WEIGHT-LOSS CAMP

by lisa, Apr 10, 2009, at 02:08 am

I know nothing about “fat camps,” but I have (rather thoughtlessly) simply assumed that they are oppressive places that punish and shame campers in support of a sizest status quo. But, after looking through Lauren Greenfield’s photographs of kids at a weight-loss camp in the Catskills, NY (below and here), I’ve started to think differently. The pictures don’t seem to be of oppressed beaten-down kids. Instead, they seem to be having a pretty good time. Greenfield’s captions suggest that these kids feel more comfortable at weight-loss camp than they do in their “real” life because they’re around other people that are, in this important way, just like them. Images show them enjoying things they say they can’t do outside of camp (e.g., wearing a swimsuit), practicing (heterosexual) romance, and learning stuff that is fun or useful (e.g., tae bo, nutrition).

As Gwen pointed out, my critique of weight-loss camps was based on the idea that fat-shaming was more intense at weight-loss camp than it was elsewhere. If you think about it much, this is obviously false. There is plenty of fat-shaming everywhere. At least at camp, kids can potentially achieve a sense of normalcy and some solidarity with one another. So, without suggesting that there is nothing at all problematic about weight-loss camps, these images complicate simple condemnations. (The last image may not be safe for work.)

Marissa, 15, Nicole, 16, Jessie, 14, and Marin, 14, some of the members of the popular clique, during the first week of weight-loss camp, Catskills, New York:

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Girls do Tae-Bo as part of a stringent exercise regime at Camp Shane, a weight-loss camp in Catskills, New York:

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Two teenagers dance together at Camp Shane, a weight-loss camp, Catskills, New York:

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The girls from the popular clique sit under the wall of nutrition rules during a nutrition class at weight-loss camp, Catskills, New York:

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Swimming period at Camp Shane, a weight-loss camp, Catskills, New York. Many kids love to swim at camp but will not swim or wear a bathing suit at home:

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Marin, 14, and Erika in their bunk before dinner at Camp Shane, Catskills, New York. Although many girls are self-conscious about their bodies at home, they become comfortable with themselves and each other at camp:

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Comments

naivemelodie 7:37 am on April 10, 2009 | # | Reply

When I scrolled down to the first two pictures I thought that someone must be joking… those young women are “fat’?? Now I feel fat-shamed!

And in the last picture, is that really an image that suggests comfort with oneself? The way that the young woman on the left is checking out her stomach… even if she’s happy with the results right now (which she may or may not be, it’s hard to tell from the photograph but it looks like she could be pushing on her flesh to make it flatter), is she going to have to obsess over her stomach for the rest of her life? Where is the comfort in that? Even if these kids aren’t being directly “shamed”, surely the message that they have to keep *constant vigilance* over their bodies is being strongly reinforced?
Seaneen 8:06 am on April 10, 2009 | # | Reply

Most of those girls are mildly overweight, not obese or fat.
- Mary McGuire 7:56 pm on November 22, 2009 | # | Reply
  
  Perhaps you have become so used to the fact that so many young people are over weight that you think that these kids are “mildly Over weight”. Only 30 years ago you would a found one in a hundred kids of these proportions.Remember they are in the prime of their lives. It doesn’t get any easier. The responsibility for this must lie with lazy parenting and probably a lack of compulsory exercise at school.
skipper 8:11 am on April 10, 2009 | # | Reply

I am really surprised that the body shaming message has reached a point where the girls in these pictures feel compelled to attend a weight loss camp as young teens. I believe that *no-one* should be forced to lose weight or attend a special camp, but I am so shocked that the imperative message now captures teens that I do not think are even fat.

I’m not sure is such a freeing space for normalcy, either. Notice how the popular clique are the thinnest, longest haired, white girls?
- james woods 10:44 pm on November 24, 2009 | # | Reply
  
  that is very ewwwwwwwwy love you xoxoxoxox
Ophelia 8:18 am on April 10, 2009 | # | Reply

That first picture struck me – even in this supportive fat camp, the popular girls are the ones that are the closest to the “ideal.” And the contrast obviously wasn’t intended, but look at the kids in the background – they’re heavier, wear less fashionable clothing, and the poor girl on the left got snapped making a grouchy face. Ow.
Courtney 8:34 am on April 10, 2009 | # | Reply

The commenters seem to have very different perspective than the original poster, and I have to say I am no different.

