Moscow is installing park benches that publicly display sitters’ weights, adding fat shaming to the long list of what-is-Russia-thinking offenses.
With a growing portion of the Russian population becoming overweight and obese, Moscow lawmakers have implemented what they think is a genius measure: park benches that display a sitters’ weight. But let’s think about who goes to public parks for a moment, shall we?
Moscow’s media and advertising head Vladimir Chernikov supported the ambitious project by saying that he’s for ‘everything progressive and interesting’. He hinted that the high-tech benches would also be wired with electricity for phone-charging stations. This feature comes at an additional cost of 50,000 rubles ($1,300) per bench, which will be covered by advertising.
1. Children. Does showing a child his/her weight in such a public way do anything positive for body image or metal health?
2. The elderly. The appeal of large font aside, what would your 91 year old grandmother’s reaction be?
3. Moms with babies. Like post-partum moms need more body issues.
I’m just not sure why the local lawmakers can’t invest the same time and energy into mandatory healthy-eating courses in schools, encouraging better access to fresh produce, or perhaps even offering tax credits for attending free health lectures in those very same parks. Food for thought.
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This may seem very offensive to anyone who has never lived in Russia or any part if the firmer Soviet Union. But for anyone who has, this is not surprising. Russian culture is not very tolerant of anything outside the norm, and everyone is first judged on how they look. So I would imagine that Moskovites will see nothing wrong with this, and may even find it motivating. As far as spending money on healthy eating, most Russians are way ahead of America on this, they tend to eat local and fresh and see fast food as a foresight novelty rather than the
norm.
So true. Obviously brings up thoughts of the prejudices against homosexuals, as well.