A magnetic weight loss device that locks a person’s jaw almost shut has been created to fight a ‘global obesity epidemic’ and, seemingly, reintroduce medieval torture devices to uphold the sexist discourse around weight loss.
I say this, because existing weight loss and diet trends focus predominantly on women and, surprise surprise, only women were chosen for this barbaric trial. These women were only able to open their jaws 2mm wide for two weeks, and were also put on a reduced calorie, liquid-only diet to boot.
Spoiler alert: a reduced calorie, liquid only diet would be enough to make you lose weight without also needing to lock your jaw shut – that’s barbaric overkill, and wildly problematic, of course.
Weight loss device using magnets to stop a person’s jaw from opening enough to eat solids
Developed by scientists in both New Zealand and the UK, the team, which also included alleged medical professionals including Jonathan Bodansky and Richard Hall – whom I’ve stripped of their ‘doctor’ status for the purpose of this post and women everywhere – say they created this device to help fight a global obesity epidemic, and other nonsense which you’ll see further on in the post.
It’s called the DentalSlim Diet Control device, and my assumption is it will need some really great marketing to make it seem like anything other than a torture device targeted at women and created by misogynists. They’re also likely to need a really great public relations team when their target audience inevitably develop serious mental health issues and eating disorders because this is not a weight loss device. It’s a torture device.
“Life in general was less satisfying”
The world’s worst invention uses magnetic devices with locking bolts to remove a user’s body autonomy for an entire fortnight and the women who took part in the trial say they experienced discomfort and had issues with their speech, while also feeling tense, embarrassed and that “life in general was less satisfying”.
One participant admitted she ‘cheated’ by consuming melted chocolate and fizzy drinks, which seems fair enough, because as any fad diet survivor will tell you, it’s only natural to binge eat in a relatively disordered fashion when actively restricting your body of calories and basic rights like chewing.
Paul, who somehow got his medical degree and was hired to work at a university, said that the main barrier to people ‘for successful weight loss’ is establishing ‘new habits’ (like avoiding chewing and speaking) that allow them to comply with a low-calorie diet for a period of time. You need to do this – i.e. lock your jaw – apparently, to ‘kick-start the process’.
Hmm. And here’s me thinking that the key to healthy weight loss was eating well, exercising and being able to talk about your food feelings without losing the ability to speak, because some gargantuan knobheads from the university of wherever, decided to use their hard-earned medical degrees for evil.
This guy also goes on to say that there are no adverse consequences by using this device, because it’s not invasive, it’s economical, and it’s also apparently an attractive alternative to surgical procedures.
I beg to differ, Paul, son. Did you not read that your test subjects experienced a lower quality of life for half a month as a direct result of using the device? That sounds like an adverse effect to me!
This weight loss device has received some much-deserved criticism online
The good people of Twitter called it ‘inhumane’ and ‘comparable to medieval forms of torture’ which you can’t help but agree with, right?
User @gtsio tweeted:
“A world-first and world-last, I sincerely hope. This is a torture device and you should be embarrassed to be promoting it, let alone to be associated with it.”
@Natascha_strobl asked:
“What if somebody needs to throw up? They just choke to death? What if the person has e.g. a heart attack and needs to be intubated quickly? This seems highly unethical.”
We live in a society that upholds problematic diet and food trends, and encourages women in particular, from a dangerously young age, to develop disordered eating habits by blaming women for being skinny, while also demonising them for being too strong, or having cellulite or being overweight.
Ultimately, there is no excuse for promoting devices or diets that force people into problematic weight loss behaviours or techniques – it’s simply barbaric.
In response to valid criticism, the university offered a weak response
“The intention of the device is not intended as a quick or long-term weight-loss tool; rather it is aimed to assist people who need to undergo surgery and who cannot have the surgery until they have lost weight.”
In other words, this is a device aimed at people who need to lose weight within a certain time frame, also known as quickly. But hey, let’s pretend we’re promoting this for people about to undergo surgery, but then also a global obesity epidemic that naturally targets the most vulnerable people in society first and foremost, before branching out to women in general. We all know that’s where this so-called weight loss device is headed.
How big is this weight problem?
Apparently 1.9 billion people worldwide are overweight and here in the UK, just under 30 percent of people are classed as clinically obese. However, we need to remember that in order to obtain this information, the BMI scale was taken into consideration.
And we all know BMI is some racist, sexist bullshit, right?
BMI is bullshit and won’t aid weight loss, pass it on.
The BMI scale was developed almost 200 years ago by Belgian academic (read: not a physician) Adolphe Quetelet, whose studies included astronomy, maths, stats and sociology.
Quetelet had published works across Europe during the early 19th Century – a boom time for racist science. His work inspired and laid the groundwork for people like Cesare Lomboros to create work that indicated people of colour were a separate species, for example. Quetelet was also credited with founding the field of anthropometry, which includes the racist pseudo-science of phrenology.
Somehow the BMI scale has managed to stand the test of time. Presumably because its existence undermines women in particular and upholds immensely sexist and, naturally, capitalist structures designed to keep us subservient, but I digress…
The BMI scale was not actually invented for women. It was invented as a way of quantifying Quetlet’s most focused work, L’homme Moyen (read: the ideal man)’s weight. The formula was based solely on the size and measurements of French and Scottish participants and by the turn of the next century was used as a measurement for the scientific justification for eugenics.
In other words, BMI was used to argue the benefits of the systemic sterilisation of disabled people, autistic people, immigrants, poor people and people of colour.
Weight loss is not so important that you need to lock your jaw shut
I can think of far too many people off the top of my head who will either make a joke about needing this device, or will seriously contemplate it in order to achieve their weight loss goals, and that makes me so bloody sad.
I follow Em Clarkson on Instagram and she recently had her jaw locked shut following some surgery she really needed (i.e. not cosmetic). Watching her recovery was wildly uncomfortable, and in response to this device’s existence, she had the following to say:
This medieval torture device is not the answer to your weight loss woes. It’s another means of controlling and marginalising people in order to uphold a wildly sexist and racist expectation of what society expects people to look like, and it should be condemned at all costs.
