'Juicy' and 'Squishy' Show

On our March 1st show, about Weight Discrimination, follows in the wake of the media frenzy surrounding Kevin Smith and Southwest Airlines.

Over the Valentine's Day weekend, famed writer and director Kevin Smith was removed from his flight for being 'too fat' - and after bringing public attention to this incident, he received an apology from Southwest Airlines and was given a seat on a replacement flight; however, when the woman seated next to him was subjected to the same humiliating experience, Silent Bob became 'Not So Silent Bob'.

This brought a backlash from the media, and from members of society, who considered Kevin's weight, health and lifestyle to become the subject of criticism, proving that one's size is still considered the last 'socially acceptable' grounds of prejudice, discrimination and hate.

When it comes to obesity and being overweight, the filters of acceptability seem to fall away. People seem comfortable making comments, criticisms, and derogatory comments that degrade and insult a fellow human being, eroding away their confidence and attacking their sense of self.

To examine this issue further, we brought in four wonderful guests to talk about weight discrimination, the rights of people of size, and 'fat advocacy'.

Our first guest, Jill Andrew, a PhD student and a self-proclaimed 'fat activist' since the age of 15, joined us to talk about her experience working within a variety of projects in Toronto, such as: Precious Bodies/Priceless Minds, The Curvy Catwalk, and BITE ME!

Precious Bodies, Priceless Minds is a full day summit targeted at youth between the ages of 12-19 to discuss societal issues surrounding the exclusion of people of size, and issues that impact weight.

"...while this series runs with girls now exclusively, we are looking to branch off into including young men into that conversation because, quite frankly, weight discrimination - while it is somewhat gendered towards girls - we are seeing a huge increase in men starting to talk out."

She notes that men are also held to unreasonable image standards, and being judged based on bald heads and expanding waistlines.

The Curvy Catwalk is an annual plus sized fundraising fashion show, that celebrates up and coming Canadian designers while demonstrating that one can be "female, fat and fabulous."

This event traditionally raises money for Sheena's Place a non-federally funded organization that provides a safe space and support for those who have (or survived) an eating disorder, their friends, family and allies.

BITE ME! is Toronto's first International body image arts and film festival.

"Scheduled for March 2010, BITE ME! will explore through arts how body image is nuanced by race, class, gender, physical ability as well as sexual orientation. All too often, the discussion surrounding body image in mainstream and academic circles revolves exclusively around weight gain or loss—in short, a very Western conversation."

Jill continued the conversation by discussing how media images and messages affect youth, particularly in the typecasting of overweight women in roles such as 'the best friend' and the 'non-love interest' of the protagonist.

"Quite frankly, it gets me sick to my stomach when I see how people, particularly young people, are treated because of their weight or because of issues of difference."

Additionally, she expressed her opinion that shows like 'The Biggest Loser' are detrimental to overweight people, as they provide an unrealistic view of the struggles of weight loss, and provide a subtle jab as members who do not lose enough weight are berated by their teammates and voted off the program. This mentality, that fat people need to be 'fixed' to fit into a thin world, sends a negative message to society - that if one can't succeed in losing all their weight, they are a failure.

This, she agreed, can lead to the devastating backlash of eating disorders, as overweight people try to chase the perfect body image to confirm to society's expectations and help them avoid the discrimination and harassment they endure.

We were also joined by Associate Professor Anna Kirkland, from the University of Michigan, who is the author of Fat Rights: Dilemma and Difference of Personhood.

She posed that while we may think of weight discrimination in terms of publicized incidents like Kevin Smith's, her research determined something society often fails to realize - the large number of overweight individuals that censor themselves and pre-emptively remove themselves from public spaces in fear of encountering that harassment, discrimination, or humiliation.

She made reference to Mark Roehling, Associate Professor at Michigan State University, who co-researched a study that determined that women (particularly highly educated, Caucasian women) who are overweight often earn as much as 30% LESS than their thin counterparts, further contributing to the 'glass ceiling' effect, and likewise, leading toward the potential of creating a glass ceiling for obese men.

And while classifying weight as a disability may assist in gaining accommodations for people of size, advocates are reluctant to accept that inclusion due to the social stigmas already in place for those who are labelled as having a disability.

