2008 Woodie Awards
Tabula Rasa:
Size Does Matter; Sizeism is Addressed at Smith
Julie Casper Roth
Issue date: 9/23/04 Section: Opinion
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There was a boy in my seventh grade class whom the kids called Ketchup - a variation on his unique last name. We sat at a table together, a group of misfits in a class where everyone had already grouped off with friends. Our outward traits were what made us the misfits. I had frizzy hair and crooked teeth. Another boy was short and skinny, the runt of the class. Then there was Ketchup, the largest kid in the seventh grade. He was enormous, not just in girth but also in height and frame. All three of us were too shy to speak to each other, but still shared a common bond in that biology class.
While I was able to somehow work through my awkwardness, Ketchup obviously couldn't. The taunting he received from other classmates was so frequent and so out-in-the-open that a casualness about it developed amongst classmates and even teachers. One day in math class, Ketchup visibly struggled to fit into his tiny chair and desk. The teacher teased, "Have too much for lunch today?" Three days later, Ketchup downed a bottle of pills in the school bathroom and subsequently collapsed on his bus ride home shortly afterwards. After that, many of the junior high kids learned his real name for the first time: James. James had lived his short life as a form of entertainment for others. He had been hated for no other reason than for being big and awkward. Ketchup had been a "stage" name. It had reduced him from a person to a character.
I, obviously, have never forgotten James. As current news continues to seek blame for the "obesity epidemic," I think of James and the discrimination he faced as a child from adults and peers alike. The media continues to pound the public with the idea that obesity is a bad thing. The problem with that, though, is that so many of us take that to mean "obese people are bad."
A new group has organized on campus to battle such notions and to take on a growing form of discrimination: sizeism. Several founding members of the group, named Size Matters, met with me last week to discuss the sizeism that they face on campus and the goals they hope to achieve through running such an organization. Over the course of our interview, I could narrow the most basic problem of sizeism down to one thing: assumption.
While I was able to somehow work through my awkwardness, Ketchup obviously couldn't. The taunting he received from other classmates was so frequent and so out-in-the-open that a casualness about it developed amongst classmates and even teachers. One day in math class, Ketchup visibly struggled to fit into his tiny chair and desk. The teacher teased, "Have too much for lunch today?" Three days later, Ketchup downed a bottle of pills in the school bathroom and subsequently collapsed on his bus ride home shortly afterwards. After that, many of the junior high kids learned his real name for the first time: James. James had lived his short life as a form of entertainment for others. He had been hated for no other reason than for being big and awkward. Ketchup had been a "stage" name. It had reduced him from a person to a character.
I, obviously, have never forgotten James. As current news continues to seek blame for the "obesity epidemic," I think of James and the discrimination he faced as a child from adults and peers alike. The media continues to pound the public with the idea that obesity is a bad thing. The problem with that, though, is that so many of us take that to mean "obese people are bad."
A new group has organized on campus to battle such notions and to take on a growing form of discrimination: sizeism. Several founding members of the group, named Size Matters, met with me last week to discuss the sizeism that they face on campus and the goals they hope to achieve through running such an organization. Over the course of our interview, I could narrow the most basic problem of sizeism down to one thing: assumption.