I haven’t watched “The Biggest Loser” enough to make a confident assessment of how poorly the contestants are treated. I will say that just its premise reinforces the idea that thinner is inherently better. While that may be true for a variety of personal and health reasons for the actual people on the show, the overall cultural message that fat people are losers who need to change their entire lives overlooks the reality that just as many thin(ner) people are losers who need to change their entire lives, too. Weight loss can be transformative, but so can inheriting money, or starting a new career, or falling in love with someone, or coming out, or making a religious conversion. The only difference is that TV is a visual medium and fat people are an easy target because the visual transformation is so dramatic. Does that make for good television? Absolutely. But just like any other group that is underrepresented on television, when fat people are only shown in one way (they are desperately unhappy until they lose weight), the full diversity of the human experience is not being represented.

But, hey, at least the biggest losers are all actually fat people! Cuz a) if I see one more celeb in a fat suit I’m going to scream (I’m talking to you, John Travolta) and b) Celebrity Fit Club sometimes has people on there who are so cute and really not that damn fat (I’m talking to you, Countess Vaughn).