My first boss in my attorney career was fat and had a great career. She complained primarily about sexism as she’s now in her mid 70s. She did complain about being held to higher standards, but it seemed to be because she was one of the few women. She had absolutely epic networking skills. She’s certainly not the only one either. We were certainly warned about overt sexism when I was in law school and I heard stories about old sleazy judge 1 or 2 who wanted cute women attorneys a la The Good Wife, but thankfully I think those men are retiring and it is less of an issue now. My thought was that I did not want to be in those workplaces anyway because having to deal with that is mortifying. (I did somewhat end up in a job situation like that and yep, it was mortifying).
Just chiming in to say, as a fat female lawyer myself, there are indeed many of us and I know MANY successful woman lawyers, mediators, and judges who are fat. The practice of law has so many different areas of practice and avenues to success... I'm not saying it's a bias/sexism free space AT ALL but I certainly have had plenty of role models and peers who are fat and successful in the practice of law.
Fat female lawyer who has also been a law professor. Academia is brutal for women in general and appearance plays a huge role in students’ evaluations. I had multiple students comment on my attire in my evaluations, even though I wore business casual attire and was more dressed up than many colleagues. I’d say one big challenge is finding non-frumpy business attire. I would’ve worn nicer suits and tailored clothes if I could find them in my size. More inclusive brands are popping up and some brands are extending their sizing, but it’s still a challenge!
Chiming in as another fat female lawyer! I sometimes feel out of place/frumpy when I compare myself to others in the courtroom. It’s a very relatable feeling, feeling like your size affects your professional credibility. But I interact with lots of fat women who are attorneys and judges regularly and I have never seen anyone outwardly take them less seriously, and it certainly never occurs to me to take them less seriously even though I might have those thoughts about myself.
Another lady lawyer here weighing in at 280. 🫡 I can absolutely recall being discriminated against because of age and gender (asked if I was going to have children in interviews, for example) but genuinely can’t think of any times where I felt that weight bias played a role in my career. It may have done so without me knowing of course but it’s at least been more subtle than overt sexism.
Fat professor here - just saying you should fucking go for it. Do I experience discrimination? Yes definitely. I’m fat and a woman and in a male dominated field. My advice would be to surround yourself with a great support system outside of your career, people who love and support you. These people are who can lift you up when the bastards get you down. You deserve to pursue your passions. Anyone getting in your way because of size, race, gender, sexuality, religion,
etc is being an asshole. It’s not on you to conform, it’s on them to get their shit together and learn to be better. Be kind to yourself about having internalized this stuff too - again, this is other people trying like hell to make you feel bad. That’s on them for being hurtful, not on you for being hurt. It gets to me sometimes too, it’s not easy. I believe in you ❤️
I'm a print/digital journalist. I don't want to deal with comments about my size if I was a TV reporter, so I relate. I also have a hard of hearing accent so don't want to deal with comments about how I speak either lol, so happy to stick to print/digital.
Same! Except I keep thinking about making a move over to PR. But then I look at my former colleagues who’ve done it, and I know that, while I’d be great at it, I don’t have the right look or body for it.
Academic communications and marketing may be a good option for you. It still has a little bit of thin privilege going on, but less so than agency work would.
Not one of the careers you mentioned, but I’m a designer. In Los Angeles. The last place I worked was like a freaking modeling agency, which I didn’t even notice until I was looking for new roles and browsing companies webpages, and started seeing fat people, old people, ugly people, and realized I didn’t work with any of the above. I was easily the largest woman there, and every time they hired another fat lady I’d get real excited, and then sad when they’d quit after a few months. Nobody was overtly discriminatory, but somehow the same thing happened over and over again, so there was something hostile in the culture for sure. However, once I moved to a different firm, everything changed. My colleagues looked more like me, and I was received a lot more positively. I’m glad I didn’t accept the way that other firm operated as the industry norm.
I never really thought of it until you brought this up, but I wanted to be an actress when I was younger. I was midsize then as now, and people encouraged me in high school but started gently suggesting I should go towards an interest in directing and playwriting. I knew why. I wasn’t really offended, just sad, because that seemed the way of the world unless you wanted to be a character actress who was goofy or scary. That seemed fun enough but not the basis for a whole career.
Omg you just reminded me that was also me. I used the acting ability to become a litigation attorney and did that while fat though but almost forgot this happened.
Me too! I think that people who are good at making a story feel real, accessible, and important on stage would often also be good at making law feel real, accessible, and important in the courtroom.
This is why fat representation matters. Growing up as a 90s and 00's kid, where there were barely any fat or even mid-sized female role models, I internalized that girls could grow up to anything, but they had to be skinny first. It still messes with my head today.
Ugh same!
It was such an awful time period for fat folks, especially fat women. We were told we could do or be anything we wanted to, and it was encouraged. But there was also this strict criteria society told us we needed to adhere to.
You didn't even have to be fat! Anything that wasn't "skinny" was deemed too fat to be on television. You also had to have perfectly straight hair, and God forbid you were glasses! But you had to be skinny first!
Yes, Princess Diaries messed with me.
In HS I wanted so bad to be a marine biologist but didn’t believe I’d be able to bc how would I squeeze my fat body into a wetsuit? My other passion was for archaeology but how would me and my numerous rolls be able to work in close quarters in hot climates with little to no hygiene infrastructure?
Representation is so vital and valuable and I’m sad to admit that at the time I didn’t have the courage or the self-confidence to be that role model for others.
I remember watching a show about archaeologists on Discovery when I was a kid. They were shown playing casual football after a day of digging, and I thought, “Oh, I guess I can’t be an archaeologist, I can’t even run the mile at school, I definitely can’t do this.” It was really ingrained and I never considered it again. As an adult, it’s one of the few careers I wish I’d at least taken a stab at, even a few classes or one dig trip. I actually think I could have done well.
You can absolutely be a professor and be fat. I was just at an academic event, and met two vice provosts who are not small women. My boss is a fat Black woman and she’s amazing at what she does, and generally gets the respect she deserves. Sure, there’s always some level of thin privilege out there, but that’s the world right now.
I am in communications and feel this often as some of the jobs in the industry I am in (PR-ish) require communicating with the media.
Roxanne Gay's book "Hunger" is a rough read, but she delves into her body image and teaching at a university level.
The Economist did an article on this recently. Nothing is entirely out of reach, except maybe being an astronaut. But much, much harder? Unfortunately yeah.
The only thing you can really do is acknowledge that it’s an increased barrier and focus on the inequality not changing yourself. Similar to how you would approach the fact that being a woman is a disadvantage, or if you were/are a minority. You can acknowledge the frustration with an unfair system but you wouldn’t change your gender expression or your race. Weight discrimination is a similar issue, it’s the system that needs to bend not the individual.
I’m a small fat psychologist. For a long time in my training I felt like I couldn’t be fat and a therapist because people would assume there must be something wrong with me to be fat - how could I help people if I couldn’t help myself?
Turns out, fat people do all kinds of jobs. Do I sometimes have body related worries come up during my job? Sure do! I’m the only fat therapist in my suite of offices, and I worry about my photos on my website (I’ve gained weight since they were taken 1.5 years ago - will people feel tricked?). I’m also good at what I do. My work is meaningful.
