I was wondering if you all would take my survery, and post your comments on being discrimanted against. I face it almsot everyday in department stores, applying for jobs, even in my school work. I thought this would be an interesting topic.

Evidence of discrimination is found at virtually every stage of the employment cycle, including selection, placement, compensation, promotion, discipline and discharge, according to a research review by Mark Roehling, a professor in the Department of Management, Western Michigan University. In addition, the bias extends to assessments of overweight individuals in their various work-related roles both as subordinates and co-workers. Of his findings, Roehling said, "Overall, the evidence of consistent, significant discrimination against overweight employees is sobering."

Roehling reviewed 29 research studies of employment discrimination that included both laboratory and field studies. He found that:

1. Overweight persons were subject to discrimination in employment decisions based on body weight.
   
   
2. Overweight persons were frequently stereotyped as emotionally impaired, socially handicapped and as possessing negative personality traits.
   
   
3. Wages of mildly obese white women were 5.9 percent lower than standard weight counterparts; morbidly obese white women were 24.1 percent lower, according to two studies. In contrast to females, the wages of mildly obese white and black men were higher than their standard weight counterparts. Men only experienced wage penalties at the very highest weight levels.
   
   
4. "Studies assessing the effect of both employee weight and other suspected bases for discrimination (sex, specific disabilities, etc.) provide evidence of the relative level of weight-based bias; they suggest that weight-related bias may be greater than that associated with other characteristics.
   
   For example, Pingitore et al's (1994) study manipulating applicant weight, applicant sex and job type, found that applicant weight explained 34.6% of the variance in hiring decisions. In contrast 10.6% of the variance was explained by the sex of the applicant.
   
   Brink (1988) examined the potential effect of applicant weight, age, sex and race on ratings of candidate acceptability in a laboratory setting. Overweight candidates were rated significantly lower, but none of the other manipulations has a significant effect. A final example is provided by Kennedy and Hormant's (1984) investigation of the effect of social stigmas on decisions regarding employee discharge. They found that participants displayed more negative attitudes toward overweight employees than ex-felons or ex-mental patients."
   
   
5. Michigan is the only state that prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of weight. In studies conducted in settings unrelated to employment, Roehling found some evidence that overweight women were evaluated more negatively than overweight men. Although the findings were not consistent, Roehling stated, "Where an interaction is found, overweight women are evaluated more negatively than overweight men." He also found that overweight persons are denigrated by doctors, nurses, peers, small children and their parent(s).
   
   

Wages and Benefits

Several studies have found that women with obesity earned less than non-obese women.

In a study by Rothblum and colleagues, of persons who were 50 percent or more above their ideal weight, 26 percent reported they were denied benefits such as health insurance because of their weight and 17 percent reported being pressured to resign or fired because of their weight.

Legal Issues

The Civil Rights Act of 1964, (Title VII, 42 U.S.C. §2000 et seq.) established basic federal law on employment discrimination. It does not identify weight as a protected characteristic, and as a result does not provide direct protection for obese individuals who have been discriminated against by their employer due to their weight.

The differential application of weight standards, formal or informal, to members of protected classes may constitute disparate treatment discrimination.

In Gerdom v. Continental Airlines Inc., 692 F2d. 602, 30 FEP 235 (9th Cir. 1982; en banc), the court determined that the airline's weight restriction program treated employees differently based on sex because it was designed to apply only to females, and "it was not merely slenderness, but slenderness of female employees which the employer considered critical." The airline argued that it had a competitive strategy featuring attractive flight attendants and that a slender female was a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ). The court rejected this argument holding that customer preference unrelated to the ability to do the job cannot justify discriminatory policies.

Disparate treatment may also be found if weight policies designed to apply to all groups are enforced at a significantly higher rate against a protected group. Union of Flight Attendants v. Pan American World Airways, Inc., 50 FEP 1698 (N.D. Cal 1987)

An employer's use of formal or informal weight standards may involve illegal discrimination if, though neutral on its face, the rule has a significant disparate impact on a protected class. In other words, if a claimant established that the weight rule was having an adverse impact on African Americans, Title VII would require an employer to justify its weight rules by showing that it is job-related and consistent with business necessity.

Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

The Rehabilitation Act and the ADA provide protection against employment discrimination. Under both acts, a person must establish that he or she is an individual with a disability within the meaning of the acts. This includes anyone who has a physical or mental disability that substantially limits one or more major life activities of the individual, a record of such impairment or who is regarded as having such impairment. Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC)

EEOC regulations define "major life activities" as "functions such as caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning and working. The regulations require that the 'working" limitation requires evidence of being significantly restricted in the ability to perform either a class of jobs or a broad range of jobs in various classes as compared to the average person having comparable training, skills and abilities. The inability to perform a specific job does not constitute a substantial limitation in the major life activity of working. The EEOC regulations implementing the ADA explicitly excludes height or weight within normal ranges and are not the result of a physiological disorder. According to the regulation, obesity will considered as a disability except in "rare circumstances." (29 C.F.R. §1630.2)

Well in regards to adoption- I know two of our three times one of the reasons our birth families told us they picked up was that I was overweight. I looked like I knesw what it was like to be discriminated against and that I would be accepting of their little one- no matter what. In relationship to our agency- (all agencies in our state at that time used same form) and it did ask on my doctors form is my weight was stable for past 3 years and would it or any othe r thing preclude me from providing adequate care for a child. ***note same question was on dh form also - and he was 6' 3" and 180 lbs.

