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Not only is flagrant weight discrimination pervasive in many areas of social life, but overweight people comprise one of the few remaining groups still openly ridiculed with little public condemnation for such action. In the past 15 years, numerous lawsuits have attempted to identify obesity as a civil rights issue, citing cases of discriminatory hiring and firing practices, housing violations, and a lack of access to mandatory safety devices and public transit. Some of these challenges have been successful. However, because no federal laws currently prohibit discrimination against the obese, weight-based discrimination continues to flourish.

Perhaps the most widely accepted form of weight-based discrimination comes in the form of workplace prejudice, insensitivity, and inequity. The loss of livelihood may be blatant; examples range from the aerobics teacher fired because she did not meet the "image" of an aerobics instructor to flight attendant applicants not hired because of their size. Less cited is institutional discrimination, flourishing from stereotypes held about obesity as a perceived disability.

Research shows that obese women earn 12 percent less than non-obese women. Obese men do not face the same wage penalty as women but do tend to be underrepresented and paid less than non-obese men in managerial and professional occupations. Estimated time for an overweight person to find a new job is an average of 3 weeks longer than non-obese job seekers.

Discriminatory attitudes among health care professionals may affect clinical judgments and deter obese persons from seeking care. Many health professionals associate obesity with poor hygiene, hostility, and dishonesty, believing that obese patients are lazy and self-indulgent, lacking self-control. These biases negatively impact medical judgments and practices, such that physicians report discussing weight loss programs with obese patients less than half as often as discussing weight loss programs for mildly obese persons. The National Health Interview Survey reports that obesity is associated with decreased preventative care measures such as breast examinations and gynecological examinations.

Growing research evidence reveals that the obese are more socially isolated than others. For example, both adults and children consistently rank obese children as least likable when compared not only with non-obese children, but also with children with various physical handicaps and disfigurements. This social distancing makes it more difficult for the obese to develop relationships, thus further increasing social isolation and decreasing self-esteem.

Repeatedly, physical appearance links integrally to self-esteem, most notably among adolescents but also among the population at large. Sixty percent of adolescents, females in particular, report lower self-worth because of their appearance. As social animals, humans tend to define themselves by the attitudes of, and their interaction with, others. As such, the obese often suffer from lower self-esteem and a negative self-image, creating heightened levels of psychological distress with the result that those who are overweight are at risk not only of a host of physical problems and ailments but also of ridicule, social isolation, and discrimination.

The social pressure on Western females to literally buy into the culture of thinness is overwhelming. Women are constantly vigilant, their self-esteem hanging on the determination of whether adherence to social norms has been satisfied, allowing escape from condemnation. For some, this escape is elusive, causing self-esteem to plummet.

References:

1) Bruch, Hilde. 1957. The Importance of Overweight. New York: Norton.

2) Critser, Greg. 2003. Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

3) Dowling, Colette. 1988. Perfect Women: Hidden Fears of Inadequacy and the Drive to Perform. New York: Simon & Schuster.

4) Kilbourne, Jean. 1995. Slim Hopes: Advertising and the Obsession with Thinness. Northampton, MA: Media Education Foundation.

5) Pipher, Mary. 2005. Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls. New York: Riverhead.

6) Wolf, Naomi. 1991. The Beauty Myth. New York: HarperPerennial.

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