Epidemics of will, failures of self-esteem: Responding to fat bodies in The Biggest Loser and What Not to Wear

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Notes

 1. We use the word ‘fat’ in accordance with the practice of size acceptance advocates, as exemplified on the website of the National Association for the Advancement of Fat Acceptance (n.d.).

 2. The authors thank the rest of the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, research team: Christopher Finlay, Nicole Rodgers, and Riley Snorton. Also thanks are due to Adrienne Shaw and Alison Perelman for additional research support, and Tania Lewis and two anonymous reviewers for excellent suggestions for the manuscript.

 3. The British version of What Not to Wear is currently screened in 16 other countries, from Argentina to New Zealand.

 4. The number of contestants, location, and specifics of the competition in later seasons differ slightly from this original format.

 5. Surveys included questions about viewing habits, likes and dislikes, identifications with hosts and candidates, and picking up and passing on tips learnt from the shows, as well as general questions about reality shows and demographic information. Interview questions investigated these in more depth, including what viewers thought of the instruction offered in the show, whether they imagined participants would experience long-term change, and whether such changes were realistic aims for viewers. For complete survey and interview questions contact [email protected].

 6. Original broadcast date: 1 November 2005.

 7. Original broadcast date: 15 April 2005.

 8. Shows were coded for gender, race, apparent age, and occupation of each participant and host; routines of the makeover; ‘problems’ and ‘solutions’; what is a successful makeover, and so on. Press articles were coded for how candidates, hosts, and audiences were described; critiques and acceptance of the shows' themes; references to other types of shows including cosmetic surgery programmes, etc.

 9. Original broadcast date: 19 May 2006.

10. This might reflect in part the research method: because most of our interviewees were regular viewers, and most of this group identified themselves as fans of the shows in question, they were more likely to be sympathetic to the contestants and thus loath to express negative feelings about their bodies. Many respondents identified themselves as obese, meaning that they may be more likely to identify with the heavy candidates. Social norms also tend to preclude negative statements about obesity in such ‘polite’ speech as an interview, irrespective of the anonymity of pseudonyms – although there was little evidence of schadenfreude in the anonymous surveys either.

11. See, for example, US government guidelines on weight loss: http://www.fda.gov/opacom/lowlit/weightls.html.

12. We do not have statistics for the gender makeup of the actual audiences for the two shows, but in the case of our study more men responded to the online survey for The Biggest Loser (14%) than for What Not to Wear (9%), which may reflect an actual difference in their audiences.