I would encourage everyone to take a look at the full photo essay, particularly the images that focus on children having their “before” pictures taken (Instruction: Do Not Smile) and the ones that show the focus on numbers–children being weighed, children having their body parts measured, children recording their “stats” by which they measure their success or failure.

Being fat, particularly as a teenager, is a tyranny of numbers. I don’t see how you look at a space that features measurements of body parts like calves and somehow think that because the kids are smiling, it’s not an oppressive environment.

Also, not sure if this was just a consequence of the time the photographer had in the camp, but based on the full array of pictures, the ratio of females to males at this camp appears to be about 10:1.
MR 9:09 am on April 10, 2009 | # | Reply

I’m in the minority of commenters, obviously, but those pictures kind of made me wish I could go to fat camp!

I can see how being surrounded by people with similar bodies, especially doing things like exercising, could undo a lot of damage. As a chubby child I was surrounded by kids who looked nothing like me, and I felt that I was being constantly watched as the odd one out. This feeling of intense scrutiny kept me from trying a lot of new things, because I was afraid of failing with all eyes on me.

Watching other similar bodies move and bend, seeing girls with bodies just like mine changing next to me, being nothing but another similar face (and body) in the crowd would have been extremely comforting to me at that age.
gexx 10:19 am on April 10, 2009 | # | Reply

I saw Lauren Greenfield’s “Girl Culture” exhibit, which included some images from Fat Camp. The entire exhibit (and book: http://www.laurengreenfield.com/index.php?p=VPGHSTCS ) drew on the theme of girls becoming women and how they navigate the multiple social expectations: jr/high school, sweet 16/debutant/ quincinerra (sp?), and (of course) their developing body and how they reconcile themselves with popular culture. I think that her project, specifically the FatCamp series of images point out to us
1)teenage girls really aren’t their own person
2) the amount of damage that society and culture can do by forcing these developing women into what *it* thinks they should be

Additionally, I’m saddened that many of these girls think that they’re fat. More proof of the unrealistic standards set by society
anna 10:43 am on April 10, 2009 | # | Reply

i first saw these photos at a photo exhibit called “Girl Culture” a few years ago. it was an amazing exhibit and i dont think this blog has read into the images enough.. how can you assume anything about this camp or the girls or if they are comfortable or not?
anyway— lauren greenfield takes photos that are really thought-provoking, ironic, sometimes funny and often really sad. check out her website!!

http://www.laurengreenfield.com/

there’s a brief and incredible photo/video montage that starts playing when you load the site for a new project (?) called “Kids and Money”
Amanda 10:56 am on April 10, 2009 | # | Reply

I agree with most of the posters. Most of these girls would not be considered fat or obese. My question is who signed the teens up for these camps? Did they decide to go themselves or were the forced by their parents? I would feel worse about myself if someone in my family that I loved and trusted decided that i need “fat camp”
Duran 11:13 am on April 10, 2009 | # | Reply

I’m also in agreement…some of those girls are a lil pudgy, but not fat or even unhealthy.

@Amanda
>> Did they decide to go themselves or were the forced by their parents?
Well, plenty of kids are forced to go to camp…where they then have a great time. I think the better question is “are they enjoying themselves”.
Fat Angie 12:06 pm on April 10, 2009 | # | Reply

I don’t “look” fat either, since I have the “right” body shape, but I can believe that they are all at BMI 25 or above (30 is obese).

I like the idea of summer camps for fat kids, but do they all have to be about weight loss? Not just, like, you know, regular camp?
Ali 12:20 pm on April 10, 2009 | # | Reply

not fat or even unhealthy

fat DOES NOT equal unhealthy. Skinny does not equal healthy. Some healthy people happen to be fat, others happen to be skinny. Likewise, some unhealthy people happen to be fat, while others happen to be skinny. And some healthy and unhealthy people fall somewhere between fat and skinny.

Also seconding Fat Angie on just having a camp for overweight kids, not a “fat camp”
Eve 1:19 pm on April 10, 2009 | # | Reply

As a teenager I used to fantasize about going to fat camp, from whence I would emerge slender and popular.

Unfortunately it appears I would not have been as popular at fat camp as I was at the camp I actually went to – Girl Scout camp. It was all about empowering me as a girl, and I don’t remember anyone mentioning my size while I was there. It did tend to be a lot of fat girls anyway as we got older; I think that’s because the camp I went to tended to be girls who were unpopular and/or odd in their own schools.

