Overweight And Discrimination

This might get controversial but hey, whatever.

What do you think when you see someone that is overweight? When you meet someone at work that has just started and they are overweight, what are the first thoughts that go through your mind?

This article talks about how there's various movements going on to fight overweight discrimination. Whether it be the fact that some overweight folks are forced to buy two seats on a plane, or some of the research that seems to show overweight people earn less than non-overweight people regardless of job performance and overweight people are less likely to get promoted.

The first thing that I want to mention is that two-thirds of the adult population is overweight or obese in the country. The last part of the above paragraph raises some questions on the issue of overweight people not getting promoted and earning less.

If two-thirds of people are overweight and obese does that mean that all the skinny people are managers, CEOs, supervisors, etc keeping down the overweight people?

When thinking back at job interviews I've had over the last number of years, I don't recall all (or even most) of the interviewers being skinny minnies. In fact, I believe that most of them looked "normal." Meaning that most had a few extra pounds on them.

So if this type of discrimination is going on, doesn't it sound like it's an issue of overweight people discriminating against other overweight people?

If that is the case, is the discrimination happening because the overweight interviewer doesn't really think of themselves as being overweight?

My point is that I don't think this type of discrimination is as clear cut as discrimination against race, sex, sexual preference, etc since this could really be about people not seeing what they themselves are first and foremost and then discriminating against others for what they themselves are.

But back to my earlier questions. I'll admit it. In the past if I saw someone overweight sitting at a restaurant just gorging themselves terms like "lazy, depressed, unmotivated, disgusting" etc. came to mind. And I'll admit, it might have even come to mind when I saw someone overweight just walking down the street. At the same time though, I tend to feel sorry for the person because I know what kind of health issues they are bound to have (if they already haven't gotten them).

But one thing that does make me feel a little better is when I meet someone who is overweight but asks questions about exercise and diet. They ask questions that make me believe that they want to educate themselves to lose weight to reduce the chances that they will have health problems if they continue at their current weight (and let's not forget, even though anti-dieters say you can be overweight and healthy, NOT being overweight significantly reduces the chances of becoming un-healthy).

When someone like that approaches me, I see someone with drive, motivation, adaptability, and a desire for change.

I'm not sure where this anti-dieting movement is going to take us, and although I never condone any type of discrimination, this one might be one of the toughest to get past since it involves so many dynamics and it involves so many people.

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