A Massachusetts bill aims to add weight and height to the list of characteristics people cannot use to discriminate with.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Currently, people can seek protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act, but they must prove their obesity is a disability and, in some cases, that it is caused by physical traits beyond their control.

"Right now, fat is just a marker of bad character, an undesirable personal trait that people bring on themselves," said (Anna) Kirkland, (an assistant professor of women's studies and political science at the University of Michigan) who prefers the word fat to the ambiguity of overweight and the clinical-sounding obese. "What you're doing is forcing the law to force social change."

The text of the bill is attached to this post.

I found this section of the Tribune story particularly intriguing:

But not everyone, including the corpulent, considers anti-weight-bias legislation a good idea.

"Legislation happens when people are too childish to police themselves," said Sue Ann Jaffarian, author of the Odelia Grey mystery series starring a 220-pound heroine who is a reflection of her creator.

"But, as a fat woman, I don't want a green light," said Jaffarian, 55, who worries that such a law would validate what some consider unhealthy weight. "The downside of legislation is that the prejudice would go more underground."

Should "fatism" be banned?

(Read a Q&A I did with Rebecca Puhl, director of research and anti-stigma initiatives at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, in the post "Sexism, racism...fatism?" on this blog.)

Here's how Tufts University's newspaper, The Tufts Daily, weighed in, no pun intended:

It is also important to note the necessity of public health education. Some critics of the proposed bill argue that it encourages obesity or allows for protection against discrimination based on lifestyle choices. Obesity is very rarely a lifestyle choice: Most people who are clinically obese, or even overweight, are not ordering five Big Macs every morning. Rather, they usually suffer from a metabolism or a thyroid condition that makes it more difficult to remain thin than it would be for other people - even if they have the same diet.

The problem exists not in individual behaviors, but in a society that makes it difficult (especially for those of lower socioeconomic status) to remain healthy. Those who worry about encouraging obesity should concern themselves not with opposing this bill, but rather with encouraging public health measures that would help combat America's weight problem.

One Chicago Tribune reader sees the recession as a solution to this.

I think this issue will take care of itself without legislation. Due to energy costs and world competition, the cost of everything is going to skyrocket, especially food. According to some news media reports last week, there is s a looming world-wide food shortage. Therefore, people will loose weight because they won't be able to afford or find the food.

We should embrace famine as a means to make us healthier...don't know about that one...

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this issue.
 

— Emily Hagedorn, health reporter
(661) 395-7510
ehagedorn@bakersfield.com