What if you were in a clothes store and saw a mother telling her daughter she’s too fat while trying on clothes? This is exactly what many women were confronted with during an episode of the popular ABC show “What Would You Do?”
At the beginning of the episode, you see the actress playing the “mother” waiting for her “daughter,” also an actress who goes by “Amanda.”
You see Amanda poke her head out of the dressing room to say “Excuse me, do you have a bigger size?” referring to the dress she was trying on.
The mother sternly shoots down the idea that her daughter needs a bigger size. Amanda says, “Yes I do mom. It’s really uncomfortable.”
When Amanda emerges from the dressing room wearing clothing that is clearly too tight for her body, she says the dress is too small. Her mother responds “Right now it is, but you are going to look so beautiful when you lose those extra pounds.”
The two actors continue to do this in front of women in the store who have no idea they are being recorded.
“I want her to be skinny”
“I think that you look great,” says one woman who overhears the fat shaming. “And if you don’t like this dress… I think you should let her try on another dress, maybe?” The woman directs this pointed comment to the mother.
Then the mother persists saying the tight clothing would be a “good inspiration dress” for Amanda to “lose a few pounds.”
This same charade plays out in front of multiple other women, all of whom come to the girl’s defense and are critical of the mother for fat-shaming her daughter.
[totalpoll id=”138235″]
This kind of early pressure on young women to be skinny is especially damaging and when it’s coming from your own mother, it can have lifelong effects on a person’s self-esteem.
A child should not be obsessing about what they look like in clothing. They should be outside playing with friends, using their imagination, and making lasting childhood memories.
Kids these days are getting on social media at such a young age and are exposed to constant, in-your-face images of thin women in various states of undress. The reality is, not every woman is built to be thin. Some women have curves, some women carry more weight, and “health” doesn’t have to look the same way for everyone.
The last thing a mother should do is tell their child they need to lose weight to be beautiful.
What would you do if you saw a mother fat-shaming her daughter in public?