Episode 4: As Big as it Gets

The new millennium brings new trends, new technologies and new ways to spread toxic beauty standards. And Camp Shane is reaping the benefits. The camp grows to new heights and capitalizes on positive press, but a record number of campers puts serious strain on the staff and facilities. Can the camp handle the influx?

References: 

• The Epic Family Feud Behind an Iconic American Weight-Loss Camp for Kids
• Teenage Waistland by Abby Ellin
• NOVA - The Truth About Fat
• Fearing the Black Body The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings
• Belly of the Beast : The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da’Shaun L. Harrison
• Owner of weight-loss camp admits to evading taxes

Camp Shane—one of America’s longest running weight loss camps for kids—promised extraordinary results. Campers who began the summer in heavy bodies were often unrecognizable when they left. In a society obsessed with being thin, it seemed like a miracle solution.

But there were some dark truths behind  Camp Shane’s facade of happy, transformed children. Kids were being pushed to their physical and emotional limits as the family that owned Shane turned a blind eye. More than 50 years after its founding, host Kelsey Snelling is bringing the real story of Camp Shane to light.

In this eight-episode series, she unpacks and investigates stories of mistreatment and reexamines the culture of fatphobia that enabled a flawed system to continue for so long. Along the way, she reveals and weighs the heavy price of shame.

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