Weight, in both the US and Canada, is not yet a protected ground under Human Rights law.

In speaking about the variety of environmental factors that can affect weight, Michelle referenced a research study published online in December of 2009, that found connections between obesity and genetics, proving that CNVs (copy number variants) can cause metabolic diseases like obesity. The how may lie in deletions in chromosome 16.

"The missing segment of chromosome 16 holds nine genes, including one, known as SH2B1, that scientists had already fingered as a possible culprit in obesity. Mice lacking the gene become extremely fat and develop insulin resistance, a feature of obesity and diabetes in which cells become less responsive to insulin. SH2B1 is a key intermediary that enables insulin and leptin, a hormone that helps set appetite, to transmit their messages to cells."

Yet, despite growing scientific proof that eating habits and lifestyle are only contributing factor in the determination of one's body weight, and that 70-80% of your weight is inherited (about the same as height), obesity is still regarded much like a viral infection.

"What people are saying is, 'look, it can't be genetic because you can't have a genetic epidemic.' ....why are we calling it an epidemic? I mean, an epidemic implies some...really drastic, deadly thing that is happening on a really wide scale....the weight gain is that we've experienced as a population is a pretty moderate rise for millions and millions of people - and then the heaviest people putting on even more weight than that." (Anna Kirkland)

Additionally, more and more medications are interfering with the body's metabolic rate and can lead to weight gain as a side effect. Should societal pressure to be thin overrule the benefits of treating conditions (like depression, or cancer) that may have fatal consequences?

Peggy Howell, Public Relations Director for NAAFA (National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance), also 'weighed in' on the issue.

In a sobering moment of perspective, she referenced a study released by Yale University in 2008 that put discrimination by weight on par with that of gender, and of race.

"So it really is a very serious issue that affects fat people in many issues of our lives, such as: in the workplace, in healthcare, and even on the streets. Discrimination from family and friends as well; sometimes by well meaning people but not always appropriately informed."

Dr. Linda Bacon, a member of NAAFA and a research scientist in this area of expertise, has touched upon the concept of 'thin privilege' (much like 'male privilege') - a growing phenomenon that sees certain privileges afforded to [one group] of people.

A cited example was the issue of healthcare. If a thin person goes to a doctor complaining about symptoms, they are examined, diagnosed and treated for those symptoms; however, a person of size may go to the doctor with the same symptoms and be told, "Lose some weight first and then come back to see me."

"Another example is the airline seat situation where, although airlines claim to be concerned with the comfort and safety of all their passengers, I would say that they are only concerned with the comfort and safety of their passengers under 5'10" and weigh less than 160 pounds."

Southwest's Airlines policy on seating is that a person must be able to fit comfortably in an airline seat, with both arm rests down, or they will be required to purchase a second seat.

Peggy's concern with such policies is the fact that they are arbitrarily left up to the discretion of individual employees, who use subjective means to determine who qualifies for a single or double fare. If the employee responsible is fat-phobic, or considers anyone above their own weight to be 'fat', they may be more stringent in their judgement - which can lead to disaster. If the flyer cannot afford the second seat, they cannot fly (even if they made it to their destination) and may be stranded.

Society is pushing so hard to force overweight and obese people into the 'thin world', that we are overlooking matters of simple courtesy and common sense. Not that fitting into a down-sizing world is easy, despite the myriad of programs and products claiming a fast, easy fix.

As Jill pointed out in her interview, we have access to all these diets and fitness programs that we can utilize until the weight is gone - but what then? Maintaining weight loss is a difficult task, that requires a lot of time, energy, and resources.

Peggy also raised concerns with the medical profession pushing pharmaceutical and surgical remedies to 'solve' the problem of obesity, without having the proper information on nutrition and healthy lifestyle habits. Those areas are left to specialists, that many average people do not have access to.

"Would you expect an automobile mechanic to not understand anything about the fuel that it takes to run that automobile? Or the oil that needs to go in to lubricate it? I would never take my car to be fixed by someone who doesn't know ALL there is to know about it. So how is it that doctors can look at our bodies and make decisions about what we need to do, or not to do - they don't have the knowledge that they need about what constitutes good nutrition. What kind of fuel our bodies need to have, really, to be healthy....Instead of focusing on weight, why not on good health?"

