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Female candidate fights claims of body-shaming for tackling childhood obesity
Source: The Guardian
Female candidate fights claims of body-shaming for tackling childhood obesity
Democratic congressional candidate Emily Cain angered by politicians
obsessed with women’s weight after NRCC ad targets her for backing
bipartisan bill in 2010
Megan Carpentier in New York
Wednesday 5 October 2016 16.00 BST
After a week of listening to Donald Trump supporters defend his long-standing biting remarks about the supposed weight gain and personal history of a former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado, who now supports the candidacy of Hillary Clinton, one might be forgiven for thinking that national Republicans are tone-deaf about the experience of most women in America in 2016.
The National Republican Campaign Committee, though, is perfectly well aware that most women have a strongly negative response to body shaming. That’s probably why, in a close race for a congressional seat in Maine, they started running an ad last week accusing the Democratic candidate of pushing legislation designed to body-shame teenage girls.
The problems: the Democratic candidate is a woman, Emily Cain; and the ad is misleading.
Cain is infuriated by the NRCC ad and, in response, released one of her own on Tuesday directly addressing her own weight issues. “Like a lot of women, I’ve struggled with my weight,” she says in the ad. “It’s hard. It’s very personal.”
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The original ad drawing Cain’s ire claims that she supported a bipartisan bill to start to address childhood obesity – about 30% of Maine’s children were considered overweight or obese in 2010 – that would have required schools to regularly weigh children and report aggregate data to the state. In the ad, the legislation is derided by women, posing with school-age children, as “a violation of our kids’ privacy” and deemed an effort to weigh “our teenage girls”. The bill failed to pass, and schools have been asked to submit the data to the state on a voluntary basis, since many of them collect it anyway.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Democratic congressional candidate Emily Cain angered by politicians
obsessed with women’s weight after NRCC ad targets her for backing
bipartisan bill in 2010
Megan Carpentier in New York
Wednesday 5 October 2016 16.00 BST
After a week of listening to Donald Trump supporters defend his long-standing biting remarks about the supposed weight gain and personal history of a former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado, who now supports the candidacy of Hillary Clinton, one might be forgiven for thinking that national Republicans are tone-deaf about the experience of most women in America in 2016.
The National Republican Campaign Committee, though, is perfectly well aware that most women have a strongly negative response to body shaming. That’s probably why, in a close race for a congressional seat in Maine, they started running an ad last week accusing the Democratic candidate of pushing legislation designed to body-shame teenage girls.
The problems: the Democratic candidate is a woman, Emily Cain; and the ad is misleading.
Cain is infuriated by the NRCC ad and, in response, released one of her own on Tuesday directly addressing her own weight issues. “Like a lot of women, I’ve struggled with my weight,” she says in the ad. “It’s hard. It’s very personal.”
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
The original ad drawing Cain’s ire claims that she supported a bipartisan bill to start to address childhood obesity – about 30% of Maine’s children were considered overweight or obese in 2010 – that would have required schools to regularly weigh children and report aggregate data to the state. In the ad, the legislation is derided by women, posing with school-age children, as “a violation of our kids’ privacy” and deemed an effort to weigh “our teenage girls”. The bill failed to pass, and schools have been asked to submit the data to the state on a voluntary basis, since many of them collect it anyway.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/05/maine-emily-cain-congress-body-shaming-womens-weight
