John Ridley on Weightism

Weightism Article

Katherine brought the subject up of weightism in our last class, and since she did I have had this "ism" pop into my everyday life. My husband manages a retail store that is connected to a larger business, and part of his responsibilities include hiring people to work in the store. Other people who are part of the business are in on the hiring process (i.e. the owner and head of HR), since it is a small business. Well recently Joe hired a heavier man, and the owner was in on the hiring process. Later, however, the owner heard someone comment on the man's weight and decided that since he was overweight he should not be working in retail - and he asked my husband to fire him! I was appalled and outraged that this happened, and I told my husband so. He finds it hard to stand up to the business owner (since obviously it can effect his job), and this kind of thing has happened before where he works.

If you read John Ridley's article, I think you will agree that weightism is one of the last acceptable prejudices in our society. America does have a problem with obesity, but like racism or any other "ism" it is more a result of systemic inequalities and problems with our society than it is the fault of any one individually. What makes me so angry is that people like John Ridley don't seem to understand this - they blame obesity solely on the person who is overweight without that society contributes to this problem. For example - the fact that the cheapest foods are the ones that are the most processed and contain the most saturated fat contributes to the combined problem of obesity being a problem with the poor.

I find major fault with his argument that any individual can control their weight - which he says makes it a different issue from race or gender (I guess he isn't taking into account the fact that people can now change their gender!). Who in a society as un-friendly towards the overweight as ours is would CHOOSE to be fat? Anyone who is even 5 pounds "overweight" is always talking about dieting and trying to lose weight. In women especially this can become an obsession. I think most people have as much control over their weight as they do their gender - our body shape comes mostly from our genetic code, not just our eating habits!

Our society has a problem with eating - people eat too much, or they eat the wrong thing, or they eat to little, or they make themselves throw up, or they become completely obsessed with eating the right thing to the point where they live their life around their eating habits. None of these lifestyles are healthy, and I think our society needs to work to find a way to encourage people to live healthy lifestyles and NOT to point fingers at people who have a different body shape than the one that is held up as the ideal by the media.