Ok. So I have spent a lot of my time going through newspaper articles recently. In an attempt to discover whether the same old frames are being used to portray the impoverished, I have come across lots of the same old stuff. However, one new frame for understanding poverty I have found is, essentially, Poverty: A Weight-loss Solution. Check it: http://ezproxy.hamline.edu:2221/hottopics/lnacademic/? If you do not have time to check it, let me paraphrase. A 29 year old Minneapolis woman decided to go on what she deemed a "poverty sympathy" diet. The rules of her diet were that she was only allowed to consume as many calories as a person living in poverty in Africa. She used her calorie tracker app on her iphone to keep her honest.
HOW MESSED UP IS THIS? I do not care if the woman managed to raise $500 to help build a well in Africa. What this woman did is incredibly disrespectful and ultimately, unhealthy. While this story still does fit into the same old romantic vision of the poor (poor people have it so good; they don't even have to try to be thin...) the blatant weight loss gimmick is both new and disturbing to me. Come on, America; have we no shame?
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