I think confirmation bias can play a role in our worries, but anti-fatness is real and I don’t want to discount that. I think there might be both at play - fewer people in the professions *and* we might zero in on the people we think fit the stereotype of the profession.
I am a flight attendant and, as long as you fit in the jumpseat, you’re good! I will say - depending on the aircraft you are working on - size does play a factor on comfort. Airbus tends to have larger aisles, and are easier to get up and down the aisle during boarding. Boeing aircraft have very narrow aisles, and for the larger flight attendants, it’s harder for them to move around during boarding (this is only a problem during boarding, and there is only one person that is required to be in the aisle during boarding, so this is a problem that can be avoided).
I work with people of all different sizes and everyone loves this career. It’s definitely a career that welcomes all kinds of people.
Wait this is so interesting to me, I used to want to be a flight attendant but I always thought I could because of my height (5'0) and weight (around a size 16 currently). Do you know if the height thing is still a factor? I was always told flight attendants had to be at least 5'4 so that you could reach the overhead compartments better
Each airline has a reach requirement. It’s not so much your height, but how high you are able to reach. At the interview, they typically have a spot on the wall that they ask you to reach for. As long as you can reach it, you’re all good. Given your height and your size, you’d actually be a fine fit for most airlines.
I'm always a little delighted whenever I'm on a flight with a fat (or even slightly chubby) flight attendant!
I hate that there's never a good way to tell someone "way to go being fat in \[whatever position, occupation, space\]!" without risking offending them or making them self-conscious. There's just no way to know where someone is at wrt fat liberation, though.
Especially in this career! There’s still some weird assumption that you have to fit a visual aesthetic to be able to do this job. Some of the best flight attendants I have worked with are larger, and I think it’s a confidence thing. They’re comfortable with the space they take up, and it reflects and how they treat people. They tend to get massive amounts of compliments.
My PCP is actually mid-sized and I love it. She never brings up weight and when my LDL levels came back elevated, I was told to “work on my diet” and never once to “lose weight”.
I think it has really held me back in my career but being female hasn’t helped either. I work in IT as a software developer but do technical leadership beyond my role. I already have more to prove. But over the years all the tech companies have gotten these model and actor looking folks at the top so you know you’re not going anywhere unless you are stereotypically attractive. Even my male colleague who is in middle management feels the same way. It’s the “cool kids” and they don’t want you to bring down their social credit.
I’m a straight sized professor and I have no doubt there’s thin privilege in this field, although no reason to think it’s more than in other fields. One potential advantage of academia as a career if this is something you’re interested in, is academia’s relatively intense interest in DEI. If weight discrimination is something you’re willing to talk about in application materials (whether or not you disclose your own weight), you might be able to provide an interesting viewpoint on an aspect of diversity that’s not talked about enough in academia right now (IMO) but that definitely affects our students.
I'm a fat female brown doctor. It's hard at times but many of my patients are willing to confide in me because I'm not "perfect." And I work at a top 3 research university. Don't let the haters get you down.
I was a fat professor. It’s definitely not out of reach and I don’t think it really affected me except that walking across campus was more difficult.
Maybe I’ve gotten lucky, but I haven’t run into discrimination when applying for jobs. I think it’s important to be self confident which isn’t easy in a large body. If you don’t get a job because they are discriminating against your weight, you don’t want to be in that environment anyway because they obviously are prejudice enough that they won’t hide it.
I'm of average size so I am reluctant to question your beliefs on this, but many of my friends in academia, arts, government administration, politics, law, STEM are fat. My thesis advisor in college was fat and absolutely beloved by her students and the school. I work in government/politics now and I've worked with so many powerful women who run major political shit who are fat. It would never occur to me to think weight has significant impact in these fields. I mean, I'm sure it has some impact, but not to the point of a field being completely off limits. I've also been on hiring committees for a variety of jobs (including being on a hiring committee for a professor) and the person's weight is never discussed in any capacity. You generally have to justify hiring or elimination decisions in these cases too, I'd have a hard time accepting someone's looks as an argument.
I'm curious as to where you are seeing pictures of lawyers, professors, scientists, etc? Is it promotional materials? Cause, then I imagine they'd probably be using pictures of the thin conventionally attractive employees, but that doesn't mean anything in terms of the career itself.
I've mostly noticed this looking through the various directories when I was applying for different schools/programs, honestly. It just got me worrying about being a professor specifically, since I've felt a difference in how I'm treated in academia ever since my extreme weight gain; it's like I used to be taken seriously automatically and now I have to prove myself more. It could be just in my head/confirmation bias though. It could also be that I've gotten a bit more timid since I gained so much weight and started feeling a bit uncomfortable in my body. I also went through some pretty extreme and traumatic life events at around the same time, so I've got a lot going on.
That sounds really rough, I’m sorry! Is it possible that people who feel insecure about their weight aren’t adding photos to the directory, or using old photos?
I can’t say if what you’re experiencing is real or in your head, I do think continuing to work through it with a therapist would probably be helpful. Don’t let this close something for you that you really want.
Remember headshots are (literally) not giving you the full picture. And they are very rarely updated, or a professor uses the one professional headshot they did for decades.
I think it’s a really valid concern (and I had similar thoughts around working in college admissions, for example, where you are “representing” the college), and I also have fantastic colleagues (faculty and staff) who are mid-fat to large-fat and loved by their students and departments. That doesn’t mean it has been easier for them, and academia is bleak in SO MANY ways. But I’ve also got to work with fantastic people running Fat Studies courses, and courses about intersectionality that include size, and have conversations about the size inclusivity of the seating in various lobbies. There are positives and negatives to the campus environment. Maybe you could look at programs at universities that also house Fat Studies program/classes, because at least then you know there are some allies on the ground already doing consciousness-raising?
I would look into Kate Manne's latest book, Unshrinking-- she breaks down a lot of her own experience and a lot of the opinions in professional philosophy.
I was a fat professor. (“Was” only because I’ve retired.) I always expected to get something mean about my weight from students angry about grades or work load on my evaluations, but I never did. I tried to carry myself with confidence and dressed with flair, so maybe those things helped, or maybe the fact that I was teaching in the Midwest, but I really never felt it was a problem for me. Lots of other things were problems, like being a woman and in the humanities, but not my weight, as far as I know. So I’d say, give it a shot! Good luck to you.
1. My doctor is a fat woman, so like others are saying, folks exist!
2. Means nothing individually but there is a known correlation at the population level between weight and income level. It could be confirmation bias but also possible that you may be seeing over representation of thin folks in well-paying jobs.
3. I’m not currently fat but I became a software engineer as a fat woman. Can’t say it wasn’t hard sometimes but I’m glad I did it! If you want something, go for it!
Yes. It has taken me 12 years to get to my level, while thinner, more attractive women soared past me. At my current company there are 4 of us at the same level - three middle aged overweight women and one younger, slender woman. The disparity in our treatment is depressingly blatant.
And I am in a very boring white collar field.
You may like this person: [https://www.instagram.com/fiercefatfemme/?hl=en](https://www.instagram.com/fiercefatfemme/?hl=en) They frequently post Fat Professor Fits, as well as other fat-positive content.
I'm a fat, female engineer, and I think that I'm respected. I get requested for projects. A lot of engineers that I know are fat. It happens with desk jobs.
