newbuzz...I have watched another season of The Biggest Loser. This is a TV reality game show where several overweight men and women are assembled and pitted against one another in an effort to lose weight. Each week, one or two contestants are sent home by their peers based on their amount of weight lost and whether or not they are a threat to other players. In the end, there is one winner; the one who loses the highest percentage of total body weight. The winner gets a cash prize of $250,000.00 and the chance to earn money doing product endorsements and becoming a spokesperson for the show. Each year, the contestants have become larger and the weight losses more dramatic. Now contestants are disappointed when they lose less than ten pounds per week. The two weight loss coaches from the show have become very popular outside of the show and now endorse many products associated with health and wellness. I have two opinions of this show and the weight loss movement it has sparked. Since I am overweight and under active, I know the benefits I would reap by changing my unhealthy habits. With that in mind, I cannot condemn a show that promotes healthy weight through healthy eating and exercise. However, I also realize that the show sets unrealistic standards that most people cannot attain without the aid of a television trainer. With this in mind, I am afraid that this show makes it easy for our culture to continue in the harsh treatment of overweight people in mainstream society. The idea is that these fat people are "less than" their thin counterparts. Once they lose weight, they are not only healthy, they are happy and beautiful, and more worthy. But is is not the fat that is to blame for ill health, unhappiness, or an unsightly appearance. Rather, it is the moral fiber of the individual. Over and over we watch as these obese actors from real life are broken down until they reveal their deepest secrets, which must then be obliterated by force of will and by making a choice to overcome them. Once purged of their shame, these second class citizens are transformed into beautiful swans, worthy of a place in modern society. I recognize a grain of truth here, but I am disconcerted by the disdain we are lulled into feeling for the original forms of the contestants. They are people after all, whether fat or thin. But we do not like them until they have made the choice to be thin. We watch their struggles, knowing that until they give in, until they break down, until they reveal their deepest sorrows, they are "less than" the rest of us. Weight loss and weight control are complicated issues in America today, and shows like this feed the need to criticize others so that we can feel better about our own imperfections. So we walk around measuring our worth by our looks, our weight, and who we feel "better than". I am aware of the absurdity of this kind of thinking, yet I cannot deny my own desire for perfect health, weight, and beauty. No doubt we would benefit from a follow up with these contestants a couple years after their big weight loss transformations. I would like to hear what they have to say about their happiness, both before, and after the weight loss. I would like to know if their happiness is measured in inches and pounds and whether or not it is an internal measurement, or one that society has imposed upon them.