Other than that I wish I could say I had a few fond memories of high school or grade school- but like Teresa- similair story - However I loved my 20 year reunion - I could see all the fatties now!!! Those *&** cheerleaders and such- after a few kids and a couple divorces looke real bad and real old thanks to all those tanning beds- but not ME!!!!

I have been discriminated against in each of these ways, and in other ways. Methods of discrimination that seem kind, but are really painful jabs at a sensitive ego.

How many times have I been told that "You're not fat, look at that guy, now HE'S fat" If I'm not fat, why point out the person who is the epitome of fat?

How many times have I heard "You're not fat. And besides you carry it well." Carry what well?

Plus sizes $7.00 more

"Wear stripes, they're slimming." No, diet and exercise is slimming. Now I look like a fat convict.

And, in some subconscious way wasn't "Clean your plate" the ultimate discrimination? Why not say "Hmmmmm, you don't seem addicted to anything, why not try food?"

And what about the jokes your "friends" tell you?

What about those well meaning morons who say "Have you ever thought of going on a diet?" Why no, I haven't. Have you ever thought?

Then there's the biggest "fat bigot" of them all. Me. Bigoted against me. Descriminating against myself. Telling myself those horrible lies. "She won't want to go out with you, you're too fat". Don't go to the theatre, the seats are too small." "Don't go to that restaurant, it's tables, not booths, so they'll all be staring at the fat guy, eating."

There are a million stings in the hive of prejudice. We wield the sharpest ourselves. I have hated the man in the mirror over the years. He's a weakling who can't stop eating.

Every eye sees us. Every heart judges. But our eyes are harder, our judgement harsher, our strikes go deeper than any other.

Let them ridicule me who will. They are second class to me. I can hate me better than any of them.

Yes, the stranger casts a sideward glance. The people murmur to each other when I walk by. But, truth be told, I am the real Enemy.

Even down a hundred pounds I still hear the voices of derision. Most of them are heard with my soul and not my ears.

I guess it comes from being almost 35 but frankly I don't care. I have a wonderful husband who married me at 100 pounds more than I weigh now. I have a degree and a secure job in a shortage area where they can't afford to discriminate against qualified candidates. I teach the highest level in my discipline.

If I am being discriminated against and I know it, I am quite likely to in nicer terms tell them to fuck off and that I will not bring my business to them again.

If someone is discriminating against me in personal terms, then screw them as I wouldn't want to hang around with them anyway.

You can sit around and decry the world or get out and live. Make yourself indispensible and the fat will not be the first thing people see about you. It will be your excellence.

Yes, it is liberating getting older!!!!

I was really glad to find this post. I am going to be banded on 12/28 (less than two days) and I am so happy but fearful in the same regards. I was really heavy growing up, my father weighed over 400lbs and basically all we did was eat. I remember people talking about the "fat girl" When I was in 7th grade at a drama contest, I was sitting at a lunchroom table eating a piece of pizza, one boy walked by and said "damn fatty did you leave anything for the rest of us?" I over compensated, as most overweight people do, with a great personality. I was the girl with so many guy friends and no boyfriends. When I started college in 1996, people would look at me and the blonde skinny girls would run circles around me. I'd always sit in the back of the class, and though my grades were great I was hiding. I remembered being at a club smoking a cigarette and a man said "damn those fat bitches." I met a skinny friend with an eating disorder and started hanging out with her. She was bullemic and annorexic. I started following her lead and in 7 months lost 80lbs. I was still a big girl but I could shop in the smaller stores but buy the bigger sizes. Weight was an obsession with me and I threw up for 7 years. I finally couldn't do it anymore and gave up on working out, eating right etc. Here I am today, 10 years later and weight 310 lbs. Tonight my fiance' and I went to Bennigans and ate--we ate more than usual, I figured "hey one last hoorah" and an older thin couple was smirking at us. I do not know if it's that I was wedged into the booth or because my fiance is black and I'm white---add that to your list of discrimination. It's funny how people look at you when they don't know you. I'm a college graduate, I have a good job and a great family--but people see a fat white girl and a black man. We never really know if people are looking at my weight, our differences in color of a combination of both. I guess we'll find out in the next months. Thanks for the survey and information, though I'm way past the original post it definitely was an eye opener.