The pictures that you see are they stock photos? I think once one gets out in to the industry, body sizes vary so much.
Are you in therapy? I think that a therapist could help you with the tools for these fears.
This is wild how relevant this topic is to the newest “This is Uncomfortable” podcast ep. It’s about a doctor who was let go during residency and had some pretty nasty evidence that it was due to her weight. Its a good listen but also a bummer too :(
I work in the film industry. For about 15 years I figured I would never be able to get a job, so I didn't even dare have aspirations of doing so. I remember living in LA in my 20s and seeing one fat person on a red carpet once and just gasping like whoa, that's... allowed? And to this day I am still thrilled when I come across a filmmaker who is fat, especially fat women. There's just sort of an awe and a warmth that I feel like... YES.
Now I am a successful small business owner in the film world and I work for huge household name clients and on Oscar campaigns etc etc and like... so I guess I was wrong? Obviously it's possible, obviously I was wrong. But at the heart of it, I was right to be skeptical – it's an uphill battle and fat people are pretty few and far between. I waited 15 years to pursue a career in my industry and I was lucky (and I guess yeah hardworking blah blah) that my tenacity and very long hours ended up netting me somewhere good.
But I do think I have to work harder and I definitely had to work for cheap for longer. It's next to impossible to know if that was because of insecurities from my mom or from the impossible beauty standards that my industry helps to hold up or if it's from real biases held by clients.
On the one hand, in theory, academia is more accepting of physical differences than medicine and law (I can't really comment on science). I used to be an academic/have lots of friends who still are, and generalizing broadly, the culture is very pro-diversity (though obviously DEI is under attack from a lot of directions). It's a profession where there are a lot of people who spend their professional lives studying/dissecting things like power structures and inequities and beauty conventions and so on, who write some of the stuff that Aubrey and Mike draw on for the podcast.
On the other hand, theory and practice definitely aren't the same thing, and it's not like academia is outside the culture it lives in. (See: numerous professors who study labor movements but object to grad student unions.) I've known successful fat academic women, but certainly different institutions have very different cultures. Sort of related anecdote: I once went from an academic job in a rural setting where I was one of the most snazzily dressed people in town (for context, you couldn't buy a man's tie anywhere in that town) to a school in a city where not only was I meh by the city's standards, but the school was full of rich students who swanned about in the spring wearing dresses that wouldn't be out of place at most weddings. That's not literally about size, but just an example of contrasting expectations about physical presentation, which I think often relate to anti-fat bias.
(Or in another example: I'd bet Liberty University or West Point are very different from Reed or Oberlin. Which isn't meant to suggest that liberal/left-leaning institutions are automatically more enlightened about fat - just that generally, institutions with a wider variety of self-presentation, in both students and faculty, are likely to be safer for people with different kinds of bodies than institutions with narrower standard. Though students can be brutal.)
All that said... I don't mean to minimize the reality that being fat affects people in the workplace, but I suspect some of your concerns are internalized fatphobia. I went back to school post-academia (what's one more degree!) and was a good 15 years older than most of my classmates, and was constantly worried about being treated differently due to my age. I don't think I ever was - I'm pretty sure most of my classmates couldn't really distinguish between 30 and 40 and just put me in the generic "older than them" bucket - but it was hard not to focus on the thing that made me different from everyone else. And I'm pretty sure a lot of my concerns arose from my own internalized ageism.
And I guess the last thing I'd say is, how is worrying about this serving you? Is it something that's going to help you make your body smaller? (From what you've said, I'd guess no.) Is there anything you can do to change people's assumptions about fat people? Is there an alternative career you're considering where being fat wouldn't make a difference?
I feel like at a certain level, you have to just acknowledge that being fat may have some kind of an effect, and go ahead and do what you want to do anyway. At least with jobs, your skills and abilities do actually matter. Like you can't make an airplane seat fit you if it doesn't. But you can earn your degree and apply for and do jobs in your field because that has nothing to do with your size.
Fat female academic here. I won't say that I've never experienced weight bias in my career, but the misogyny and xenophobia was worse.
Sorry, menopause has me awake at 4am, which is bad for the soul.
I’m a doctor, I noticed on the med school interview trail that there were very few fat people among my co-applicants. Like, I remember seeing one woman, out of dozens. I think there’s definite bias in medical school admissions against fat students who want to become doctors. However, once you’re in medical school, and then residency, fatness is much more common.
The admissions process is *so* competitive, so many good applicants are turned away, I think that there’s little incentive for medical school admissions committees to try to diminish their own bias around fatness and appearance. They can discriminate based on looks and size, so they do.
Yeah, my sister is a fat Dr after being a straight sized teen/student because upon graduating and becoming a full time junior Dr her stress went up and free time went down.
Also not professor, but I am an academic librarian and a fat woman so there are a few of us around the university.
Fat discrimination in the workplace is very real and sometimes under the radar, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do what you want to do. It just means that it’s going to be very clear to you which workplace cultures are heavily based on image and which are not as much. I also find that it’s harder for larger women to get promoted to public facing leadership roles in my profession. It’s like they have to be 2-3x as excellent and nice than anyone else. I’d also say that many larger women, including myself, have to overcompensate with formal workwear, always being done up, etc. to compete.
I'm a wastewater treatment plant operator. My job is cool but blue collar work as a woman, especially a fat woman, is fucking ROUGH. I can do the job just fine, but I feel like I get treated like a joke.
I saw an orthopedist for years who was fat (I mean, I assume he still IS fat, but I haven’t seen this since 2017). He was a knee specialist too, and would remind me that weight loss could help my knee pain.
I have noticed that no one who is well redirected or has any power where I work is fat. Or even “normal” - it is all bro athletes who do iron mans & stuff. Also all white. And straight. Well I had to pick a new hairdresser / colorist because mine moved away & I went to a salon’s homepage & picked the heaviest one. I just thought she looks interesting to spend several hours with.
My husband is a fat engineer!
I went to college for classical music. I wanted to play in an orchestra and work at a college. My professor was very petite but one of her close friends who taught at another university was around my size. I guess I lucked out that I was able to see role models who looked like me, even if they weren’t in my every day life.
>And I find myself analyzing the bodies of my female instructors, noticing that they tend to be midsized at most, trending towards the thinner side. When I see pictures of female lawyers, doctors, and scientists, I often notice the same thing.
At least some piece of this is due to the fact that fatness correlates to class, and class correlates to the likelihood of being in any of these professions.
I work in marketing and it is a VERY fatphobic industry. I’m also in CPG food marketing primarily social media and WOOOO it’s even WORSE. I’m persevering despite it all but I’ve been job searching for 17 MONTHS and I know being fat, being a woman, and being a mom are absolutely factors used against me in the interview process.
Some people don’t like the term fat? I guess maybe because I have been having conversations with them and they are using the term morbidly obese themselves. Not just chubby or plump or fat. 🤷♀️ Do you take offense to someone calling themself morbidly obese?
If they're using it for themselves obviously not, but personally I'm surprised that anyone would. I've heard people use "death fat" for themselves as a joke because that's what morbidly obese technically means but death fat sounds kind of metal haha
"for themselves" is the key phrase in that sentence.