This camp does seem like it would be fun in some ways, but I agree that focusing on health is always better than focusing on being thin.
Vidya 1:33 pm on April 10, 2009 | # | Reply

“At least at camp, kids can potentially achieve a sense of normalcy and some solidarity with one another.”
A sense of ‘normalcy’ predicated on being told that your body is abnormal and in need of alteration? Solidarity in trying to change those ‘wrong’ bodies? Yikes. Remember, most of these kids, like other people who are fat, are likely to have inherited ‘fat genes’, and will not be able to maintain the weightloss that these camps are promoting over the long term, except perhaps by extreme and dangerous measures. And so they will likely see themselves as even greater ‘failures’, and all because their bodies are different from what is held up to be the social ideal. As a fat person, I can’t even express how deeply I loathe such organizations and their ‘well-intentioned’ efforts.

“The pictures don’t seem to be of oppressed beaten-down kids.”
I’d say that ‘oppression’ in this case needs to be understood through a Foucauldian lens. This camp is colluding with broader society to interpolate these young people as ‘abnormal subjects’ in need of internalized disciplinary measures. ANY institution that participates (even by omission of fat-positive practices and discourses) in the social constitution of fat people as in need of alteration is, in my opinion, a participant in the promotion of fat-hatred.
weliveunderrocks 2:31 pm on April 10, 2009 | # | Reply

This has me stunned… while my co-commenters above have already mentioned that some of the girls don’t look as if they should even be considering going to such a camp, that camp’s approach to food also makes me scratch my head a little. While nothing is to be said against offering physical activities and showing youth how to make sound nutritional choices, I find two things a little disconcerting:

a) Apparently, if you want kids to appreciate ‘healthy foods’ (whatever the f*** that is), they need to resemble the ‘bad foods’ as closely as possible.
No, by all means, don’t let them find out they won’t even be missing hamburgers and fries after having a nice risotto or some other cheap, easily prepared and well-balanced meal – or, shock! horror!, have them prepare their own meals… no, give them a ‘Hamburger Redux’, less fat, less sauce, less taste.
I for one wouldn’t be surprised if this change of eating patterns was but temporary, because I know what I’d be going for, were I faced with the choice between a real hamburger and a half-the-fun-missing hmbrgr.

b) I quote: “Erika, 14, hanging out in the bunk before dinner at weight-loss camp, Catskills, New York. Erika has decorated her wall with the forbidden foods she dreams about.”
I don’t know what that reminds you of, but upon seeing the picture, I had a big ‘Eating Disorder 101, hello!’ moment. Thinking about food, forbidden foods, carbs, fat 24/7? Why, if that isn’t teaching them a long-lasting message indeed… I really, really hope for Erika not to end up in the whole starve, binge, purge, restrict, starve, etc. cycle the way I did.

In short: Whatever the benefits of being among peers and/or losing a few pounds (to me, the former would have been far more important at that age), the whole attitude towards food might be worth revising a little. To me at least, it doesn’t look very healthy.
withoutscene 4:12 pm on April 10, 2009 | # | Reply

“Obesity is becoming the major health crisis of the next generation. 1 in 7 American children are obese and doctors are seeing dangerously obese children as young as age 2. Epidemic rates of childhood obesity caused the Surgeon General to get involved, warning Americans to fight the weight problem. These figures pale in comparison to adult obesity which now plagues 1 in 3 American adults. And the problem is becoming international. There are now an estimated 300 million obese adults worldwide, a fifty percent increase from 1995.

For more photo essays on EATING DISORDERS/BODY IMAGE, click here
http://www.laurengreenfield.com”

This seems contradictory to me. “OMGOBESITY!!! But come look at my photo essays on eating disorders and body image.”? Just sayin.

I agree with most people on this thread. Sure these kids have some good experiences. It’s camp. No one with any sense who critiques fat camp would expect otherwise. That fact doesn’t change my view of fat camp.

@ Fat Angie and Ali: Nomy Lamm had a Phat Camp for adults for awhile, but I don’t think it exists any more: http://www.nomylamm.com/phatcamp.htm

A bunch of fat activists have talked about doing a fat kids camp for quite awhile, but I’m not sure anyone has the time or resources to make that happen at this point because it would require so much work and funding and certification, etc.
Franklin S. 5:45 pm on April 10, 2009 | # | Reply

Not sure hot I feel about this, but as an interesting comparison piece, see “Thin” by the same photographer, done in 1997 at “Renfrew Center in Coconut Creek, Florida, a forty-bed residential facility for the treatment of women with eating disorders.”

