How to Spot Toxic Body Shaming Marketing

In this episode, we’re tackling a topic that drives me absolutely crazy: shame-based marketing that thrives on our body dissatisfaction. Join me as I break down how businesses use our insecurities to keep us in a cycle of shame and sell their products and services. I'll share red flags to watch out for on social media, tools to identify and combat these tactics, and how I help women create a new reality that supports and celebrates your body. Plus, learn more about my upcoming mastermind, The New Sexy, starting in September, designed to help you break free from diet culture and fully embrace your body as it is. Tune in for an empowering conversation to stop blaming yourself and start living with unwavering confidence.

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Transcript

Rebecca Sigala: 0:00

Hello there, my loves welcome back to The Body Image Revolution. I hope that you're having a great summer and things aren't too crazy for you. It's gotten a little crazy over here. I know summers can just be overwhelming and it's so hot and there's so many different things going on. It's kind of weird because isn't summer supposed to be like vacation or something? Personally, it's not vacation for me and my kids are currently in camp. My husband and I are working a lot. We've just gotten really deep into our mission to help women love their bodies more. a few weeks ago, I slowly began to open registration for my mastermind that is coming up here in September. It's called The New Sexy. And because of that registration opening, I've been bringing some really amazing women into my world. So that's where I'm at right now. Also personally, on a deeper level, I've been working on continuously tuning into my own body because it is so easy to stop listening to our own wants and needs and just get burned out. So that's something that I'm really trying to focus on. Especially with the state of the world and all of the uncertainty that comes with that here in Israel. Now, more than ever, making our bodies, our safe space and our homes needs to be our top priority. And that's why I'm here and why I do what I do. So today I'm going to talk to you about something that actually drives me really freaking crazy. And that's businesses that benefit from our continued body dissatisfaction. These businesses use shame based marketing to illuminate your pain points and keep you in a cycle of body shame so that you will never ever feel enough. And you'll always need that next product or service in order to feel ok with yourself. I know this is just throwing out numbers, but I think it's always so shocking that as of right now, the weight loss industry itself, not even like beauty industry or other businesses that benefit from our body dissatisfaction is worth 90 billion and by 2032, it's estimated to be worth over 500 billion. So you can see what an impact that really makes on our world and shapes the way that we see ourselves. But I'm not going to only vent to you today, although I for sure could, and I could probably talk your ear off with how fucking angry I am because I see this all the time, but that probably wouldn't be as helpful as giving you some tools to start identifying this in your daily life so that you can stop blaming yourself. So many women tell me that they don't know why they're struggling with their body image that, it's them, it's just in their head. And I like to remind people that everywhere we go, we see diet culture and we're given this message that we're not enough and this shit will really get to you because, no matter how confident you are, it's touching on pain points that were deeply ingrained in us from a super young age. And also we don't always see it as diet culture because it's disguised as health or even sometimes body positivity, which is the fucking worst. This is something that we dive deep into in The New Sexy. Through the mastermind, I help women become so acutely aware of diet culture and beauty standards in their daily life so that they can stop blaming themselves and also take steps to filter it and not only just filter it, but create a new reality that actually supports you in this new elevated self concept. My method doesn't just eliminate things. It actually adds things into your life and even upgrades your lifestyle, giving you unwavering confidence in your body and inspiring others to love their bodies more too, which is definitely the goal, right? It's so important that we take this step. This is the second step in my new sexy method. It's called break free from societal BS. because this shit can really tear you down, and I want women to be aware of this so that they can really just live their best, most empowered lives and actually not be so angry about it. Just to be aware of it so that they know how to approach it and handle it for themselves and their kids and, create that reality that is just so much more positive and helps them continue to deepen this ever evolving journey of self love. So shame based marketing, specifically in the health and wellness and weight loss space, it targets those pain points in order to get you to believe that you need something outside of yourself in order to make you worthy. And I want to share some things that are red flags when you're scrolling through social media. If businesses are doing the things that I'm about to tell you, they're using your deepest insecurities in order to sell. And it's not that all of them are even doing it intentionally because this is where diet culture and beauty standards become so freaking pervasive that they are accepted and even applauded in our society today. It's very common to see these practices disguised as things you do for your health or your personal growth, or even body positivity, like I mentioned before. but if people were really honest with themselves and tapped into how they feel when they come across this content, they would realize that it doesn't make them feel so great. And even if it's just a subconscious level of not feeling great about their body, it's definitely there. Sometimes even I'll see these things and it will still hit a chord in me right before I then use my own method to reframe what I'm consuming and return to that place of love and compassion for my body. Okay. So I'm going to share just some of the red flags with you so that you can start to identify them. The first one is using before and afters in their marketing. This is something that is done all the time and it's really showing one version of a person's body as better and one version as worse. And usually you'll see that