Bi And Large

Last night as I was browsing through all the interesting tidbits of news that the internet offers me, I came across an piece that really intrigued me. It comes with the exceedingly not charming title, "Heavy Hosties Given the Heave-Ho" and can be found in its entirety here.

 

So what's the deal? Well, from the article:

 

"India's national airline, Air India, has come under fire after sacking ten female cabin crew members for being overweight. The crew had their employment terminated from the carrier's domestic arm, AI Domestic, this week, after being declared 'medically unfit for duty'...

"Now, if you are just ten grams over, it’s goodbye,” Sheila Joshi, 51, one of the hostesses, told the press. "It’s ridiculous: weight is not an infectious disease. This is not a modelling job; we are not working a catwalk."

The maximum permissible weight for an 18-year-old and 152cm tall airhostess is 50kg [110lbs] while one between 26 and 30 years of age of the same height has a limit of 56kg [123.5lbs.]"

 

OK can I get a rousing WTF from everyone? I mean seriously? OK, I will grant that perhaps if you are, say, my size - I have wide ass hips and airplane rows are narrow - running around a plane might not be comfortable. Sure. But firing employees that get over 110lbs? Good grief!

 

The worst part?

 

"Female cabin crew allege that male pursers, who also work the aircraft cabins and who face the same physical challenges as the female hostesses, are not made to conform to a particular weight standard. "Last year, an obese flight purser got stuck in the aircraft toilet and its door had to be dismantled to free him," an air hostess told the Times of India newspaper. "We have male flight pursers who weigh over a hundred kilos [220.5lbs.] If there is an emergency on board they would hamper the rescue operations rather than help it," said another."

 

Ohhhh so now it all becomes clear. Men can look like human beings; that is, they can come in a variety of shapes and sizes just like normal people. But women have to look like dolls. They must be physical representations of helpless impotent fantasy, rather than strong able and normal humans, because 'we' like to look at them that way. Again, can I get a WTF. This just drives me up the wall. One of the things that bugged me most about this article was that the dismissed female employees brought their case to a judge, and during the trial he made the comment,

 

"Statistics reveal that overweight persons face constant challenges to their emotions which include remarks from strangers, discrimination at work, lower self-esteem and poor body image," the judge said." But instead of using that obvious evidence of entrenched discrimination as a reason to rule for the hostesses, he used it to rule for the airlines (!!!) - because airlines have to stay competetive and who needs that kind of drama? It just boggles my mind. I can't see any judge anywhere saying, oh, well disabled people face rude comments from strangers, so companies shouldn't have to hire them. Or any judge ruling, you know, black people often face discrimination, and that can affect their self image, so stay away from them if you want to stay competitive. And yeah, I know, I KNOW someone is now going to bring out the really tired argument that disability and ethnicity are totally different than size, because you can always lose weight. But I'm so over done with that. Because yes, you can go on a diet and lose weight, sometimes. A little. But study after study after study has taught us that size is preset, and there just isn't bloody much you can do about it. My 400lb ass isn't going to magically turn into a 123lb AI hostess figure any time sooner than your local immigrant friend right off the plane from Nigeria is going to turn snowy white. And here's the thing - with the fact that I am in good health thrown in, why SHOULD we? We should we all kill ourselves to be exactly the same as each other or live in shame and disgrace? How silly. Telling a healthy fat person they need to lose some weight? Is that really much different than telling an African American person that they need to "act white?" Really?

 

Companies CAN and DO hire (and fire) whoever they bloody well please. But, even in a democracy, I don't think they have every right to when it's not based on ability and performance. I think making decisions about someone based solely on their looks is discrimination, and we have laws against that for a reason. Should we, as a society, work towards a future where everyone is judged on their own personhood, talents, and character instead of outward appearances that they can't control? I think we should. Stopping employment discrimination is one of the first steps we have to take forward to get there.