Its here, and the parallels are striking: http://www.viiphoto.com/showstory.php?nID=538
Emma 8:54 pm on April 10, 2009 | # | Reply

Sending kids to “fat camp” most definitely is fat-shaming.

Yes, they have the opportunity to interact with other fat kids – but the objective should be to help them feel at ease in a normal environment, not to separate kids based on their body size.

And that means teaching all children that fat-shaming is wrong. That objective isn’t gonna be achieved by sending the fat kids away to a different camp so the thin ones can get through the summer without having to go through the horror of looking at a fat person.
Kelle 9:16 pm on April 10, 2009 | # | Reply

Agreed with all the other concerns raised above. The girls in the first photo look to me like they’re young women who started puberty earlier, like 9-10, and so have more body fat and larger frames than many other girls their age. They have the body of 20 year old women. But it’s hard to tell someone’s weight just by looking (check out the Shapely Prose BMI Project for more examples.)

I would love to see a “health at every size” camp for kids, where they could learn about nourishing your body with intuitive eating, including that hamburgers aren’t “bad” and salads aren’t “good”; learn genuinely fun physical activity and that all movement counts as some kind of exercise, like chores, gardening, non-traditional sports, and so on; learn about why dieting doesn’t work and what to do if you’re having eating disordered behaviours; and learn that being bigger doesn’t in fact mean certain doom of early death from diabetes or heart attack. Sadly that “fat = death” message is what a most kids are told these days alongside the usual “fat = ugly” messages.
Kelle 9:26 pm on April 10, 2009 | # | Reply

I just looked at the rest of the pictures on the photographer’s website. A camp that weighs and measures all the kids like that in front of all the other kids? Couldn’t be MORE fat-shaming. At least with people who are blatant and open with their disgust with fat people you know where you stand. When this kind of thing is done in the name of “We’re just worried about your health” or “We’re doing this because we love you,” it’s even more isidious especially when children are involved. It creates further feelings of guilt and disappointment that you’re letting down someone who cares for you simply by being fat.
Coco 11:17 pm on April 10, 2009 | # | Reply

I, too, went and viewed the entire photo gallery and can only imagine how degraded I would have felt (as an overweight kid myself) if my parents had sent me to such a place. As a matter of fact, this post confirms all of the suspicions and fears of ‘fat camps’ that I had as a child. I mean, come on, the first picture is of the “popular clique” — and (of course) they are the thinnest in the entire bunch!

Further, I fundamentally disagree with the notion that sustainable weight-loss necessarily involves the sort of extreme approach represented by these camps. Healthy, sustainable weight loss requires a change in lifestyle that can be maintained forever, not a drastic but temporary change of one’s routine imposed from outside authorities. The fact that one girl had to smuggle in sugarless gum with her maxi pads demonstrates that this camp can not possibly be teaching these children a sustainable approach to weight loss. It will simply introduce them to a lifetime of yo-yoing between extreme excess and extreme deprivation. Likewise, the girl in front of her forbidden food wall was a particularly sad image, as I doubt the camp taught her that unnecessary privation and binge behavior go hand in hand.
chuk 2:00 am on April 11, 2009 | # | Reply

Anna linked to the photographer’s page, highlighting the montage about kids and money. I would be really interested in some posts on this blog about kids and stuff.
Vidya 8:32 am on April 11, 2009 | # | Reply

“Healthy, sustainable weight loss requires a change in lifestyle that can be maintained forever, not a drastic but temporary change of one’s routine imposed from outside authorities.”
The facts, however, disagree — extensive research has revealed *no* known diet or exercise strategy is effective for producing long-term/permanent, substantial weight-loss; virtually all significant weight-loss is temporary (1-5 years), until natural metabolic adjustments kick in. The myth of ‘healthy weight loss’ is rooted in the false belief that most fat people are fat because of higher calorie intakes and/or lower energy expenditures — again, contradicted by existing research (as well as by the lived experience of fat people).
Muriel Minnie Mae 11:06 am on April 12, 2009 | # | Reply

Me thinks kids shouldn’t be going to fat camp rather the parents should be going to fat camp. After all, who feeds the kids? Their parents! (or at least ideally parents feed their kids).

