Just days out from Christmas, Santa Claus has been caught up in a body shaming controversy after a call to ban ‘fat Santas’ from shopping centres.
Australian health researcher Vincent Candrawinata sparked the festive fury with his demand that sticking pillows or other stuffing down the front of the famous red suit comes to an end.
The New South Wales-based doctor claims an overweight Father Christmas promotes binge eating and is unhealthy.
“We shouldn’t expect Santa to be fat because that sends the wrong message,” he told the Herald Sun.
“I want to fight the stigma that you need to eat a lot and overindulge to celebrate festivities and be joyful. Being overweight should not be associated with happiness.”
Dr Candrawinata has also got the Christmas tradition of leaving out milk and cookies for the big guy in his sights.
“Perhaps parents can start the conversation with the kids that maybe leaving green and red apples – which are Christmas colours – for Santa can be a healthier alternative, because at the end of the day we have to start somewhere,” he told news.com.
But not everyone is singing the same tune as Dr Candrawinata.
Perth-based health and community psychologist Dr Marny Lishman believes the contentious claims open a can of worms in regards to body-shaming, and people need to “get a bit of perspective about what’s going on in the world”.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” Dr Lishman told The West Australian.
“To be focusing on a physical body part or an aspect of a person’s body, shaming them for that and making it bigger than Ben Hur, it’s silly and not nice for other people. It takes you on a body-shaming tangent when it shouldn’t be about that.
Dr Lishman believes the happiness, tradition and joy that people experience at this time of year should be “left alone” — especially given the psychological strain of the past few years.
“I think we need to dig a bit deeper and raise our consciousness about what’s really important in life and what our fellow human beings need from each other. That’s more important,” she says.
Perth author and body positivity advocate Heidi Anderson echoed Dr Lishman’s sentiment.
“It feels like fat-shaming Santa,” Anderson told The West.
The former radio host, who recently published her book Drunk on Confidence, believes it is wrong to judge Santa for his eating habits on the one night of the year that he’s a very busy man.
“It doesn’t matter what he looks like. We need to focus on the person, and Santa brings joy. He brings people together, he is the Christmas miracle. It’s like we’re focusing on just the body and not what he brings to other people,” Anderson said.
“This expert was saying ‘we should take it as a teachable moment about health and food’ but for me, Memphis (my son) didn’t mention his weight when he had an interaction with Santa.
“He was just so happy that he got to be in his presence and Santa got to tell him that he was a really brave boy this year.
“To me, that was the magical moment.”
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