When I was a teenager, I was sent to a conversion therapist, and he asked me “Are you unhappy with being gay?” I told him I wasn’t and he said “Then this isn’t for you; I only work with people who don’t want to be gay.” At the time (I was a child!) it seemed so responsible… but it’s truly hideous.
This immediately came to mind watching the Biggest Loser documentary when one of the producers said “We weren’t looking for people who were overweight and happy … we were looking for people who were overweight and unhappy.”
How frequently people throw up their hands and say “It’s not my fault there are customers! I’m just giving people what they want!” and pretend they’re helping people. But they’re not helping people: they’re just prolonging and reinforcing societal misery.
The producers of The Bigger Loser should be imprisoned, the trainers shunned (Jillian’s on her way, thankfully), and the contestants compensated for pain and suffering. It was a corrosive institution and a fucking disgrace and we should all be embarrassed that it ran as long as it did.
Also Bob Harper is a fucking monster. “Why is a DOCTOR telling US how to take care of people’s HEALTH?!?” Go shit in your own mouth you fucking ghoul.