that person lost weight or that they gained muscle or that they look a little bit closer to, beauty standards or the"ideal body" that society has put out for us. The second thing is selling the idea of loving your body in order to lose weight. Like people will say, if you love your body, then the weight will just fall off. Focus on things besides weight loss, and then it will happen naturally. This really drives me crazy because this is using body positivity to sell diet culture mindset. And I think that's really, really dangerous because people who are looking to love their body think that they can do this and then still fully embrace their body at the same time. And that's actually not possible. And I know this sounds a little radical, but just selling weight loss in general. It's one thing if weight loss could be a result of their product or service, that's definitely always possible. for instance, a body positive personal trainer could sell their services without selling weight loss and they would talk about all of the benefits of working out and how it impacts your life for the better, but not specifically talk about weight loss and use those before and afters and talk about how much weight their clients lost. But someone who is using diet culture to sell, they're going to focus on weight loss, appearance, all of the things that we were taught that make us worthy as women. And it fucking sells guys. It's just that deeply ingrained that so many women desire it. The thing is weight loss does not equal health and there is no moral value in losing weight, but that's not what diet culture and much of the wellness industry will tell you. And we get those messages when we are consuming this content. The third thing is that they're telling you that their product or service will help you achieve appearance or physique related goals, and that's not just personal trainers. It's also nutritionists, health coaches, cosmetic surgeons, products like ones that are supposed to lighten your stretch marks or anti aging stuff, medicines for weight loss, and things like that. That is something that is definitely going to make us feel like, okay, we have to fix our body or change something about ourselves in order to be beautiful or worthy or enough. The next thing is that they refer to food as good or bad and they villainize things like carbs and sugar, which of course is very, very common in our society today. And this is the last one that I'm going to share with you today, but it's a big one. that's when they attach the result of their offering to you as a human being. The first thing that comes to mind is when people use words like high value woman makes me want to barf. Or they might say something like the type of clients I work with actually care about their health. They're driven and motivated and they're not lazy like the rest of the world. One time I was talking to someone who said, I want people to come to my website and feel stupid if they don't sign up for my program, I was shocked when she said that, and yes, it was weight loss related, not a surprise, because when I think about how I want women to feel when they land on my page, it's the exact opposite. I want them to feel seen and understood. I want them to be like, Oh my God, I can't believe how much this woman gets me. I want them to feel safe. I want them to feel empowered to take the next steps on their journey. I want them to deeply know, or at least know that I believe everything they need is already inside them. That they don't need to change anything about their body in order to be worthy and that they're worthy and deserving exactly as they are in this moment. Of course, pain points can come up in marketing, but there's a difference between really focusing and like getting into those pain points and shaming them into buying, versus empowering a woman to buy so that they can be more of themselves, not less. And I'd much rather the latter, even if it's not easy to sell because I could totally do before and afters for boudoir. I could say that you'll lose weight when you start loving and taking care of your body. I could Photoshop the shit out of my pictures and give women the idea that they aren't beautiful as they are and sell a beauty standard that so many people desperately desire. Like I had someone who told me that she at first did not think that I was the photographer for her because I wrote that I don't try to make women look thinner than they actually are. There's so many women who feel that way and it would be easy to sell it like that. But selling things like that would be against every single thing I stand for. And the crazy thing is, is that it would be the norm. Like that is what is totally accepted. And if I look at boudoir photographers around the world or other coaches, they are selling things like that. So here I am taking a different path, going against the grain of what we've been taught so that we can actually fully love our bodies. Not just pretend to be confident and hustle for our worthiness. So if you're a little bit of a rebel like me, which you probably are, and you want to gift yourself something that you were never given the chance to receive before, which is total and radical love for your body as it is, then I'm your girl. I will personally help you break free from all of this BS and not in a way that's going to make you a hermit or never use a beauty product again. Believe me, I love my beauty products or be an outcast of society in any way. The question is, how do we live in this world and love our bodies as they are? It's possible. I've been helping women do that for the last 11 years and now it's your turn. We're starting in September as I said before and if this is calling your name, if you want to feel sexy as fuck. Like for real and for good, and even inspire others to have a positive body image. You should definitely book a free discovery call. The link is in the description of this podcast and that call is really to explore if we're a good fit together and help you clarify where you're at and where you want to go on your journey. My hope is that this episode will give you some loving awareness so that you can really, really, really stop blaming yourself. Girl, this is not your fault and you can change the way you see yourself. A good question to ask yourself when you come across these red flags is will this account, will this product or service, whatever it is, help me love my body more? Simple question, but very, very powerful. All right. Share this with your friends, rate this podcast if you're loving it, of course. And I will talk to you next week.