Fat Talk Free Week 2012
This past October, JMU students and faculty were curious about the bold white and orange t-shirts that said, “FAT TALK FREE.” The sisters of Delta Delta Delta, along with members of the Panhellenic Council and Operation Beautiful, proudly wore these shirts around campus during the week of October 22nd-26th to promote a very important cause. Fat Talk Free Week is an international week dedicated to raising body image awareness and eliminating “fat talk.” This program was created in 2008 through Tri-Delta’s award-winning body image education and eating disorders prevention program, Reflections Body Image Program. This year, multiple organizations partnered together to bring this program to James Madison University, and it was a huge success.
What’s “Fat Talk”? Fat Talk is categorized as any negative talk that promotes the “thin ideal”. Although it may seem harmless, this talk can be very detrimental to someone’s self-esteem. Ask yourself, have you ever said or witnessed one of the following phrases?
“Do I look fat in this?”
“Have you lost weight?”
“How are you SO skinny?”
“I need to stop eating so much, I’m so fat!”
This type of talk is affecting our nation more than ever before, and it’s affecting all ages too. Fat Talk Free Week was brought to JMU to encourage students to eliminate this kind of talk, and start thinking about a new “healthy ideal.”
Operation Beautiful 