Thing is, kids often don’t have a choice about what they are fed. Parents and schools make those decisions. If the kids are only being fed crap food OF COURSE they’re going to gain weight. So lets blame the victim!
imnotemily 3:32 pm on April 12, 2009 | # | Reply

I went to this camp, Camp Shane, the summer before 9th grade. I do not feel like writing a full essay on the sociological experience of going to a fat camp, but i will say that in many ways the experience was oppressive, and further perpetuated the idea to us that our bodies were deviant and unattractive. The camp fed us a daily diet of about 14,000 calories, while exercising us CONSTANTLY. That many calories is about half of what we should have been getting for the amount of aerobics we did.
Some of my strongest memories from the camp are based around food. Sitting on our bunk porch during free time just talking about food. Watching the ‘good kids’, who had lost their goal weight, go up for seconds, torturing the rest of us. Being so hungry I took the all-you-can-eat ketchup and mustard, combined them on my plastic tray, and eating it w/ a spoon just to fill my stomach. Being gifted some blackmarket Reeses PB Cups, which were like heroine to me after a summer of deprivation.
Yes, I had fun at camp, as any kid should, but the whole concept of a ‘fat camp’ (unsustainable weight loss, fat-shaming) was highly unpleasant.
One more things- there was a clear hierarchy in our bunk based on weight- the one girl who weighed approx. 250-280 pounds was the outcast, while I and another smaller girl were two of the most popular. There was plenty of fat-shaming between campers. Fat camp is NOT a body positive experience.
imnotemily 3:39 pm on April 12, 2009 | # | Reply

sorry- 1,400 calories a day. I added a 0.
CarrieP 11:56 pm on April 12, 2009 | # | Reply

I went to fat camp for three years in my mid-teens. I enjoyed being there a whole lot more than I enjoyed being in the outside world but there was definitely a hierarchy of fatness and there was plenty of fat shaming and unhealthy food behavior perpetuated. The camp I went to inexplicably also allowed girls with restricting eating disorders to attend, only they had to come up to the kitchen and eat extra snacks before bed to keep their calorie count up. I can imagine being in an environment where everyone is pushing eating less and exercising more could be a serious triggering thing for an anorexic or bulimic person.

My camp was pretty much the same as imnotemily described, low calorie meals and exercise all day long. I definitely lost weight by the end of the summer and was happy about it because my parents were happy, but once I got back to reality the weight came right back on and it was back to the dysfunctional power struggle between my parents and my fat. They ended up sending me back two more summers but finally we just couldn’t afford it anymore. It’s not a cheap way to spend a summer, which is another sociological consideration because most of the kids there had pretty rich parents.

So. I can’t speak for every kid who has had a fat camp experience, but I knew I was there because my parents thought there was something wrong with me that needed to be fixed. It was not just a fun time. To an extent it felt like camp was my atonement for not fitting the mold. The fact that I enjoyed interacting with other kids like me at camp didn’t really ever make up for that.
[Big Fat Blog] Thoughts on Fat Camp? 2:26 am on April 13, 2009 | # | Reply

[...] folks! withoutscene gave me a heads up to this article over at Sociological Images regarding fat camp. I had some experiences with fat camp when I was [...]
Eve 7:18 am on April 13, 2009 | # | Reply

Y’know, I can’t help thinking about the parallels between fat camp and camps for gay kids whose parents want to turn them straight. Both have supposedly nurturing environments (“We just want you to be healthy!”) that are covers for shaming the deviant behavior/body.
Thoughts on Fat Camp? | Dietary Disaster 9:44 pm on April 13, 2009 | # | Reply

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josie 4:24 pm on October 7, 2009 | # | Reply

I am a 12 year old girl and weigh 196 pounds and was hoping to go to weight loss camp this summer. i think it is stupid that most of the people who posted stuff on here are saying that fat camp is “over rated”. i do not get why they are mad about how many calories they get or how much exersice they do. i mean how else are they goin to lose weight? eating 5000 calories a day and doing 5 minutes of arobics and then sleeping?
Mary McGuire 7:59 pm on November 22, 2009 | # | Reply

Well said Josie! A twelve year old with more sense that most of the adults posting here.
- adamson 8:24 pm on January 26, 2010 | # | Reply
  
  You may have a complex, and it’s not right to spread opinions like that to younger people that may not understand that what you’re saying here is not fact.
GIRL CULTURE » Sociological Images 4:44 am on November 26, 2009 | # | Reply

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