YES WE TEND TO BE HARDER ON ARE SELF'S.....PEOPLE ALWAYS TOLD ME THAT I CARRYED MY WEIGHT WELL,YEAH RIGHT NO MATTER HOW YOU CUT IT I WAS FAT!!!!!

I WENT TO A RESORT AND WAS HORRIFED HAVING TO WALK AROUND WITH NO SHIRT ON (SEEM'S FUNNY NOW ) BUT i WAS HAPPY WHEN I SAW SOME ONE LARGER THEN ME!

I WAS ALWAYS HARD ON MY SELF BUT FEEL A GREAT DEAL OF EMPATHY FOR OTHER PEOPLE WHO WERE HEAVY BECAUSE AT TIMES IT WAS HARD,PEOPLE JUST LOOK AT YOU DIFFERNTLY?

TREAT YOU DIFFERENT;I WOULD RUN INTO MY HOUSE IF I WAS WORKING IN MY YARD WITH NO SHIRT ON ( PRETTY STUPID ) LOW SELF ASTEAM

....AFTER I' LOST ALL THAT WEIGHT I WENT FOR A WALK AROUND MY WHOLE TOWN NO SHIRT ON DOWN THE HIGH WAY!

LOOK AT ME!!!!!!!! IT FELT LIKE I WAS OUT OF HUMAN PRISON AND THEN AFTER THAT (I COULD DO ANY THING ) PEOPLE WALK UP TO ME EVERY DAY AND SAY WOW IS THAT YOU I COULD ONLY TELL IT WAS YOU ONLY BY YOUR VOICE.

WEIGHT HOLDS US BACK IN EVERY WAY AND SHAPE FROM JOB'S TO EMOTION'S,PLAYING WITH YOUR KIDD'S OR COMPLACATION'S WITH HEALTH ISSUE'S.

I'HAVE 17.6 POUNDS TO LOSS THEN IM GOING TO MAINTAIN THERE AND JUST STAY HEALTHY AND FIT!

I WEIGHED IN AT 197.6 THIS MORNING AND DID NOT CHANGE IT AT THE BOTTOM OF MY POST BECAUSE I WILL LOSE THAT 2.6 POUNDS IN A DAY OR SO.

WELL EVERY ONE KEEP ON PUSHING FORWARD AND SOON YOU WILL BREAK THROUGH I HOPE YOU WILL ALL MEET YOUR WEIGHT LOSS GOAL'S IN TIME.

Vines, I've noticed that alot of negative attitude comes moreso from women than men. I've gotten dirty looks from women countless times.

One time I was sitting in the beauty parlor getting my hair done and the one hairdresser who is pencil thin was calling some one they all knew a fat slob, a fat this and a fat that and that this person should keep their mouth shut and not eat, boy did they rip this person a new orfus. Meanwhile, me almost 300 lbs is sitting there with a red face not knowing where to look. It seems that every time I go there she mentions weight. I just wish I had the nerve to tell her or her boss that she is being rude, but I don't

Hi All~

I have been discrimated against in the work force. I worked as a waitress part time in a small family owned pizzeria. It was a favorite place for the local policemen to "collect" their thoughts and finish reports. They would order food and coffee (free to him, might I add) and work on whatever paperwork they needed to have done that night. One night the regular guys came in and did not have much to do, and one said to his partner - referring to me - "My God, she is huge." I was embarrassed and did not act as if I heard him. I served them their free food and was pleasant to them. The guy that said that QUIT coming into the restaurant on the nights I worked. I was fired within a couple of weeks of his comment. And I again weigh that same weight now. It hurts to think of this moment...

How many times have I heard "You're not fat. And besides you carry it well." Carry what well?

"Wear stripes, they're slimming." No, diet and exercise is slimming. Now I look like a fat convict.

And, in some subconscious way wasn't "Clean your plate" the ultimate discrimination? Why not say "Hmmmmm, you don't seem addicted to anything, why not try food?"

I so agree and can so relate to these. I was thin all through high school (size 5) but never felt thin. WHen I turned 22 I started packing on the pounds and with a bad first pregnancy it just kept going up from there.

I hated going around people who knew me in high school because I know they are thinking ...Oh my gosh what happened to her. I had an uncle who always would tell me the only way you are ever going to lose weight is to push yourself away from the table as fast as you came running to the table. I still hate him!!! Like he had room to talk he was bald and fat...LOL I have always been told you are so beautiful and have such a great personlity, if only you weren't so big.

I was shopping for my niece a Christmas present at Vanity and the sales lady (thin little biatch) came up to me and said "can I help you?" I said no I am just looking and she had the nerve to say "well you do know that we DO NOT carry your size here don't you" It caught me so off guard that the first thing out of my mouth was "ya f@#@#ing think"!!!!! I am not shopping for me you little twitt, and with that I left the store.

