“If you are fat, how
do you teach patients?” asks nurse Rajaletchumi Raja Singam.
Discriminatory words like hers are not uncommon. In fact,
subtle and invidious discrimination against people who are
overweight happens at all levels of society, and they ruin people’s
lives.
Professor Linda Bacon, who is a
specialist in food and sustainability and an advocate for Health
for Every Size movement, says that research supports that you
can be both healthy and overweight.
In her book “Health
at Every Size”, she says, ”No obesity myth is more
potent than the one that says obesity kills. It gives us permission
to call our fear of fat a health concern, rather than naming it as
the cultural oppression it is. That ‘obesity kills’ has been the
backbone of the [U.S] federal public health campaign. Yet that is
not supported by evidence examined by federal employees. Their
research found that ‘even severe obesity failed to show up as a
statistically significant mortality risk’ and suggested that
overweight may actually be protective…The most comprehensive
review, for instance, pooled data from 26 studies and concluded
that overweight individuals were living slightly longer than those
of normal weight.”
Although the etymology of the word ‘obese’ means, “that has
eaten itself fat”, that is not the truth; for people who are in the
‘obese’ category very often do not eat any differently from people
in the ‘normal’ category.
In a culture where people are pre-occupied with food and weight
and with the constant message going out (even from well meaning
healthcare professionals) that you need to be trim to be fit,
instead of emphasising on being healthy, there is a lot of bashing
going on, right from the schools to the places of work.
Even the chief executive of Alexandra Health Group (the
healthcare group which manages Alexandra Hospital and Khoo Teck
Puat Hospital) Mr Liak Teng Lit, equated being trim to being
healthy. He
recently said, “[If you are overweight) you are going to fall
sick”.
He says that he will use ‘weight’ as a key performance indicator
(KPI) for the staff in the hospitals managed by him and that
overweight staff will not be promoted.
This KPI adds further stress to the staff in the hospital (many
of whom are women) who juggle shift work, family commitments and
societal pressures.
I asked Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) if
it had a view on the KPI set by Alexandra Health Group for its
staff’s promotion. AWARE responded that in its view, this practice
of the health group is clearly discriminatory and unacceptable.
Ms Corinna Lim, the Executive Director of AWARE says, “If the
hospitals wish to implement such an unusual policy, the onus is on
them to substantiate and justify this.”
Ms Lim further asserted that the health-group has to show – as a
matter of fact – that weight and body-shape generally affect work
performance or pose a health-risk to the individual and their
families, if the health group insists on using body weight of staff
as a KPI.
“If so, are the hospitals applying similar considerations to
individuals with other types of health risks such as smoking or who
suffer from insomnia?” she asks.
This KPI she feels sets a very bad precedent not just for the
health-care industry, but also for the country, for if it is
accepted as a precedent, “then one can stretch it to every health
care establishment in the country and to any other job where there
is greater exposure to germs (e.g. cinemas, shopping centres,
toilets).”
“What are the job specifications of hospital staff?” she
asks. “Is it to promote healthy living or to take care of
sick patients when they check in? Surely, what a patient is looking
for is caring and competent staff, be they fat, thin or otherwise”,
she adds.
‘Being trim equals being fit’ is a cultural idea that has been
repeated so many times and has spread so swiftly that it has become
part of our belief system. We are led to belief so strongly
that being fat is killing us that we lose our open-mindedness and
we see everything only through this lens.
The fact is, there are plenty of thin people who are making very
bad health choices and don’t gain weight, as their bodies are
genetically predisposed another way.
It is simply not true that everyone who is overweight has poor
lifestyle habits.
————-
Picture from:
Georgia Obesity.
Would this type of "wordings" be classified as
discrimination in the states?
Is it an offence in US?
If so, what is the penalty like?
To some, "this" looked more of personal
attack!
From, chearper, better, faster and more productive - it
pinpoint at people physical appearance and not ability to
perform.
what the heck care is this!
