Fat and Fit, The Stigmatization of Fatness
Channel: LIVING SOCIOLOGY
Date: 2019-11-30

First Person, Plural on CFUV-fm, Victoria, BC
Originally aired June 6, 2002

Jennifer Portnick loves aerobics.  The 38-year-old San Francisco resident stood out in her Jazzercise class, performing routines so well, her instructor asked her to audition for a position with the company.  Portnick did so, but was not initially accepted by Jazzercise as an instructor. It wasn’t her skill, her stamina, her techniques, her sense of rhythm, or her talent that kept her from acceptance.  It was how she looked.  At 240 pounds, the five-feet, eight-inch Portnick was told by Jazzercise that she should go on a diet and aim for a “more fit appearance.”  If she lost the required weight in 6 months, she could work for Jazzercise.  Portnick told Jazzercise that such a goal was unrealistic.  Then she did not take “no” for an answer.  In September of 2001, Portnick filed a complaint with San Francisco’s Human Rights Commission alleging a violation of the city’s “fat and short”provision that bans discrimination based on size. What has followed has been a flurry of debates in the press across international boundaries about the truth of the fatness/fitness dichotomy. Can one be fat and fit? On May 6, 2002, International No-Diet Day, Portnick's attorney, Sondra Sovonay announced that Portnick and Jazzercise had reached a satisfactory agreement with the Human Rights Commission acting as mediator. The provisions of the agreement were not made public, but Jazzercise has released a statement that they have abandoned their "fit appearance" requirement stating "recent studies document that it may be possible for people of varying weights to be fit. Jazzercise has determined that the value of 'fit appearance' as a standard is debatable."  During this show, we examined the stigma of fatness. We began by talking to Jennifer Portnick who took time a few weeks ago from her busy schedule of talking to mainstream media such as Good Morning America and People Magazine to speak with Pattie from her San Francisco home.

Why do we even need to talk about fat and health? This may seem like an odd question amidst the current multi-national campaigns against obesity.  But is obesity really a "disease"?  Lots of vested interests are making a great deal of money because of the medicalization of body size.  Is treatment of obesity a new kind of phrenology?  We spend some time discussing other ways to view fat than as ugly, unhealthy and lazy.   

Writing is one of the few ways stigmatized people have to voice their concerns.  Goffman suggests that stigmas are ways in which certain groups of people are regarded as less than human.  People regarded in this manner must find ways to "manage" their "spoiled identity."  Justice seeks to eliminate the spoiled identity entirely, assuring that all human beings are treated as human beings.  Thus, prose and poetry can be a powerful tool in the quest for justice because nothing is more human than our most profound feelings, our deepest emotions.

copyright: Carl Wilkerson and Pattie Thomas
http://sociologylegacy.pbworks.com/w/page/93413426/Episode%2005%20Fat%20and%20Fit%2C%20The%20Stigmatization%20of%20Fatness