JILLIAN MICHAELS IS ABUSIVE

 

[Spoiler Alert: if you’re a Biggest Loser fan, and haven’t yet seen last night’s show, wait to read this until you have.]

Ever since the very first time I saw Jillian Michaels as a trainer on The Biggest Loser, I’ve abhorred her abusive tactics. I’ve never understood how the producers put up with that crap. I don’t dislike her, and she even occasional makes me chuckle a bit. But it’s hard to watch her scream at her trainees the whole time; I can’t imagine what it must be like to be on the receiving end. It’s hard enough to do these super-difficult work-outs, especially for the obese, and to have screaming in your face at the same time must make it a close-to-impossible task. Encouragement is what one wants in these circumstances, not debasing.

It was a pleasure not having to watch her for the last two seasons (because she was off the show.) But now she’s back. And just two episodes into this season, I’m already depressed by her. Mr. X doesn’t even want to watch anymore because of her.

So, here are some of my random thoughts on her return:

She’s a caricature of herself now.

Yes, she’s had success with her teams in the past, but it’s not because of her abusive tactics.

She thinks she’s a psychologist because her mother is.

She always thinks that what she’s saying is so profound, but it’s not even close.

Maybe she’s just still pissed-off about her long-ago awful nose job. (I actually sometimes think that she’s sort-of pretty, if you can just look at her teeth, lips, eyes, and hair, and not focus on the awful snout-like rhinoplasty at the center.)

She always mentions that she used to be fat, but we’ve never seen any pictures of that situation. Someone once pointed that out to me about Richard Simmons; an old pal of his told me he was never fat, and he just says he was so that he’d look like he lost a ton of weight. So, I’m a tad suspicious about Jillian, as well. [Note: After much research, I could find only one grainy shot that’s supposedly Jillian as a young teen. There’s nothing in her face to confirm that it is indeed she. But, even if it is, she looks like any old schlubby young girl, who’s just not in shape, but far from overweight.]

She talks about the contestants not having self-esteem, but she contributes to be that lack, in a big way!!!

Doesn’t she know that stress prevents weight loss? And she’s constantly stressing them out!

She’s a mother now; if she talked to her kids like that, Social Services would take them away in a nano-second!

As Mr. X pointed out, Jillian always makes it about her, not them.

On the show last night, she has a talk with her team, who ask her to lighten-up on them. And she obliges. But I really think the producers told her to change.

She’s already lost three fifths of her team! In two weeks! (One quit, and the other two were the ones who lost the least amount of weight that “week.”) Great training on her part. The good news is, that if she loses those last two in the ensuing weeks, we don’t have to see Jillian for the rest of the season!!! So, sadly for those two women, we’re rooting for the other teams.

Here are two exchanges that took place in my house while watching this season’s second episode:

Mr. X: “Do you know who she can play?” Me: “Cruella DeVille?” Mr. X: “Yes! I was going to say ‘one of those Disney witches.’ Cruella is exactly who I was thinking of!” [Note: it should have been “whom,” but I was so happy that once again we were on the same comedy wavelength that I let him have a pass on that one.]

Mr. X: “If they ever do a fitness version of 101 Dalmatians, she’s all set.” Me: “Yeah, 101 Overweight Contestants!”

[Sidebar, because this season the show is featuring three overweight kids: This is a story for another time, but while we’re on the topic… I don’t think I ever mentioned it before, but I was a fat kid. Only I didn’t know it; I just thought my father was a bad photographer. So, no trauma there. Just lots of funny stories that should be painful but really aren’t. Knock on wood. Like when I was the slowest one in the fat girls race. That’s slow, man!]