“That fat people are paid less, that fat people are hired less often, that fat people are less likely to have jobs that provide benefits like retirement,” Boero said.Īnd when you add all of those disadvantages up over a lifetime, “you see a huge economic impact for larger people,” she said.īans against body-size discrimination at least give victims some legal recourse.
She says the misconception that people are in control of the size of their bodies gets used to justify all sorts of discrimination.
“Culturally we still tend to view size discrimination as the fault of the individual fat person,” said Natalie Boero, a sociologist at San Jose State University. At the time in New York City, discrimination based on body size was perfectly legal. She understands now that she was working in a hostile environment. “From that point of view of, I’m just trying to help you succeed because this is the reality of the business,” she said, “But the fact of the matter is I was at work being really blatantly stigmatized.” “I felt that they were right, that I owed my talent a different body,” Cox said.Ĭox came to believe that cruel comments about her appearance - even suggestions that she get weight loss surgery - were just part of the job. Tracy Cox has been a professional opera singer for over a decade, and she’s performed with some prestigious companies like the Metropolitan Opera in New York.īut early in her career, mentors and colleagues convinced her that she needed to be smaller to succeed. But everywhere else in the country, people who experience body-size discrimination aren’t protected.
cities including San Francisco Madison, Wisconsin and Urbana, Illinois, along with the states of Michigan and Washington, in adding body size to the list of protected characteristics. New York City Mayor Eric Adams has signed into law a measure banning discrimination based on height and weight in employment, housing and public accommodations.
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