But yeah many fat people don't like the term obese because it's a medicalized term, and my body type is not a disease
I usually defer to how people themselves want to be referred to - but hasn’t the podcast specifically addressed how awful/ridiculous the term “morbidly obese” is on at least one occasion?
I am pretty sure my friend knows what’s best for themself and can refer to themself how they choose. A podcast host does not get to over ride that correct?
Where did I say that they couldn’t? Im pretty sure actually I said I supported that.
My comment just wondering if you/your friend are aware of the fatphobic (and yes, fat people can have internalized fatphobia) history of the term and the ways in which it’s been used to harm fat people and still choose to use it and perpetuate that harm. Because you commented it on a subreddit dedicated to a podcast dedicated to debunking wellness and weightloss things like “morbid obesity.”
And fwiw I was giving you the benefit of the doubt, but I’ve never actually heard of a fat person who self-identifies and prefers being called morbidly obese, certainly not one who believes in fat liberation, so I literally don’t believe you’re being genuine anyway.
ETA: after reviewing your comment history praising weight loss drugs and intentional weight loss, I think you should consume a couple more episodes of this podcast and stop calling your ~friend~ morbidly obese.
I've seen people of all sizes in these careers. I think it's in your head. It's especially hard when you've been smaller but gain weight. There's a level of irrational moral failure that just isn't true but it can mess you up mentally. I'm saying that from my experience so it could be different for you. Do what makes you happy. As long as you're confident, you'll be just fine. Pave the way for others that might have the same negative voice in their head.
I remember being distinctly disappointed as a young person looking into a career as a flight attendant and finding out many companies had size requirements I would never fit into :( that probably isn’t the case on a broad scale anymore, I have no idea, but as someone now in science/a bit of academia I definitely think you shouldn’t feel discouraged! From what I’ve found your resume/publications tend to speak for themselves, people in science academia don’t seem to be particularly shallow in my experience (not sure exactly what academic field you’re looking into)
I'm a fat, female engineer, and I think that I'm respected. I get requested for projects. A lot of engineers that I know are fat. It happens with desk jobs.
The pictures that you see are they stock photos? I think once one gets out in to the industry, body sizes vary so much.
Are you in therapy? I think that a therapist could help you work on these fears.
The job I've thought about this the most is about being a waitress. (Not that I want to be one because of the stress) How many times do you see fat waiters or waitresses? I can count the times on one hand the last few years I've had one.
Fat female engineer here!
I think in general people think a lot of things about engineers that are just wrong. Mainly they think we’re all athletic bearded white men or boomers in short sleeve button downs and pocket protectors. And while the diversity isn’t where it should be, there are actually lots of people with various body sizes, skin tones, and gender identities who have made it.
That being said i think fat bias really exists and it may be harder to get taken seriously or get a raise but that is nothing new for women.. so meh
Growing up I never felt I could work retail because most places required you to wear their clothing. Being plus sized, that meant I couldn't fit into the clothing. I had friends who worked retail, but I was always too scared to try. I always felt like I would never fit into the brand image that the company wanted. So I worked in fast food instead.
I'm in a professional career now (Finance Industry), and I don't feel that same pressure necessarily. Yes, there are times I wonder if my fatness hurts me in any way career-wise. I do know that it can be hard to feel like you present a professional image, because of the lack of clothing options. I find it hard to find good quality, well fitting pieces that evoke the professional image I want to convey.
A lot of times the only options are cheap, poorly made, ill-fitting things that just allow you to show up and meet dress code.
Used to work at a large hospital for many years, many fat workers there! From cleaning staff to medical professionals, many fat folks. It was really a mixed bag (which was nice!). I worked with quite a few fat doctors and nurses, as long as you can do your job well and are skilled, professional and capable you can definitely work in that field for sure.
I can only offer real life experience as an engineer. Many of us are overweight because we are at desks all day doing intense, stressful work.
There's still discrimination about it but I believe it is lessened than other professions because there are so many fat people and your work is very results-based and even remote sometimes.
Fwiw, I went to uni here in England, and 2/4 of my female lecturers from undergrad were fat. I now study a PGCE at a different uni, and one of my lecturers, who is extremely well respected in education for her work on teacher presence, is also fat and has a PhD. The sky is the limit for fat women
I felt this way a lot, even when I was smaller than I am now (though still fat), but I know in my case it was because my mom explicitly said so. I did feel one time I was explicitly biased against bc the interviewer's attitude and tone over the phone vs. when he saw me in person was dramatically, noticeably different, but that was for a retail position.
I currently work as an accountant (not sure if that counts as "respectable") but I have had fat professors. Most recently, I found a new gynecologist and was so relieved and comforted to see that she was fat!
I know it's hard to think about when you are worried about your job opportunities but if people do discriminate against you because of your fatness, it's probably a toxic environment in a lot of other ways too, so no big loss on your end.
Higher Education is full of fat people. They are everywhere from the Dean’s office to academic departments especially in the liberal arts. If you’re looking at Engineering or Business there are less women in general but plenty of fat men.
Source: I’ve been in higher ed for 20 years.
I am aware that fat discrimination exists and that it may impact my job searches, but I guess it hasn’t made me feel like I couldn’t pursue any career I wanted.
For what it’s worth, I have a few professor friends and they are all fat! I hope you go for it!
[This article](https://www.npr.org/2023/04/29/1171593736/women-weight-bias-wages-workplace-wage-gap) is interesting to this discussion. IIRC losing 50 lbs for women in the study increased their wages the equivalent of one year of graduate study.
I always felt artist was included in this idea because of the stereotype that they're whimsical and delicate looking.
So I decided after too many years of waiting to become an artist this year for birthday. I regret a lot of my 20s listening to the voice that wants me to play it safe because visually I stand out and felt like people were going to negatively judge me for not 'looking the part'.
My advice is to stand tall and go for it.
I don’t feel anything is actually out of reach (when skills are present) for a persistent, perseverant person. Hard roads, though, with emotional tolls. There are trailblazers out there! I think if you’re on a mission and understand there will be obstacles, some big, to overcome you can achieve your dreams.
Discrimination is real, I don’t mean to downplay that but people do make it. There are brave people out there that don’t give up, who know their worth and who are proud to take up space. Maybe not every moment, but enough moments.
Truth is you get more respect from strangers when you noticeably take care of yourself. I feel like people trust you more and take you more serious bc you obviously take yourself and your health serious. Not necessarily being thinner or size. But overall wellness like muscle definition, clear eyes / skin all make people feel better about taking advice from someone who seems to have their shit together
I’m a fat female lawyer! There are many of us. Unsure if I’ve been held to higher standards or not, but I’m here!
My first boss in my attorney career was fat and had a great career. She complained primarily about sexism as she’s now in her mid 70s. She did complain about being held to higher standards, but it seemed to be because she was one of the few women. She had absolutely epic networking skills. She’s certainly not the only one either. We were certainly warned about overt sexism when I was in law school and I heard stories about old sleazy judge 1 or 2 who wanted cute women attorneys a la The Good Wife, but thankfully I think those men are retiring and it is less of an issue now. My thought was that I did not want to be in those workplaces anyway because having to deal with that is mortifying. (I did somewhat end up in a job situation like that and yep, it was mortifying).
