No Weight to Escape

Ask someone her weight and she’ll look at you like just spoke Swahili.

Some people aren’t willing to weigh themselves unless they’re starving, soaked in sweat and sans clothing. With the bathroom door double-locked.

Imagine if you were forced to weigh yourself in public. Not the gym. Real public. Sound terrifying? Your nightmares can come true in the Netherlands. An ad campaign for the Netherlands branch of Fitness First has planted a scale on a bus stop that weighs the sitter as they wait. If that weren’t extreme enough, the bright red flashing numbers can likely be seen from a few block radius.

That attractive guy or girl waiting with you will know your weight before your name.

Fitness First believes this method will make people want to join the gym after their public reveal. Doubtful. The exposé is more likely to cause embarrassment than eagerness to immediately hop on the elliptical.

People despise weighing in at the doctors, let alone in front of a slew of strangers. Some people flat-out refuse to weigh themselves. Others lie about the number. The majority of women falsify their driver’s license and online dating profile weight.

Although I’m not ashamed about revealing my weight, the thought of a public weigh in makes me uneasy. Unless you’re vying for a $250,000 prize on “The Biggest Loser,” you’re probably not pleading for a wayside weigh-in. America’s fixation on weight is certainly unhealthy. For many, the scale is a mood-meter: A loss is an upper and a gain is a downer. This subway scale has the power to cause even more figure fixation.

We know weight is just a number, but few people honestly believe it. We’re a bit more anxious about lbs than logarithms, after all.

If street corner scales ever spread to America, you can guarantee that more people will be standing for the subway. Or, at the very least, they’ll take their doctor’s office mantra to the streets: Strip down as much as is socially acceptable before stepping—rather, sitting—on the scale.