“Weightism” More Widespread Than Racism
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We all know it is illegal to discriminate against people on the basis of age, race, gender or sexual preference, but researchers from Yale have found that widespread discrimination exists against the overweight and obese. I am quite certain that this information is nothing new to anyone who has ever struggled with their weight. |
The dirty looks you get when you buy fast food, the snickering as you try to squeeze your way into a packed elevator, people staring at you before you enter an airplane hoping their seat is not next to you. This type of stigmatism and stereotyping is terrible to experience, but demonstrates that weight discrimination does exist even in a society that believes in freedom form racial or gender discrimination. Talk about double standards…
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Statistics show that more than half of the population of North America are either overweight or obese so what explains this phenomenon? According to Rebecca Puhl lead author of the Yale study bias against the overweight and obese “remains very socially acceptable in our culture.” According to Puhl even though we live in a society where obesity has reached epidemic proportions our culture still places a premium on fitness. Fitness within our culture symbolizes values such as hard work, ambition and discipline if you are thin you are thought to possess these characteristics. |
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Conversely, if you are overweight or obese then you must be weak and lack self discipline.
What is even more interesting about this study is that researchers found that women were more at risk for experiencing weight discrimination with their chances increasing once their BMI hit 27 putting them in the overweight category. Men on the other hand were not at any increased risk for discrimination until their BMI reached 35 which would place them in the obese category.
It is important to note that overweight and obese people are at an increased risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension and others on an extensive list of serious health related issues. Weight, is not as cut and dry as eating less and exercising more, for many people genetic factors play a role in their struggle with weight. For those people there are a growing number of surgical options both non-invasive (Lap Band surgery) and invasive (Gastric Bypass Surgery). Expert panels from places such as the National Institute of Health have concluded that it is very difficult for certain people to sustain weight loss long-term without surgical intervention.
Studies have indicated that obese people with this predisposition are likely only to sustain a 10% loss of body weight. For a person who weighs 400 pounds that is a weight loss of only 40 pounds which would still leave them at risk for poor health later in life.
Sources:
ABC News:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=4568813&page=1
Yale University:
http://www.yale.edu/opa/newsr/08-03-27-03.all.html
April 3rd, 2008 at 5:40 pm
‘Discrimination’ against obese people in situations like flying is hardly unjustified. It’s not like racism or agism - the obese person will be making their neighbours physically uncomfortable by impinging on their already very limited space.
How many times have you been seated in a crowded plane, train or theatre, and had an obese person next to you, billowing over the armrest and squashed up against you. It’s uncomfortable, particularly on long-haul flights.
I have long arms - but I don’t stick my elbow over the armrest and into your side. When the obese person can control their rolls of fat in the same manner, then they can call it discrimination if someone doesn’t want to sit next to them.
Campaign for larger airline seats - even the more slender of us will appreciate it, but don’t whine about discrimination.
April 3rd, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Its not only weight, sex or race that people are adverse to. Anything or anybody that is not the norm will receive a negative reception.
Even those who claim to be tolerant show a form of discrimination with statements and thoughts of pity.
That in itself, that someone doesn’t meet the standards they themselves live by, is a form of discrimination.
The fact that Christian missionairies travel to countries carrying messages of their beliefs and wish to “impose” their ideals is discriminary.
Those who make such judgements usually have something missing from their own lives. Those that allow themselves to become obese also have strong phsycological shortcomings.
Delusions of grandeur, megalomania, paranoia, and narcissm fill those who discern or discriminate.
But on the other hand, if you don’t discriminate , discern or make judgements, then you are not capable of making sound decisions.
Sorry about the shortness of my reply but thats how it is I believe. The Baldchemist