Earlier this week, FoxNews ran a segment on which Ramin Setoodeh, a Newsweek correspondent, and MeMe Roth, a representative from the National Action Against Obesity (NAAO) debated whether “the full-figured teenage Idol Jordin” is physically fit to be an American Idol. (The video is after the jump.)

I might post more on this fat-fitness bait fest later, but you can catch the conversation over at Fat Feminism. Let’s just say that I expect Jordin’s “weight statement” shortly.

For now, I’ll leave you to contemplate how, rather than take this opportunity to educate, Roth uses as evidence for her claim about/on Jordin’s body the fact that Jordin will drop weight once she wins. I am sure Roth is right, but I am not sure that prognisticating on Jordin’s future as thinspiration counts as responsible advocacy. And even though Roth insists that this comment was directed at “unhealthful Hollywood handlers,” it seems to me that she has fallen too easily into the trap of snarking about a woman’s weight as a matter public discourse.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svxLdNsxPSw]

Oh, and by the way, the fact that Jordin is a person of color, and that one is more at risk for weight-related illness if one is “Latino, African American, Asian or Native American,” which Roth is quick to trot out in her statement on the Fox discussion, just doesn’t trump the problematic core of the TV-ready NAASO spokesperson’s argument.

I am a strong advocate for improving people’s access is to quality food and health education, but I am just unclear on how Roth’s point and manner don’t in fact hurt more than help. She makes her statement, but at whose expense?

Correction: This post has been updated to change NAASO (The Obesity Society), to NAAO (National Action Against Obesity).