My definition of social justice is fairness for everyone, with no discrimination for any reason (race, color, religion, sex, body size or shape, disability etc.). I spent Friday, October 14 with a fairly new friend of mine who is obese. This person comes across a lot of discrimination in all parts of society every day because of her size (she weighs around 350 lbs) (Brownell and Puhl, 2003). Today's society places a great emphasis on being slim, and an obese person is confronted with this "normal" image of what a person should look like every day.
We noticed it particularly at lunch time when we went in the cafeteria to eat. Everyone was looking at my friend and what she ate, and we could see people watching us throughout the meal, scrutinizing every mouthful she took. I am personally fairly slim - 110 lbs - and I must admit that in the past I, too, have been guilty of this type of behavior. I have tended to scrutinize what obese people are eating, or buying in grocery stores, trying to see what it is that makes them so fat. I have often wondered why these people don't do something about their excessive weight, because we all know it is unhealthy and can lead to serious health problems with age.
What I didn't realize is that some people are not responsible for this excess weight. My friend has tried everything possible, under the care of doctors and nutritionists, but nothing has worked for her. She is now considering gastric bypass surgery because she is bothered by all the discrimination she is subjected to endlessly.
My other friends stared at her when they see us together, and in private, asked me why I would want to hang out with someone like "that." I tell them that she is a very intelligent, sensitive, kind human being and that we have lots of things to talk about and we are both studying many of the same subjects in school. On this particular day, I found myself getting very defensive, and got angry at t...