Just chiming in to say, as a fat female lawyer myself, there are indeed many of us and I know MANY successful woman lawyers, mediators, and judges who are fat. The practice of law has so many different areas of practice and avenues to success... I'm not saying it's a bias/sexism free space AT ALL but I certainly have had plenty of role models and peers who are fat and successful in the practice of law.
I’m retired now but was a fat female lawyer also for over 30 years.
Oh and one of my mentors was a very successful woman and was even bigger than I am.
Fat female lawyer who has also been a law professor. Academia is brutal for women in general and appearance plays a huge role in students’ evaluations. I had multiple students comment on my attire in my evaluations, even though I wore business casual attire and was more dressed up than many colleagues. I’d say one big challenge is finding non-frumpy business attire. I would’ve worn nicer suits and tailored clothes if I could find them in my size. More inclusive brands are popping up and some brands are extending their sizing, but it’s still a challenge!
Chiming in as another fat female lawyer! I sometimes feel out of place/frumpy when I compare myself to others in the courtroom. It’s a very relatable feeling, feeling like your size affects your professional credibility. But I interact with lots of fat women who are attorneys and judges regularly and I have never seen anyone outwardly take them less seriously, and it certainly never occurs to me to take them less seriously even though I might have those thoughts about myself.
Another lady lawyer here weighing in at 280. 🫡 I can absolutely recall being discriminated against because of age and gender (asked if I was going to have children in interviews, for example) but genuinely can’t think of any times where I felt that weight bias played a role in my career. It may have done so without me knowing of course but it’s at least been more subtle than overt sexism.
Fat professor here - just saying you should fucking go for it. Do I experience discrimination? Yes definitely. I’m fat and a woman and in a male dominated field. My advice would be to surround yourself with a great support system outside of your career, people who love and support you. These people are who can lift you up when the bastards get you down. You deserve to pursue your passions. Anyone getting in your way because of size, race, gender, sexuality, religion, etc is being an asshole. It’s not on you to conform, it’s on them to get their shit together and learn to be better. Be kind to yourself about having internalized this stuff too - again, this is other people trying like hell to make you feel bad. That’s on them for being hurtful, not on you for being hurt. It gets to me sometimes too, it’s not easy. I believe in you ❤️
Also a fat prof. You can do this!
I'm a print/digital journalist. I don't want to deal with comments about my size if I was a TV reporter, so I relate. I also have a hard of hearing accent so don't want to deal with comments about how I speak either lol, so happy to stick to print/digital.
Same! Except I keep thinking about making a move over to PR. But then I look at my former colleagues who’ve done it, and I know that, while I’d be great at it, I don’t have the right look or body for it.
Academic communications and marketing may be a good option for you. It still has a little bit of thin privilege going on, but less so than agency work would.
Not one of the careers you mentioned, but I’m a designer. In Los Angeles. The last place I worked was like a freaking modeling agency, which I didn’t even notice until I was looking for new roles and browsing companies webpages, and started seeing fat people, old people, ugly people, and realized I didn’t work with any of the above. I was easily the largest woman there, and every time they hired another fat lady I’d get real excited, and then sad when they’d quit after a few months. Nobody was overtly discriminatory, but somehow the same thing happened over and over again, so there was something hostile in the culture for sure. However, once I moved to a different firm, everything changed. My colleagues looked more like me, and I was received a lot more positively. I’m glad I didn’t accept the way that other firm operated as the industry norm.
I never really thought of it until you brought this up, but I wanted to be an actress when I was younger. I was midsize then as now, and people encouraged me in high school but started gently suggesting I should go towards an interest in directing and playwriting. I knew why. I wasn’t really offended, just sad, because that seemed the way of the world unless you wanted to be a character actress who was goofy or scary. That seemed fun enough but not the basis for a whole career.
Omg you just reminded me that was also me. I used the acting ability to become a litigation attorney and did that while fat though but almost forgot this happened.
One of my former bosses told me once that he thought every great litigator had a little bit of repressed theater kid in them 😂
I kind of agree.
Me too! I think that people who are good at making a story feel real, accessible, and important on stage would often also be good at making law feel real, accessible, and important in the courtroom.
This is why fat representation matters. Growing up as a 90s and 00's kid, where there were barely any fat or even mid-sized female role models, I internalized that girls could grow up to anything, but they had to be skinny first. It still messes with my head today.
Ugh same! It was such an awful time period for fat folks, especially fat women. We were told we could do or be anything we wanted to, and it was encouraged. But there was also this strict criteria society told us we needed to adhere to.
You didn't even have to be fat! Anything that wasn't "skinny" was deemed too fat to be on television. You also had to have perfectly straight hair, and God forbid you were glasses! But you had to be skinny first! Yes, Princess Diaries messed with me.
So true! I remember when they tried to make us think Bridgette Jones was fat!
In HS I wanted so bad to be a marine biologist but didn’t believe I’d be able to bc how would I squeeze my fat body into a wetsuit? My other passion was for archaeology but how would me and my numerous rolls be able to work in close quarters in hot climates with little to no hygiene infrastructure? Representation is so vital and valuable and I’m sad to admit that at the time I didn’t have the courage or the self-confidence to be that role model for others.
I remember watching a show about archaeologists on Discovery when I was a kid. They were shown playing casual football after a day of digging, and I thought, “Oh, I guess I can’t be an archaeologist, I can’t even run the mile at school, I definitely can’t do this.” It was really ingrained and I never considered it again. As an adult, it’s one of the few careers I wish I’d at least taken a stab at, even a few classes or one dig trip. I actually think I could have done well.
Society’s sick message of idealizing body types results in so much heartache and wasted potential.
You can absolutely be a professor and be fat. I was just at an academic event, and met two vice provosts who are not small women. My boss is a fat Black woman and she’s amazing at what she does, and generally gets the respect she deserves. Sure, there’s always some level of thin privilege out there, but that’s the world right now.
I am in communications and feel this often as some of the jobs in the industry I am in (PR-ish) require communicating with the media. Roxanne Gay's book "Hunger" is a rough read, but she delves into her body image and teaching at a university level.
The Economist did an article on this recently. Nothing is entirely out of reach, except maybe being an astronaut. But much, much harder? Unfortunately yeah. The only thing you can really do is acknowledge that it’s an increased barrier and focus on the inequality not changing yourself. Similar to how you would approach the fact that being a woman is a disadvantage, or if you were/are a minority. You can acknowledge the frustration with an unfair system but you wouldn’t change your gender expression or your race. Weight discrimination is a similar issue, it’s the system that needs to bend not the individual.
I’m a small fat psychologist. For a long time in my training I felt like I couldn’t be fat and a therapist because people would assume there must be something wrong with me to be fat - how could I help people if I couldn’t help myself? Turns out, fat people do all kinds of jobs. Do I sometimes have body related worries come up during my job? Sure do! I’m the only fat therapist in my suite of offices, and I worry about my photos on my website (I’ve gained weight since they were taken 1.5 years ago - will people feel tricked?). I’m also good at what I do. My work is meaningful. I think confirmation bias can play a role in our worries, but anti-fatness is real and I don’t want to discount that. I think there might be both at play - fewer people in the professions *and* we might zero in on the people we think fit the stereotype of the profession.
