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THE CANDIDATE for the job is perfect. She’s
experienced in exactly the right field, she’s enthusiastic, bubbly and a people
person. Her CV shows that she’s got a full and active personal life, and in an
interview it’s clear she’s made a lot of effort to find out exactly what your
company does and what the job would involve. She’s also fat.
Would you hire her?
Ms Steenkamp probably would not. Commenting on Sona (State of the Nation Address) fashions via SMS for the Times newspaper (17 February 2014), she said, “Fat is unsuccessful.” (There are at least ten people on Facebook alone with her full name, so I’ll keep it to the surname for fear of unfairly lambasting innocent parties.)
She is not alone in her thinking, of course. “Numerous studies have documented harmful weight-based stereotypes that overweight and obese individuals are lazy, weak-willed, unsuccessful, unintelligent, lack self-discipline, have poor willpower, and are noncompliant with weight-loss treatment.
"These stereotypes give way to stigma, prejudice, and discrimination against obese persons in multiple domains of living, including the workplace, health care facilities, educational institutions, the mass media, and even in close interpersonal relationships.
"Perhaps because weight stigma remains a socially acceptable form of bias, negative attitudes and stereotypes toward obese persons have been frequently reported by employers, co-workers, teachers, physicians, nurses, medical students, dietitians, psychologists, peers, friends, family members, and even among children aged as young as 3 years.
“Recent estimates suggest that the prevalence of weight discrimination has increased by 66% over the past decade, and is now comparable to prevalence rates of racial discrimination in America.” (Obesity Stigma: Important Considerations for Public Health, Rebecca M. Puhl and Chelsea A. Heuer, Am J Public Health. 2010 June; 100(6): 1019–1028.)
"A socially acceptable form of bias”, that’s it. It’s one of the last bastions of prejudice. A hundred years ago it was still okay for a Wasp (the dominant White Anglo Saxon Protestant) to have stereotypes about Jews, Chinese people, Latinos, Africans, Indians and just about any People Who Were Not Like Us.
You’ll still find these prejudices expressed in certain pockets of society, but the mainstream knows that words like dago and wop and the sentiments behind them are simply unacceptable.
Over the intervening century, we’ve also learned something about conditions we once thought of as entirely a matter of personal responsibility: drug addiction and alcoholism, for example. Now we see the power of genetics and other factors beyond the addict’s control.
I saw a T-shirt recently that said: Love thy neighbour. Thy homeless neighbour. Thy Muslim neighbour. Thy gay neighbour. Thy black neighbour. Thy white neighbour. Thy Jewish neighbour. Thy Christian neighbour. Thy atheist neighbour. Thy racist neighbour. Thy addicted neighbour. But not, of course, thy fat neighbour.
Fat is the one remaining condition which we feel comfortable about trashing on a personal level: fat people are (of course) dumb slackers with no willpower.
“The stereotypes run so deep that even obese people hold these same discriminatory beliefs about other obese people. Therefore, it may come as no surprise that research has provided strong evidence that obese people are paid less than their slimmer counterparts,” wrote Freek Vermeulen in Forbes magazine, 22 March 2011.
Hmm, perhaps Ms Steenkamp is right: fat is unsuccessful because people are paid less simply because they’re overweight. Which kinda burns me, because I have two black marks against me: I carry too much weight AND I’m a woman. Bummer.
If being fat means being all those nasty things, like lazy and unintelligent, then I’m in awe at the thought of how Winston Churchill managed to conduct a whole war while fat.
Or how Oprah Winfrey turned herself into a one-woman empire. (Maybe in her case she achieved wildly during her patches of thinness only to revert to couch potato when the weight came back?)
Or how Steve Ballmer managed as overweight CEO of Microsoft for 14 years.
Or how film director and troublemaker Michael Moore earned his success while very overweight.
What’s my point? The stigma around obesity is neither helpful nor true. Not only are you just as likely to find hard-working, disciplined and brilliant people among the overweight, the beliefs that fuel those awful stereotypes are simply wrong: “The view that obesity is a matter of personal responsibility is the prevailing message in the media [which] does not accurately reflect the science.
"Many significant contributors to obesity are beyond the control of individuals. In addition to the important role of genetic and biological factors regulating body weight, multiple social and economic influences have significantly altered the environment to promote and reinforce obesity.” (Puhl and Heuer)
And by the way, stigmatising people does NOT shame them into losing weight – research has shown over and over that name-calling and fat-shaming only results in more disordered eating, from fasting to bingeing.
Seventy five percent of South African women over 35 and 40% of men have expanded waistlines, so you’d be missing out on much of the talent and ability available in the job market if you were prejudiced against people carrying excess kilos.
That might be the next Drew Carey, John Daly or Aretha Franklin walking through your door; give the kid a break, would ya?