Three scientific studies (one from the US CDC, one from Canada, and one from Japan) all support the same conclusion: people who are between 25-30 BMI (overweight) who follow good health practices, are the healthiest group - faring better than those with a BMI under 25. Essentially, it isn't what you weigh, but how you live - simply because you are thin, doesn't make you healthy.

So why are these studies being ignored? Because there are too many multi-million dollar industries that have sprung up in the last twenty years, that profit off of people's dissatisfaction with their weight.

And sometimes, profit on our inability to meet the standards of a thin world.

Such was the case of our last guest, Natalie, who was introduced to the public eye through Kevin Smith's Smodcast.

During the Valentine's Day weekend, she was flying from Boise, Idaho to Burbank, California, with one connection. Even though she has flown on Southwest Airlines regularly without issue, and made the first leg of her connection without problem, all that changed when she arrived at her stop in Oakland.

Despite being small enough to fit comfortably between the armrests of an airline seat, Natalie was humiliated by staff of the airline, as she was publicly removed from the flight and informed that they considered her too fat to fly.

"They just put me on parade and I felt every eye on me...I just wanted to cry, or get off that flight and away from anybody."

Fortunately for her, after the traumatic ordeal was over, she confided her embarrassment to the sympathetic man sitting next to her, who had also suffered a similar incident. That man was the famous writer and director, Kevin Smith.

In her interview, Natalie only reiterated the sad reality that Anna found in her research - that due to the reactions of people in our society, and the thin-dominated areas in public spaces, overweight people pre-emptively take measures to avoid these situations or censor themselves.

"Just being a big girl in general, you kind-of try to plan ahead everything and make sure that you're not going to disturb somebody - because you don't want to bring attention to yourself. And for me, being plus sized, knowing I'm going to be in a small area...I'm going to cuddle as close as I can to that window because I don't want to touch the person - because they already have the pre-judgement that, 'oh my gosh...I'm going to be squished sitting beside somebody that's larger.' So, I try to make it as comfortable as I can for anyone, because I don't want to cause problems for [them]."

Through this experience, she learned that this type of incident occurs far too frequently for far too many people, not surprising as 2/3rds of the American population is considered overweight or obese.

In speaking out she hopes to bring attention to the treatment to people of size, so that more people are not subjected to such an experience. Regardless of size, shape or height, we are all customers of a company that offers a service and should be treated with the same respect that position should demand.

Her advice, to other people of size, is to speak out to businesses pre-emptively. Write letters and be vocal about boycotting services, rather than doing it silently. Let them know that services should be accommodating the customers, not asking the customers to accommodate them - particularly if the customers are expected to pay for it.

Following the topic of airline seating, Michelle made comparison to the policies instituted by airlines in the U.S. and our own country's mandated 'one person, one fare' policy. Canada's policy determined that one person can only pay one fare, but if a second seat is required (for an aide, or to accommodate a disability or a person of size) the airline must provide the second seat and absorb the cost of the ticket. This practice is believed to cost Canadian airlines approximately 44 cents on every ticket.

For the record, the average airline seat is 17" wide - approximately the size of your computer keyboard.

A quick comparison of how airlines in the US handle this issue versus how Canadian airlines do, reveals some surprising contradictions.

Airlines in the US demand that their customers are to pay fares for two seats, unless they can prove they AREN'T fat enough to warrant a second seat. Canadian airlines demand customers prove they ARE fat enough to warrant a second seat.

Airlines in the US require a person to be able to sit in a seat with both arm rests down, to be allowed to fly on a single fare - armrests must remain down at all times. Canadian airlines offer adjustable armrests and removable armrests for the comfort and convenience of customers flying on a single fare.

Airlines in the US defend the two fare policy by stating that it is all a matter of safety. Canadian airlines are operating just as safely, with accommodations being made where needed.

"It's all about the money, honey. Just follow the money," notes Peggy.

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Special thanks to our Producer Adam Prince, and our wonderful guests: Jill Andrew of Jill Andrew Media (JAM), Prof. Anna Kirkland of the University of Michigan, Peggy Howell of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA), and Natalie.