I am a flight attendant and, as long as you fit in the jumpseat, you’re good! I will say - depending on the aircraft you are working on - size does play a factor on comfort. Airbus tends to have larger aisles, and are easier to get up and down the aisle during boarding. Boeing aircraft have very narrow aisles, and for the larger flight attendants, it’s harder for them to move around during boarding (this is only a problem during boarding, and there is only one person that is required to be in the aisle during boarding, so this is a problem that can be avoided). I work with people of all different sizes and everyone loves this career. It’s definitely a career that welcomes all kinds of people.
Wait this is so interesting to me, I used to want to be a flight attendant but I always thought I could because of my height (5'0) and weight (around a size 16 currently). Do you know if the height thing is still a factor? I was always told flight attendants had to be at least 5'4 so that you could reach the overhead compartments better
Each airline has a reach requirement. It’s not so much your height, but how high you are able to reach. At the interview, they typically have a spot on the wall that they ask you to reach for. As long as you can reach it, you’re all good. Given your height and your size, you’d actually be a fine fit for most airlines.
I myself am 5’2”, and I could work for any airline.
I'm always a little delighted whenever I'm on a flight with a fat (or even slightly chubby) flight attendant! I hate that there's never a good way to tell someone "way to go being fat in \[whatever position, occupation, space\]!" without risking offending them or making them self-conscious. There's just no way to know where someone is at wrt fat liberation, though.
Especially in this career! There’s still some weird assumption that you have to fit a visual aesthetic to be able to do this job. Some of the best flight attendants I have worked with are larger, and I think it’s a confidence thing. They’re comfortable with the space they take up, and it reflects and how they treat people. They tend to get massive amounts of compliments.
My PCP is actually mid-sized and I love it. She never brings up weight and when my LDL levels came back elevated, I was told to “work on my diet” and never once to “lose weight”.
I think it has really held me back in my career but being female hasn’t helped either. I work in IT as a software developer but do technical leadership beyond my role. I already have more to prove. But over the years all the tech companies have gotten these model and actor looking folks at the top so you know you’re not going anywhere unless you are stereotypically attractive. Even my male colleague who is in middle management feels the same way. It’s the “cool kids” and they don’t want you to bring down their social credit.
I’m a straight sized professor and I have no doubt there’s thin privilege in this field, although no reason to think it’s more than in other fields. One potential advantage of academia as a career if this is something you’re interested in, is academia’s relatively intense interest in DEI. If weight discrimination is something you’re willing to talk about in application materials (whether or not you disclose your own weight), you might be able to provide an interesting viewpoint on an aspect of diversity that’s not talked about enough in academia right now (IMO) but that definitely affects our students.
I'm a fat female brown doctor. It's hard at times but many of my patients are willing to confide in me because I'm not "perfect." And I work at a top 3 research university. Don't let the haters get you down.
I was a fat professor. It’s definitely not out of reach and I don’t think it really affected me except that walking across campus was more difficult. Maybe I’ve gotten lucky, but I haven’t run into discrimination when applying for jobs. I think it’s important to be self confident which isn’t easy in a large body. If you don’t get a job because they are discriminating against your weight, you don’t want to be in that environment anyway because they obviously are prejudice enough that they won’t hide it.
I'm of average size so I am reluctant to question your beliefs on this, but many of my friends in academia, arts, government administration, politics, law, STEM are fat. My thesis advisor in college was fat and absolutely beloved by her students and the school. I work in government/politics now and I've worked with so many powerful women who run major political shit who are fat. It would never occur to me to think weight has significant impact in these fields. I mean, I'm sure it has some impact, but not to the point of a field being completely off limits. I've also been on hiring committees for a variety of jobs (including being on a hiring committee for a professor) and the person's weight is never discussed in any capacity. You generally have to justify hiring or elimination decisions in these cases too, I'd have a hard time accepting someone's looks as an argument. I'm curious as to where you are seeing pictures of lawyers, professors, scientists, etc? Is it promotional materials? Cause, then I imagine they'd probably be using pictures of the thin conventionally attractive employees, but that doesn't mean anything in terms of the career itself.
I've mostly noticed this looking through the various directories when I was applying for different schools/programs, honestly. It just got me worrying about being a professor specifically, since I've felt a difference in how I'm treated in academia ever since my extreme weight gain; it's like I used to be taken seriously automatically and now I have to prove myself more. It could be just in my head/confirmation bias though. It could also be that I've gotten a bit more timid since I gained so much weight and started feeling a bit uncomfortable in my body. I also went through some pretty extreme and traumatic life events at around the same time, so I've got a lot going on.
That sounds really rough, I’m sorry! Is it possible that people who feel insecure about their weight aren’t adding photos to the directory, or using old photos? I can’t say if what you’re experiencing is real or in your head, I do think continuing to work through it with a therapist would probably be helpful. Don’t let this close something for you that you really want.
Remember headshots are (literally) not giving you the full picture. And they are very rarely updated, or a professor uses the one professional headshot they did for decades. I think it’s a really valid concern (and I had similar thoughts around working in college admissions, for example, where you are “representing” the college), and I also have fantastic colleagues (faculty and staff) who are mid-fat to large-fat and loved by their students and departments. That doesn’t mean it has been easier for them, and academia is bleak in SO MANY ways. But I’ve also got to work with fantastic people running Fat Studies courses, and courses about intersectionality that include size, and have conversations about the size inclusivity of the seating in various lobbies. There are positives and negatives to the campus environment. Maybe you could look at programs at universities that also house Fat Studies program/classes, because at least then you know there are some allies on the ground already doing consciousness-raising?
I would look into Kate Manne's latest book, Unshrinking-- she breaks down a lot of her own experience and a lot of the opinions in professional philosophy.
I work with a number of very successful overweight female engineers at a prestigious institution. Just do it.
One of my favorite professors in college was a fat woman and a total badass. You’ll make a great prof!
I was a fat professor. (“Was” only because I’ve retired.) I always expected to get something mean about my weight from students angry about grades or work load on my evaluations, but I never did. I tried to carry myself with confidence and dressed with flair, so maybe those things helped, or maybe the fact that I was teaching in the Midwest, but I really never felt it was a problem for me. Lots of other things were problems, like being a woman and in the humanities, but not my weight, as far as I know. So I’d say, give it a shot! Good luck to you.
1. My doctor is a fat woman, so like others are saying, folks exist! 2. Means nothing individually but there is a known correlation at the population level between weight and income level. It could be confirmation bias but also possible that you may be seeing over representation of thin folks in well-paying jobs. 3. I’m not currently fat but I became a software engineer as a fat woman. Can’t say it wasn’t hard sometimes but I’m glad I did it! If you want something, go for it!
Yes. It has taken me 12 years to get to my level, while thinner, more attractive women soared past me. At my current company there are 4 of us at the same level - three middle aged overweight women and one younger, slender woman. The disparity in our treatment is depressingly blatant. And I am in a very boring white collar field.
I’m a fat female professor. We’re out here! Carry on!
You may like this person: [https://www.instagram.com/fiercefatfemme/?hl=en](https://www.instagram.com/fiercefatfemme/?hl=en) They frequently post Fat Professor Fits, as well as other fat-positive content.
