Theresa’s Take – Take 14 “Justice for All?”

Ladies, Gents and Janet Jackson Wannabes, have you ever thought about weight based discrimination?

As I entered my polling place on Primary Day, a freedom from discrimination poster caught my eye. The poster featured the Statue of Liberty,  with bold wording – Justice For All , followed by what to do if you need information on discrimination. As a former “Fat Chick,” I thought how fitting it was that the designer of this poster chose Lady Liberty, a robust woman, to discourage discrimination.

The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the United States from the people of France, to celebrate our independence. She symbolizes freedom, standing over 111 feet tall and tipping the scales at 450,000 pounds, with a 35-foot waist line. The folks on my side of the tracks would say, ”Baby Got Back.” Think about it, a female with such grandiose features could not have been made in the image of a skinny chick.

Contrary to the freedom she represents, those broken shackles of oppression at her feet are not reflective of how obese and overweight people are often treated in the United States. There have been headlines that companies threaten employees to either lose weight or lose their job. In 2009, the Associated Press ran a story titled – HBC (Historical Black College) forces overweight students to lose weight to graduate!

Society has found comfort in believing that most obese and overweight people are the cause of their condition, therefore they should accept the consequences, including ridicule. Not so, says the National Association for the Advancement of Fat Acceptance (NAAFA). This civil rights organization lists on their website that they are dedicated to protecting the rights and improving the quality of life for fat people.

Some people who are so obese and want to get healthy don’t even want to leave their homes for fear of ridicule and public humiliation.  There was one such woman who had a YMCA membership for three months and never used it because she was too insecure to work out in front of people.  When the Y called her and asked her why she hadn’t been coming, she explained that she was fearful people would make fun of her. So after reassurance from multiple staff, and a commitment for one employee to join her every time she came in, she finally made that first step in the door.

There are people of every size on the road to health. Big people that can run a marathon and skinny people that can’t even get off the couch. It’s not about size, so why as a society do we continue to look at it that way?  Join me and lady liberty today, and light a torch of health promotion, inclusion and acceptance, so that we may truly experience justice for all.