one book yourself for free, no
• 15:01
  obligation consultation. Call in the show notes.
• 15:05
  We'll chat about what's going on for you, where you want to go,
• 15:08
  and I'll give you the road map to get there.
• 15:10
  If you love the show, hit subscribe so new episodes drop
• 15:13
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• 15:15
  And please leave a review. It helps others find chatting
• 15:19
  with Karma and build this community.
• 15:22
  You can find me on Instagram and Facebook at Katrin Karma or
• 15:26
  e-mail me at Karma at Kojimukar K dot Ek.
• 15:31
  Until next time. Thanks team.