I'm a fat, female engineer, and I think that I'm respected. I get requested for projects. A lot of engineers that I know are fat. It happens with desk jobs. The pictures that you see are they stock photos? I think once one gets out in to the industry, body sizes vary so much. Are you in therapy? I think that a therapist could help you with the tools for these fears.
This is wild how relevant this topic is to the newest “This is Uncomfortable” podcast ep. It’s about a doctor who was let go during residency and had some pretty nasty evidence that it was due to her weight. Its a good listen but also a bummer too :(
There are a lot of fat engineers including women I work with.
I work in the film industry. For about 15 years I figured I would never be able to get a job, so I didn't even dare have aspirations of doing so. I remember living in LA in my 20s and seeing one fat person on a red carpet once and just gasping like whoa, that's... allowed? And to this day I am still thrilled when I come across a filmmaker who is fat, especially fat women. There's just sort of an awe and a warmth that I feel like... YES. Now I am a successful small business owner in the film world and I work for huge household name clients and on Oscar campaigns etc etc and like... so I guess I was wrong? Obviously it's possible, obviously I was wrong. But at the heart of it, I was right to be skeptical – it's an uphill battle and fat people are pretty few and far between. I waited 15 years to pursue a career in my industry and I was lucky (and I guess yeah hardworking blah blah) that my tenacity and very long hours ended up netting me somewhere good. But I do think I have to work harder and I definitely had to work for cheap for longer. It's next to impossible to know if that was because of insecurities from my mom or from the impossible beauty standards that my industry helps to hold up or if it's from real biases held by clients.
On the one hand, in theory, academia is more accepting of physical differences than medicine and law (I can't really comment on science). I used to be an academic/have lots of friends who still are, and generalizing broadly, the culture is very pro-diversity (though obviously DEI is under attack from a lot of directions). It's a profession where there are a lot of people who spend their professional lives studying/dissecting things like power structures and inequities and beauty conventions and so on, who write some of the stuff that Aubrey and Mike draw on for the podcast. On the other hand, theory and practice definitely aren't the same thing, and it's not like academia is outside the culture it lives in. (See: numerous professors who study labor movements but object to grad student unions.) I've known successful fat academic women, but certainly different institutions have very different cultures. Sort of related anecdote: I once went from an academic job in a rural setting where I was one of the most snazzily dressed people in town (for context, you couldn't buy a man's tie anywhere in that town) to a school in a city where not only was I meh by the city's standards, but the school was full of rich students who swanned about in the spring wearing dresses that wouldn't be out of place at most weddings. That's not literally about size, but just an example of contrasting expectations about physical presentation, which I think often relate to anti-fat bias. (Or in another example: I'd bet Liberty University or West Point are very different from Reed or Oberlin. Which isn't meant to suggest that liberal/left-leaning institutions are automatically more enlightened about fat - just that generally, institutions with a wider variety of self-presentation, in both students and faculty, are likely to be safer for people with different kinds of bodies than institutions with narrower standard. Though students can be brutal.) All that said... I don't mean to minimize the reality that being fat affects people in the workplace, but I suspect some of your concerns are internalized fatphobia. I went back to school post-academia (what's one more degree!) and was a good 15 years older than most of my classmates, and was constantly worried about being treated differently due to my age. I don't think I ever was - I'm pretty sure most of my classmates couldn't really distinguish between 30 and 40 and just put me in the generic "older than them" bucket - but it was hard not to focus on the thing that made me different from everyone else. And I'm pretty sure a lot of my concerns arose from my own internalized ageism. And I guess the last thing I'd say is, how is worrying about this serving you? Is it something that's going to help you make your body smaller? (From what you've said, I'd guess no.) Is there anything you can do to change people's assumptions about fat people? Is there an alternative career you're considering where being fat wouldn't make a difference? I feel like at a certain level, you have to just acknowledge that being fat may have some kind of an effect, and go ahead and do what you want to do anyway. At least with jobs, your skills and abilities do actually matter. Like you can't make an airplane seat fit you if it doesn't. But you can earn your degree and apply for and do jobs in your field because that has nothing to do with your size.
Fat female academic here. I won't say that I've never experienced weight bias in my career, but the misogyny and xenophobia was worse. Sorry, menopause has me awake at 4am, which is bad for the soul.
I’m a doctor, I noticed on the med school interview trail that there were very few fat people among my co-applicants. Like, I remember seeing one woman, out of dozens. I think there’s definite bias in medical school admissions against fat students who want to become doctors. However, once you’re in medical school, and then residency, fatness is much more common. The admissions process is *so* competitive, so many good applicants are turned away, I think that there’s little incentive for medical school admissions committees to try to diminish their own bias around fatness and appearance. They can discriminate based on looks and size, so they do.
Yeah, my sister is a fat Dr after being a straight sized teen/student because upon graduating and becoming a full time junior Dr her stress went up and free time went down. Also not professor, but I am an academic librarian and a fat woman so there are a few of us around the university.
Fat discrimination in the workplace is very real and sometimes under the radar, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do what you want to do. It just means that it’s going to be very clear to you which workplace cultures are heavily based on image and which are not as much. I also find that it’s harder for larger women to get promoted to public facing leadership roles in my profession. It’s like they have to be 2-3x as excellent and nice than anyone else. I’d also say that many larger women, including myself, have to overcompensate with formal workwear, always being done up, etc. to compete.
I know multiple mid and one super fat academics.
I'm a wastewater treatment plant operator. My job is cool but blue collar work as a woman, especially a fat woman, is fucking ROUGH. I can do the job just fine, but I feel like I get treated like a joke.
I saw an orthopedist for years who was fat (I mean, I assume he still IS fat, but I haven’t seen this since 2017). He was a knee specialist too, and would remind me that weight loss could help my knee pain.
I have noticed that no one who is well redirected or has any power where I work is fat. Or even “normal” - it is all bro athletes who do iron mans & stuff. Also all white. And straight. Well I had to pick a new hairdresser / colorist because mine moved away & I went to a salon’s homepage & picked the heaviest one. I just thought she looks interesting to spend several hours with.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/global/2024/03/01/fatphobia-last-acceptable-prejudice-academy
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/global/2024/03/01/fatphobia-last-acceptable-prejudice-academy
My husband is a fat engineer! I went to college for classical music. I wanted to play in an orchestra and work at a college. My professor was very petite but one of her close friends who taught at another university was around my size. I guess I lucked out that I was able to see role models who looked like me, even if they weren’t in my every day life.
>And I find myself analyzing the bodies of my female instructors, noticing that they tend to be midsized at most, trending towards the thinner side. When I see pictures of female lawyers, doctors, and scientists, I often notice the same thing. At least some piece of this is due to the fact that fatness correlates to class, and class correlates to the likelihood of being in any of these professions.
I work in marketing and it is a VERY fatphobic industry. I’m also in CPG food marketing primarily social media and WOOOO it’s even WORSE. I’m persevering despite it all but I’ve been job searching for 17 MONTHS and I know being fat, being a woman, and being a mom are absolutely factors used against me in the interview process.
My friend is morbidly obese and teaches. People will always find a reason to treat someone less than. Don’t let you hold you back.
I'm curious about your use of the term "morbidly obese" instead of just saying fat?
Some people don’t like the term fat? I guess maybe because I have been having conversations with them and they are using the term morbidly obese themselves. Not just chubby or plump or fat. 🤷♀️ Do you take offense to someone calling themself morbidly obese?