So yah, I have been discriminated against but I am beautiful and have a great personality and carry my weight well so I will get over it!!!!LOL

I must say that I have never knowingly been discriminated against!

Also, how do morbidly obese folks "carry and present" themselves to the public? I've always came across as a mannerly, smiling person, with good self esteem (on the outside). I've never felt less-than the other person. Do persons with weight issues put forth a different attitude when they are feeling less-than? Hmmm. Does that reflect how we are treated by the public?

I say "maybe." I also say there are differences in treatment, by the public, depending how MUCH you are overweight and circumstances. Someone 50 lbs overweight might be treated less severe than someone 200 lbs overweight.

Either way, when discriminations happens, it is very sad and unfortunate.

Shawn

CC, please don't go there, are you suggesting that the stories you read in this thread are written by people who don't know how to act in public. Sometimes it easier to blame the person who is being discriminated against that way it makes it easier when we discrimate. Maybe it provides us with a sense of right when we wrong someone if we can blame them.

CC, please don't go there, are you suggesting that the stories you read in this thread are written by people who don't know how to act in public. Sometimes it easier to blame the person who is being discriminated against that way it makes it easier when we discrimate. Maybe it provides us with a sense of right when we wrong someone if we can blame them.

NOPE! NO blaming here, just observation and opinion. But I do know folks (including myself) that haven't been waited on, in a retail environment etc., but aren't assertive enough to "ask" for help. Is it because they are moribly obese or the store has bad customer service? Heck! Customer service is nonexistent, in my town, unless you BEG for it! :confused: I just say, that in some circumstances, the lines are blurred.

Yes, I do agree discrimination occurs...no doubt about it!

Shawn

not that I know of really, however one summer we were at the lake boating and his dad pulled the boat up next to the dock for me to get in because he said I may not be able to use the latter...He didnt mean it to be mean and he was prob. right but it still hurt I didnt wanna go boating after that :grouphug: I felt too fat to go

We went out to eat and drink last night. A night away from the kids. I was so excited, and was totally dolled up and rarin' to go. I have been working many many hours (103 the week before last) and really needed the break. Had a night of good food, good friends, good fun, and lots of dancing planned.

Get to the restaurant, and the waitress states loudly that they better seat us at a table, because i prolly wouldn't fit into the booths. I had been there before. Fit just fine, with room. And our friends we totally shocked. They tried to hide it, but you could see their initial reaction was shock and sympathy.

But I put it aside. No big deal. Maybe she was really trying to be nice to forsee a possible problem. Ok.

Then she came to take our order. I order lasagna. She says that they are out of lasagna but that they have some really good options on the back of the menu. EVERYONE at the table flip the menu over and see that it is their "lighter fare" menu. Tera, my friend just stares at her in shock. Then looks at me and says "no, you should get the ravioli, its really good." So I do.

Then about 10 minutes after our food comes out I see 2 dishes of lasagna served to a table a little ways from us. I felt fat all night, didn't want to dance, and drank waaaaay more than I should have just because I was feeling sorry for myself. So much for a much needed night out.

Then about 10 minutes after our food comes out I see 2 dishes of lasagna served to a table a little ways from us. I felt fat all night, didn't want to dance, and drank waaaaay more than I should have just because I was feeling sorry for myself. So much for a much needed night out.

Oh, Amy. I'm soo sorry. You would probably be much to nice, but I think I would have complained to the manager about the lasagna episode.

Amy, you poor thing............I originally missed your post, it had gone over to the 2nd page and I didn't see it. But, my goodness what a horrible experience. I think I would have gone to the management and complained about that waitress, making sure I got her name, description, everything. I might have waited til I had a couple drinks in me to boost my confidance, but I definatly would have gone to management. She sounds like she's in the wrong business.

Gosh this is a great subject. Although I hadn't really thought about it until you asked the question. Initially I thought that I hadn't really felt discriminated against, but then I started working it over in my mind.

At least 5 or 6 years ago I had applied for a job. I was more than qualified and I was very excited about the prospects of this job. I interviewed. They called me and said they gave it to someone else. When I found out that the "someone else" was someone who I was currently TRAINING for the field I was flabberghasted. I spoke to someone at the company after that and was told that she simply "interviewed better." I was so terribly hurt that this company would hire someone who hadn't even finished training for the field she was planning on being a manager for. It was my understanding that the training I was providing was her ONLY experience in this particular field. Now, I wonder if it didn't have something to do with my weight. I hadn't really thought about it and I probably would have been even more hurt at the time had I even considered it.

In the past, I have been "snubbed" by store clerks but I'm not so sure that qualifies as discrimination. To be honest, that's one of the main reasons I hate shopping. I hate being looked at sideways and knowing that they're thinking all kinds of horrible things about the way I look.