Sunday, May 10, 2009

"Dance Your Ass Off" - Whaaaa?

First, there was The Biggest Loser. Then there was the now-defunct Celebrity Fit Club. Now, there's Dance Your Ass Off.

Yep, that's right - Dance Your Ass Off. Oxygen, the network that brought us Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency and Bad Girls Club, is entering the weight loss reality market. The show features obese people dancing and then getting weighed. Might a more apt title be "Dancing With The Fatties"?

I will reserve judgment until I see it, but... I dunno. On one hand, the producer is right that people need to see that exercise doesn't have to be torture (that is, being active doesn't require being yelled at by a trainer or getting a stress fracture.) Also, it's good for fat people to realize that we can dance and enjoy moving our bodies, and hopefully this show will help with that.

On the other hand - who exactly is the target audience for this show? Might it be the same group of people that gets off on making fun of fat people dancing on YouTube? See, for example, Scarlet Takes A Tumble, Fat Kid Dancing HILARIOUS, and Fat Girls Dancing (glance at the comments.)

Also, will the show be transformative for those who struggle with obesity if the focus is on fat people pole dancing (yes, that's one of the categories) instead of focusing on eating healthfully? Maybe the next reality show should try to jazz up the diet component, especially given the recent, widely covered World Health Organization report that obesity in America can be traced more to overeating than to inactivity.

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