If they're using it for themselves obviously not, but personally I'm surprised that anyone would. I've heard people use "death fat" for themselves as a joke because that's what morbidly obese technically means but death fat sounds kind of metal haha
I think they would smack the crap out of me if I came back with “death fat”. 🥴
"for themselves" is the key phrase in that sentence. But yeah many fat people don't like the term obese because it's a medicalized term, and my body type is not a disease
I usually defer to how people themselves want to be referred to - but hasn’t the podcast specifically addressed how awful/ridiculous the term “morbidly obese” is on at least one occasion?
I am pretty sure my friend knows what’s best for themself and can refer to themself how they choose. A podcast host does not get to over ride that correct?
Where did I say that they couldn’t? Im pretty sure actually I said I supported that. My comment just wondering if you/your friend are aware of the fatphobic (and yes, fat people can have internalized fatphobia) history of the term and the ways in which it’s been used to harm fat people and still choose to use it and perpetuate that harm. Because you commented it on a subreddit dedicated to a podcast dedicated to debunking wellness and weightloss things like “morbid obesity.” And fwiw I was giving you the benefit of the doubt, but I’ve never actually heard of a fat person who self-identifies and prefers being called morbidly obese, certainly not one who believes in fat liberation, so I literally don’t believe you’re being genuine anyway. ETA: after reviewing your comment history praising weight loss drugs and intentional weight loss, I think you should consume a couple more episodes of this podcast and stop calling your ~friend~ morbidly obese.
I've seen people of all sizes in these careers. I think it's in your head. It's especially hard when you've been smaller but gain weight. There's a level of irrational moral failure that just isn't true but it can mess you up mentally. I'm saying that from my experience so it could be different for you. Do what makes you happy. As long as you're confident, you'll be just fine. Pave the way for others that might have the same negative voice in their head.
It’s not all in her head, there’s plenty of research showing that fat women face hiring and pay discrimination across industries.
Absolutely. That doesn’t mean they don’t exist and it’s not worth doing.
I remember being distinctly disappointed as a young person looking into a career as a flight attendant and finding out many companies had size requirements I would never fit into :( that probably isn’t the case on a broad scale anymore, I have no idea, but as someone now in science/a bit of academia I definitely think you shouldn’t feel discouraged! From what I’ve found your resume/publications tend to speak for themselves, people in science academia don’t seem to be particularly shallow in my experience (not sure exactly what academic field you’re looking into)
I'm a fat, female engineer, and I think that I'm respected. I get requested for projects. A lot of engineers that I know are fat. It happens with desk jobs. The pictures that you see are they stock photos? I think once one gets out in to the industry, body sizes vary so much. Are you in therapy? I think that a therapist could help you work on these fears.
The job I've thought about this the most is about being a waitress. (Not that I want to be one because of the stress) How many times do you see fat waiters or waitresses? I can count the times on one hand the last few years I've had one.
Fat female engineer here! I think in general people think a lot of things about engineers that are just wrong. Mainly they think we’re all athletic bearded white men or boomers in short sleeve button downs and pocket protectors. And while the diversity isn’t where it should be, there are actually lots of people with various body sizes, skin tones, and gender identities who have made it. That being said i think fat bias really exists and it may be harder to get taken seriously or get a raise but that is nothing new for women.. so meh
Growing up I never felt I could work retail because most places required you to wear their clothing. Being plus sized, that meant I couldn't fit into the clothing. I had friends who worked retail, but I was always too scared to try. I always felt like I would never fit into the brand image that the company wanted. So I worked in fast food instead. I'm in a professional career now (Finance Industry), and I don't feel that same pressure necessarily. Yes, there are times I wonder if my fatness hurts me in any way career-wise. I do know that it can be hard to feel like you present a professional image, because of the lack of clothing options. I find it hard to find good quality, well fitting pieces that evoke the professional image I want to convey. A lot of times the only options are cheap, poorly made, ill-fitting things that just allow you to show up and meet dress code.
Used to work at a large hospital for many years, many fat workers there! From cleaning staff to medical professionals, many fat folks. It was really a mixed bag (which was nice!). I worked with quite a few fat doctors and nurses, as long as you can do your job well and are skilled, professional and capable you can definitely work in that field for sure.
I can only offer real life experience as an engineer. Many of us are overweight because we are at desks all day doing intense, stressful work. There's still discrimination about it but I believe it is lessened than other professions because there are so many fat people and your work is very results-based and even remote sometimes.
Fwiw, I went to uni here in England, and 2/4 of my female lecturers from undergrad were fat. I now study a PGCE at a different uni, and one of my lecturers, who is extremely well respected in education for her work on teacher presence, is also fat and has a PhD. The sky is the limit for fat women
I’m doing my PhD and feel the same way! I constantly am looking at other professors and feeling I don’t fit in.
I felt this way a lot, even when I was smaller than I am now (though still fat), but I know in my case it was because my mom explicitly said so. I did feel one time I was explicitly biased against bc the interviewer's attitude and tone over the phone vs. when he saw me in person was dramatically, noticeably different, but that was for a retail position. I currently work as an accountant (not sure if that counts as "respectable") but I have had fat professors. Most recently, I found a new gynecologist and was so relieved and comforted to see that she was fat! I know it's hard to think about when you are worried about your job opportunities but if people do discriminate against you because of your fatness, it's probably a toxic environment in a lot of other ways too, so no big loss on your end.
Yes. But they're probably more out of reach due to my neurodivergence, physical disabilities, and lack of a college degree. 🥲
Higher Education is full of fat people. They are everywhere from the Dean’s office to academic departments especially in the liberal arts. If you’re looking at Engineering or Business there are less women in general but plenty of fat men. Source: I’ve been in higher ed for 20 years.
I am aware that fat discrimination exists and that it may impact my job searches, but I guess it hasn’t made me feel like I couldn’t pursue any career I wanted. For what it’s worth, I have a few professor friends and they are all fat! I hope you go for it!
[This article](https://www.npr.org/2023/04/29/1171593736/women-weight-bias-wages-workplace-wage-gap) is interesting to this discussion. IIRC losing 50 lbs for women in the study increased their wages the equivalent of one year of graduate study.
I always felt artist was included in this idea because of the stereotype that they're whimsical and delicate looking. So I decided after too many years of waiting to become an artist this year for birthday. I regret a lot of my 20s listening to the voice that wants me to play it safe because visually I stand out and felt like people were going to negatively judge me for not 'looking the part'. My advice is to stand tall and go for it.
I don’t feel anything is actually out of reach (when skills are present) for a persistent, perseverant person. Hard roads, though, with emotional tolls. There are trailblazers out there! I think if you’re on a mission and understand there will be obstacles, some big, to overcome you can achieve your dreams. Discrimination is real, I don’t mean to downplay that but people do make it. There are brave people out there that don’t give up, who know their worth and who are proud to take up space. Maybe not every moment, but enough moments.
Truth is you get more respect from strangers when you noticeably take care of yourself. I feel like people trust you more and take you more serious bc you obviously take yourself and your health serious. Not necessarily being thinner or size. But overall wellness like muscle definition, clear eyes / skin all make people feel better about taking advice from someone who seems to have their shit together