Judgement of Weight
There are two things I will not board a plane without: a new magazine purchased at the airport and a purse filled with snacks.
The snacks are self-explanatory in a day and age where one can get stuck on a three or four-hour flight with little more than six peanuts being offered to you! I have this deep fear of being hungry and not being able to do anything about it. So snacks are a must for this girl. And a magazine? Well, it’s just a guilty pleasure to pass time reading something I normally wouldn’t take the time to do at home.
Last week on my home from Tampa, I was riveted to the Glamour article “The Secret Way People Are Judging You.” In this article they revealed the results of a poll of more than 1,800 women revealing what they thought about women of various weights.
From Glamour’s “Skinny Witch vs. Chubby Fairy”
Heavy women were pegged as…
All women--skinny or overweight--are being judged with characteristics based only on their size!
“lazy” 11 times as often as thin women;
“sloppy” nine times;
“undisciplined” seven times;
“slow” six times as often.
While thin women were seen as…
“conceited” or “superficial” about eight times as often as heavy women;
“vain” or “self-centered” four times as often;
“bitchy,” “mean,” or “controlling” more than twice as often.
Even the “good” labels are unfair. An overweight woman may be five times as likely to be perceived as “giving” as a skinny one.
Absorbing the Results of our Weight Stereotyping
I unfortunately can’t say I was entirely shocked by these results. We live in a world where we make decisions about people within 20 seconds so it can’t surprise us that it’s most likely dependent upon external factors. I was surprised though that women of all weights hold these stereotypes. In other words, the judgments aren’t just one group toward another, but “Plus-size respondents judged other plus-size women as ‘sloppy,’ and skinny types pegged their thin peers as ‘mean.’” We know the
The snacks are self-explanatory in a day and age where one can get stuck on a three or four-hour flight with little more than six peanuts being offered to you! I have this deep fear of being hungry and not being able to do anything about it. So snacks are a must for this girl. And a magazine? Well, it’s just a guilty pleasure to pass time reading something I normally wouldn’t take the time to do at home.
Last week on my home from Tampa, I was riveted to the Glamour article “The Secret Way People Are Judging You.” In this article they revealed the results of a poll of more than 1,800 women revealing what they thought about women of various weights.
From Glamour’s “Skinny Witch vs. Chubby Fairy”
Heavy women were pegged as…
All women--skinny or overweight--are being judged with characteristics based only on their size!
“lazy” 11 times as often as thin women;
“sloppy” nine times;
“undisciplined” seven times;
“slow” six times as often.
While thin women were seen as…
“conceited” or “superficial” about eight times as often as heavy women;
“vain” or “self-centered” four times as often;
“bitchy,” “mean,” or “controlling” more than twice as often.
Even the “good” labels are unfair. An overweight woman may be five times as likely to be perceived as “giving” as a skinny one.
Absorbing the Results of our Weight Stereotyping
I unfortunately can’t say I was entirely shocked by these results. We live in a world where we make decisions about people within 20 seconds so it can’t surprise us that it’s most likely dependent upon external factors. I was surprised though that women of all weights hold these stereotypes. In other words, the judgments aren’t just one group toward another, but “Plus-size respondents judged other plus-size women as ‘sloppy,’ and skinny types pegged their thin peers as ‘mean.’” We know the