In order to find some interesting online commenters I thought that one of the best hunting grounds would be a health blog. Health is an interesting topic because to some extent it is a political topic and discussions can become controversial for people who are passionate about this issue.
The blog I found is called Weighty Matters: Musings of An Obesity Medicine Doc and Certifiably Cynical Realist. The author of this blog is Yoni Freedhoff and when I read his profile I get the impression that he is opposed to the medicalization of obesity. His blog posts seem to focus on the social causes of bad health.
The medicalization of a condition such as obesity means that an individual who has been diagnosed as obese has a high chance of being given a prescription drug or undergoing a surgery. Meanwhile, the social structures that are affecting this person's health in a negative way will remain unaddressed.
The post that I chose is titled 'The Unhealthy Celebrity Endorsement Shame Page'.
This short post has the above image of Beyoncé and the text in the magnified screen-cap below.
The first comments are very positive and there is a pattern of people who are supportive of the idea.
Some comments even show how people are inspired to take this idea to new creative levels.
So far, things are going great in the comments section of this Weighty Matters blog post. The commenters are receptive to each others' perspectives about social change and most people are sharing links to relevant examples of influential public figures who are promoting products that are known to be unhealthy. I don't think that anybody could have foreseen that this party was about to be broken up by this next comment.
Kendra has just played the 'Bully Card' by blurring the lines between standing up for a cause and bullying someone. I think I just felt my jimmies rustling.
Kendra is quickly supported by an Anonymous commenter.
The anonymous commenter is suggesting that if people joined an online group that speaks out against celebrities who endorse unhealthy products then they are bullies. A response from another Anonymous commenter rebukes Kendra's comment and offers support for the blogger.
It seems that this final commenter got to put in the last word. It would have been a stronger comment if the commenter had provided a link to an article about the Nelly Furtado issue. This would provide an interesting perspective on the effects of so-called bullying of celebrities.
The issue of bullying is raised by Kendra and I think this tells us a lot about her. Kendra may have been a victim of bullying or her children may be victims to bullying. Kendra makes a generalized reference to 'media attention about bullying' yet she provides no links or supporting information that would allow the conversation to continue flowing. Kendra wants blog readers to know that even though their intentions are good they should re-think their approach. My problem is that Kendra does not suggest any alternative ways to raise awareness about advertising unhealthy products to children.
Kendra ends her comment with a loaded question that is full of assumptions. She is attempting to make a strong stance against bullying, but as we unravel her comment we start to see that she may be barking up the wrong tree. Everything was going just fine before Kendra showed up.
Kendra does not back up her argument with facts and statements that show that celebrities can be negatively affected when people criticize them for endorsing unhealthy products. I think that the biggest flaw with Kendra's argument is that celebrities are public figures and they make money by appealing to the public. What Yoni is suggesting is a web site or an online community that not only raises awareness about advertising to children but also raises the bar for celebrity endorsements.
I have an arousing suspicion that Kendra may have posted that anonymous comment to support her own comment. Kendra's comment and the first Anonymous reply are inconsistent with the other comments on this blog because they both contain errors and seem to have been written very quickly without any editing. The language that is used by the blogger and by some of the other commenters is at a higher level than the language used in Kendra and her anonymous friend's comments.
In the end, I think that the final commenter could have used a more respectful tone and they could have drawn attention to the fact that this conversation is about the health of children and not the careers of celebrities. This final commenter had the power to educate Kendra and to explain that products such as Pepsi have real-life health implications on Canadian children and that taking action against a giant corporation such as Pepsi is not really bullying.
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