Hi, this is Coach Sarah. As you’ve probably seen if you follow me and Coach MK on Facebook, we are paying close attention to the way people are reacting to the movie Brittany Runs A Marathon. I myself saw the trailer and immediately knew that I personally did not want to see the movie, because I got a strong whiff of marathon training equals weight loss equals yay, and I wanted nothing to do with it. But the positive attention it’s gotten - among other things, a 90% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes - made me think maybe I was wrong to feel targeted by that message, that maybe I was missing something.

Well, once we asked for input on social media, Coach MK and I started getting all KINDS of responses from people who, like me, felt turned off by what they saw in the trailer but didn’t want to say so publicly for fear of being a party pooper.

Lucky for us, Amy, who has been training with Coach MK for years, knows the party don't start till she walks in. She was kind enough to record a detailed breakdown of the Brittany Runs A Marathon trailer, frame by frame, identifying the things that immediately jumped out at her as problematic and fat-shaming. Amy gave us permission to share the audio from her screencasts as a bonus episode of the Fitness Protection Podcast. This is a preview of what you’ll be hearing from Coach MK and me over the next two weeks. Both of us had a lot to say about the movie, and as it turned out, so did our community.

If you saw this movie and enjoyed it, please know that we are not criticizing you or saying that you’re wrong. We want to validate the viewpoints of those who felt very differently about what they saw - the very discomfort that many of those people felt about voicing their concerns and their hurt openly and publicly told us a lot about how hard it is to be the person who feels erased by something that they know they’re *supposed* to enjoy.

Enjoy Amy’s biting commentary - we sure did - and listen in this week and next for a two-part episode in our Brainfire of the Vanities series on how different types of privilege impact the way we consume pop culture, and how we internalize harmful messages...even the ones presented as jokes. The Fitness Protection Program aims to make the intersection of body image and fitness a place where EVERYONE feels welcome, never shamed or judged.