- Fin24
*Mandi Smallhorne is a versatile journalist and editor. Views expressed are her own.
Would you hire her?
Ms Steenkamp probably would not. Commenting on Sona (State of the Nation Address) fashions via SMS for the Times newspaper (17 February 2014), she said, “Fat is unsuccessful.” (There are at least ten people on Facebook alone with her full name, so I’ll keep it to the surname for fear of unfairly lambasting innocent parties.)
She is not alone in her thinking, of course. “Numerous studies have documented harmful weight-based stereotypes that overweight and obese individuals are lazy, weak-willed, unsuccessful, unintelligent, lack self-discipline, have poor willpower, and are noncompliant with weight-loss treatment.
"These stereotypes give way to stigma, prejudice, and discrimination against obese persons in multiple domains of living, including the workplace, health care facilities, educational institutions, the mass media, and even in close interpersonal relationships.
"Perhaps because weight stigma remains a socially acceptable form of bias, negative attitudes and stereotypes toward obese persons have been frequently reported by employers, co-workers, teachers, physicians, nurses, medical students, dietitians, psychologists, peers, friends, family members, and even among children aged as young as 3 years.
“Recent estimates suggest that the prevalence of weight discrimination has increased by 66% over the past decade, and is now comparable to prevalence rates of racial discrimination in America.” (Obesity Stigma: Important Considerations for Public Health, Rebecca M. Puhl and Chelsea A. Heuer, Am J Public Health. 2010 June; 100(6): 1019–1028.)
"A socially acceptable form of bias”, that’s it. It’s one of the last bastions of prejudice. A hundred years ago it was still okay for a Wasp (the dominant White Anglo Saxon Protestant) to have stereotypes about Jews, Chinese people, Latinos, Africans, Indians and just about any People Who Were Not Like Us.
You’ll still find these prejudices expressed in certain pockets of society, but the mainstream knows that words like dago and wop and the sentiments behind them are simply unacceptable.
Over the intervening century, we’ve also learned something about conditions we once thought of as entirely a matter of personal responsibility: drug addiction and alcoholism, for example. Now we see the power of genetics and other factors beyond the addict’s control.
I saw a T-shirt recently that said: Love thy neighbour. Thy homeless neighbour. Thy Muslim neighbour. Thy gay neighbour. Thy black neighbour. Thy white neighbour. Thy Jewish neighbour. Thy Christian neighbour. Thy atheist neighbour. Thy racist neighbour. Thy addicted neighbour. But not, of course, thy fat neighbour.
Fat is the one remaining condition which we feel comfortable about trashing on a personal level: fat people are (of course) dumb slackers with no willpower.
“The stereotypes run so deep that even obese people hold these same discriminatory beliefs about other obese people. Therefore, it may come as no surprise that research has provided strong evidence that obese people are paid less than their slimmer counterparts,” wrote Freek Vermeulen in Forbes magazine, 22 March 2011.
Hmm, perhaps Ms Steenkamp is right: fat is unsuccessful because people are paid less simply because they’re overweight. Which kinda burns me, because I have two black marks against me: I carry too much weight AND I’m a woman. Bummer.
If being fat means being all those nasty things, like lazy and unintelligent, then I’m in awe at the thought of how Winston Churchill managed to conduct a whole war while fat.
Or how Oprah Winfrey turned herself into a one-woman empire. (Maybe in her case she achieved wildly during her patches of thinness only to revert to couch potato when the weight came back?)
Or how Steve Ballmer managed as overweight CEO of Microsoft for 14 years.
Or how film director and troublemaker Michael Moore earned his success while very overweight.
What’s my point? The stigma around obesity is neither helpful nor true. Not only are you just as likely to find hard-working, disciplined and brilliant people among the overweight, the beliefs that fuel those awful stereotypes are simply wrong: “The view that obesity is a matter of personal responsibility is the prevailing message in the media [which] does not accurately reflect the science.
"Many significant contributors to obesity are beyond the control of individuals. In addition to the important role of genetic and biological factors regulating body weight, multiple social and economic influences have significantly altered the environment to promote and reinforce obesity.” (Puhl and Heuer)
And by the way, stigmatising people does NOT shame them into losing weight – research has shown over and over that name-calling and fat-shaming only results in more disordered eating, from fasting to bingeing.
Seventy five percent of South African women over 35 and 40% of men have expanded waistlines, so you’d be missing out on much of the talent and ability available in the job market if you were prejudiced against people carrying excess kilos.
That might be the next Drew Carey, John Daly or Aretha Franklin walking through your door; give the kid a break, would ya?
- Fin24
*Mandi Smallhorne is a versatile journalist and editor. Views expressed are her own.
