UK Study Finds Fewer Promotions
If you're ready for a mess of stats that will make you mad, check out this article about fat discrimination in the UK workplace. The gist is that, yes, fat people are less likely to be promoted: out of 3000 HR professionals surveyed, 93% claimed that if two people were equally qualified for a job, and one was "slim", the non-fat person would get the job.
Now, an interesting twist on this is the source: TOAST, The Obesity Awareness and Solutions Trust. (Of course they had to be named after a food, right? Because fat people eat all the time.) Anyway, TOAST is apparently reaching out to people whose lives have been "affected by obesity". Their site is pretty much Fat Acceptance Lite all the way and this study shows it. Their message is pretty clearly that something is very wrong with fat and must be corrected. In the interim if some public policies come up to prevent fat from ever happening, great! Oh, and don't be discriminated against in the workplace, okay? And here are some weight loss tips for you, too. Love your body! (Reduce it!)
It's unfortunate as well, since there are a lot of choice quotes from TOAST in this piece. Studies like this are disconcerting not just for the stats - admitting there is open and blatant fat discrimination - but for the solutions. No, the solution isn't to outlaw discrimination against fat people; it's to tell fat people to lose weight. How, in any world, does that make logical sense?
We're starting to see organizations and pushes like this really get to the forefront, where the idea of getting rid of fat discrimination is covered in a cloak of weight loss, or the sense that fat still isn't acceptable. If you're a "good" fat person, and trying to lose weight - specifically that - then you'll be fine. That's bogus. It's not fat acceptance.
A Fat Rant | Australia's Ambulances Upgraded
Posted by paul on March 21, 2007
Ah, the news link is already broken. I tried searching for an alternate link and haven't found anything so far. Maybe they weren't prepared to get any traffic and will have it fixed soon, maybe they've decided to pull the article altogether.
Edited to add: Perhaps this link will help.
"Their site is pretty much Fat Acceptance Lite all the way"
No it isn't. Their attitude is more like "being fat is tough, stop being mean to us, we are suffering from obesity". They do get the idea that poor treatment of fat people is not acceptable, which is at least something, but they are very much an anti-fat group. They totally buy into the anti-obesity message, but they are against fat discrimination.
I agree with your assessment, Sharon. Thing is, this is "fat acceptance lite" to me anyway: accept your fat, and lose it anyway because it's not your fault/it's an addiction/etc. etc. etc. The suffering angle is heightened with TOAST and that's extremely frustrating.
TOAST's attitude is indeed that fat people are broken in some way and need to be "fixed", and also deserve respect and equality. The problem I have with this, as you can imagine, is the first part: fat people are not broken. In fact I ran into a blog entry from someone affiliated with TOAST which suggests that fat people have food issues. That type of blanket statement is harmful, irresponsible, and simply not true.
Groups like this co-opting parts of our collective message shows that a) our message has power, and b) our movement isn't doing enough to distance itself from questionable organizations like this one.
Good evening Paul.
I agree, we fat people are not broken, and we don't need to be fixed, as far as just being fat is concerned.
Now if one has some health issues such as blood pressure, cholesterol, or diabetes, then those problems need to be fixed, or controlled.
But then, there are a lot of thin and "average" size people who also have issues with blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes, and a lot of fat people who don't have any of those problems.
I also dislike the victim mentality that tends to go along with the anti-fat message. I'm not "suffering from obesity." My body is healthy and strong, and physically, I feel good. I do very little suffering, and I'd like to keep it that way.
If I'm suffering from anything, it's other people's attitudes, and frankly, part of me would rather not know about that. I don't want to go through life being paranoid about discrimination. I don't want to walk into a job interview thinking that my size is an issue, because that will just work against me.
Also, they don't say anything about the study's methodology. People are notoriously poor at estimating others' weight, and very few people know what obesity (by the medical definition) looks like. It's such an ugly word. Ask the personnel people whether they discriminate against everyone who appears to have a "larger build," or is "solid-looking," and see what they say, because that's how a lot of "obese" people - especially those with a BMI under 40 - look to others. Discrimination against very large people is horrible and should be outlawed, but social obesity and medical obesity are two dramatically different things. What it means to be fat in someone else's eyes is completely unpredictable, and unless they used real people who are classified as obese - or at least photos - in this study, then the results are probably meaningless.
This article and study have that "let's prove that being fat is really awful so that we can get unsafe treatments funded by the government" vibe.
Also from the site's "News" headlines:
Bigger Really Is Better, Say Scientists. Women who undergo breast enlargement often experience a huge boost in self-esteem and positive ...
(I didn't actually bother to read the 'article.')
(Original posting quote:)
We're starting to see organizations and pushes like this really get to the forefront, where the idea of getting rid of fat discrimination is covered in a cloak of weight loss, or the sense that fat still isn't acceptable. If you're a "good" fat person, and trying to lose weight - specifically that - then you'll be fine. That's bogus. It's not fat acceptance. (End quote.)
This form of cooptation -- of the small movement we have -- is going on many places. There was an "Obesity" rights organization that was worming its info onto fat acceptance lists a year or two ago, too, with a kind-sounding intro and a vicious slap in the face, following (metaphorically) closely thereafter. Maybe it's a sign that we're pulling too much power away from the dieting industry. I'd sure love to think so!
I wonder if sometimes it isn't too easy for them to claim they are the Middle of the Road and we pro-fat activists are the lunatic extreme. Any cautions toward moderation and away from extremism always cause me consternation over the cooptation of positions on the continuum. I could always make a case for (unneeded) violence as the true extreme, and legislation fully protecting fat people's rights, including the Right To Not Appear To Be Working To Achieve Perfect Health, as the middle ground. It comes down to Who frames the argument? And their framing always makes any group's rights sound extreme.
We fat people are treated like second class citizens.
We have to pay taxes, and our tax dollars go to support the very institutions that discriminate against us. Perhaps we should refuse to pay our taxes.
According to the UK article, about 65% percent of women and 70% percent of men are overweight, and I would guess that the same is true here in the USA as well. We fat people make up the majority of the population, so we now have a situation where the majority of citizens are discriminated against by an elite minority.
I guess the majority of people on this planet do not qualify for jobs, housing, education, medical care, civil rights, and justice under the law. It appears that the majority of the human race has been deemed unworthy of life on this planet.
It's fat oppression under thin supremacy!
So, just who decides that the majority of us are unworthy of life just for being fat? Who makes the decision that only thin people may live as human beings while the rest of us are condemned to live on the outer fringes to fend for ourselves?
Like, who died, and made them God???
Now, I purpose that since we are being treated as second class citizens, then the laws of the land no longer apply to us, since we no longer have any rights.
Therefore, I believe that we are no longer under obligation to pay taxes or obey the laws.
What do you suppose would happen to the economy if 70% percent of the citizens stopped paying taxes? What do you suppose would happen if 70% percent of all drivers got in their cars and went at least 30 to 50 miles per hour above the speed limit, or double parked their cars? What do you suppose would happen if 70 percent of shoppers were to go into a Walmart, or K Mart and shoplifted a $100 dollar item?
This is all hypothetical of course, since I'm not actually suggesting that we do this, but we do have a situation where the fat majority is being discriminated against by an elite thin minority who are getting rich peddling their diet snake oil, diet books, and exercise devices and gimmicks that really don't work, and then, blaming us if we fail to lose weight, or keep it off when we do.
In past centuries, such snake oil peddlers would simply end up modeling the latest fashions in Tar and Feather-ware!
Hey now! There's an idea! I got the feathers, who will bring the tar?
OK, Just kidding!