Weight Discrimination
Weight discrimination has become an ever-increasing problem in the world. In a recent study, evidence was discovered that people who loose a significant amount of weight can, in fact, increase their personal wealth. "The typical person who loses or gains a few pounds had almost no change in wealth, but those who lost or gained large amounts of weight had a more dramatic change," study author Jay Zagorsky, research scientist at Ohio State University’s Center for Human Resource Research, said in a prepared statement. The study found that white women who reduced their body mass index (BMI) by 10 points experienced an average wealth increase of $11,880. A similar decrease in BMI was linked to a wealth increase of $12,720 among white men and an increase of $4,480 among black women. On the other hand, significant increases in BMI were linked to a medium-sized drop in wealth for black women and large wealth declines for white women. Similar weight gain had little impact on men’s net wealth, however.” Could weight discrimination be at the heart of this matter? The fact that weight gain had a negative impact on white and black women, yet little or no impact on men is troubling. The article goes on to say, “Zagorsky said there’s no way to tell from the data whether losing weight was the reason for the gain in wealth, but he believes there’s a definite link. One possible explanation is that overweight and obese people face discrimination in the workplace and don’t earn as much money as normal weight people.”
I am angered, but hardly astounded by these facts, living as we do in this image-obsessed society. However, I am astonished by the fact that we fight so hard to erase all other prejudices and discrimination, yet no one does anything to derail weight discrimination. Any discrimination is wrong. If employers are legally obligated to make no employment decisions based on race, religion or sex, why is it that nothing hinders them from using weight as a factor in these decisions?
While I recognize the health risks of being overweight, looking at this logically, no one would fire someone for having heart disease or cancer. It is not your employer’s place to make health-related decisions for you, yet you know that if you remain overweight you could very likely be passed over for a raise or position that you are eminently qualified for in every other respect. This is blatant discrimination. I do not believe that it is right to sit by and allow these things to happen.
As a woman who has always been large, my experiences with weight discrimination had, up till now, been below the surface, almost undetectable. During high school and college my experiences were of the being overlooked as a romantic interest variety. I was always much too apprehensive to actually ask fellows out, so my sufferings generally belonged to the unrequited-love school of adolescent emotions.
I’ve always feared that my size was at the root of my forever being the friend and never the girlfriend dilemmas. While these thoughts hurt, until recently, I’ve always been able to push them away or shrug them off. As I got older, I began to feel bombarded by all sides to conform to today’s standard of beauty. One day my sister gave me a recording of the pop-opera Bare. One of songs was entitled, "A Quiet Night at Home". In this song, the character, Nadia, sings about being left out of the dating scene and her mother’s advice to "slim down, dear, things will change. For, after all, you’ve such a pretty face." As I listened to it, I suddenly realized that this was my life! Immediately my mother’s voice rang in my head. "Rebecca, men are shallow and superficial. If you don’t lose weight, they’ll never notice you." I actually began to cry and came to the realization that I wasn’t as thick-skinned as I believed myself to be. As many times as we tell ourselves not to worry about it, or that men aren’t so great anyway, most women do want a loving relationship.
On the career front, my passion has always been opera and musical theatre performance. If you ask someone to tell you what they think when you say opera, most of them would probably say, “The fat lady with the helmet and braids.” In recent years, opera companies have been sizing down their stars. Apparently, someone who is of generous proportions is not a believable love interest or cannot play someone who is considered beautiful. As far as I know, opera companies have no problem hiring large men for lead roles. I was informed that though I have sufficient talent for opera, the rest of me is too sufficient. I was given this advice: "If you want to pursue a career in opera, you will have to resolve you weight issue." Do they believe that I can magically reduce my size, just because they tell me too? When one has always been large, it’s terribly difficult to lose weight and keep it off. It’s not as if I’ve not tried many diets.
On the upbeat side of things, I recently found several websites selling cute, trendy, attractive clothes in plus-sizes. Zaftique.com and SizeAppeal.com are two of them. I would love to take a stand against weight discrimination in my hometown. It’s a terrible prejudice. I long to educate people so that they’ll notice it when it happens. In the end, I’m vowing to do my best to be healthy and active and will remain "Big, Blonde and Beautiful", for as the song says, "How can I deny the world the most of me?"
Rebecca
