I think there are two ways that companies and markets work.

1) A company sees a market to serve. They may be part of the market, or have someone they know in that market. They probably don’t have many negative stereotypes of this group. One great example of this would be Lee Lee from Lee Lee’s valise. She is excited and jazzed about servign the market of fat women. People who try to serve a market are likely to generate positive publicity.

2) A company sees a market to be exploited. They don’t see the market as individuals, but as a collection of traits, or stereotypes, to make money off. This is negative and regressive. This is an example of making money while keeping toxic viewpoints of the market. Good examples would include the “bouncy castle” lady in England who ran a plus size clothing store while hating fat people. Or the ways in which cigarette and alcohol companies target communities of color.

For myself, most of the times I see negatively stereotyped groups I’m in being marketed to, it’s the second type. It’s negative commerce. In general I think businesses are set up to exploit markets, not benefit them.

http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v16/n7/abs/oby2008254a.html

My guess, fat is a proxy for economic status, which is well-known to predict problems with academics. It’s tough to help your kids with homework when you’re working all hours just to pay for food.

Julia, I actually agree with your comment, and I don’t think I said anything approaching “they’ll stop being bigoted if they can make money off you.” I said it’s ONE way prejudices START to break down, which I stand by. But that still means a hell of a lot more needs to be done, on a whole lot of levels.

I have to disagree very throughly with you here Kate.

First, marginalized groups have often been used for their cash value. For instance, African slaves and forced Chinese laborers in the American West. (forced prostitution of women would also work here).

Second, one of the things about bigotry is that it does not make any kind of logical sense. It’s bigotry. Bigots lose money all the time due to their hatred. They don’t care. Taxi drivers lose money by refusing to pick up customers who are black. They don’t give a shit. They have bigoted rationalizations on why this is OK.

Another example would be fashion. Given the OMG OBESITY EPIDEMIC idea that huge numbers of women are fat, you would think that we would therefore see the clothing industry leaping to sell us clothing. They’re not. Ads and editorial content in fashion magazines are still about skinny women. Or think of the sad tale of the late lamented Mode magazine.

Fashion doesn’t just ignore fat consumers, it ignores consumers who aren’t white. Flip through a mainstream fashion magazine (Cosmopolitan, Glamour, etc.) nd count the number of people of color in the issue. Notice how overwhelmingly white everyone is. See if there are any photo spreads that focus on a model who is a woman of color. If there is one, is the piece all about “exotic fashion” or travel?

“Vogue” Italy is doing a special issue for July that features all black models. At $16-$20 an issue, it has sold out all over the country and is being reprinted. (http://adage.com/bigtent/post?article_id=129759 and http://jezebel.com/5024967/italian-vogues-all-black-issue-a-guided-tour).
The issue also includes a photo spread with Tocarra, aka “the plus size girl on American’s Next Top Model.” And yet, the fashion industry insists that they can’t use black models because they don’t sell.

By saying “oh but they’ll stop being bigoted if they can make money off you” you are looking at one symptom of oppression. Fixing that symptom, if it is even possible, doesn’t do anything to change the structural systems of oppression.

What the heck does this mean now? We’re telling parents that they need to make sure their babies are Anorexic for their “health”. *headdesk*

My Gay Agenda:
1. Equal rights
2. Spend more time with friends and family
3. Buy milk

I am in love with both that and your friend’s one. Oh, life.

oh right, other people don’t think of that.

but using it to promose a particular kind of diet for kids is just so bizarre to me. i was wondering if maybe there was some research relating ingestion of fatty foods to higher retention of lead? still, it’s so weird!