Sizeism is discrimination based on a person’s size, whether it be height or weight. It can take many forms and is often deeply ingrained in society. Sizeist attitudes perpetuate harmful stereotypes and can lead to discrimination in hiring and language. Combatting sizeism requires acknowledging one’s own biases and educating others.
Sizeism is a form of discrimination that is based on the size of the person or people being discriminated against. This type of discrimination can take many forms, ranging from refusing to hire someone for being too short to treating overweight people with contempt. Some regions have laws in place to ban this type of discrimination, but Sizeist attitudes are often deeply ingrained in society, which can make it very difficult to fight Sizeism. In some situations, a person’s size may be an important aspect of their job, so a preference for someone of a certain size may not be considered discrimination.
This form of bias can be based on height, weight, or both. Humans are an incredibly diverse species, and individuals can come in a huge range of sizes. Depending on where you are in the world, people might have a tendency to be particularly tall, slim, short, or plump, and many societies have internalized attitudes about certain sizes, which could manifest in discrimination against those sizes. Sizeism could also occur when someone believes that their size is larger than other people’s.
Like other forms of discrimination, sizeism is not always explicit. It involves perpetuating stereotypes and the attitudes that support those stereotypes, such as the idea that all fat people are lazy or that all tall people are good at playing basketball. Sizeist attitudes can also take the form of expressions of physical disgust when dealing with people of a certain size. Often people are unaware that they are behaving in a way that might be considered sizeist, and sizeist attitudes often slip through without mention, even among people who are otherwise aware of harmful biases.
When someone passes judgment on someone or refuses to hire someone based on their size, this could be an example of sizeism. It can also manifest itself in the form of language; terms like “beanpole” for tall people and “fat pig” for overweight people are usually sizeist epithets. Overweight people often suffer from discrimination due to attitudes held in many cultures, but they are not the only people who experience sizeism.
For those wishing to combat sizeism, acknowledging their own prejudicial thoughts or discriminatory words and actions is often the first step. Analyzing the behavior of others and not being afraid to question people’s attitudes are also important. As with other “-isms,” education and explaining why sizeism is offensive to many people can help bring about cultural shifts in attitudes and actions.
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