Received: from cornell.edu (cornell.edu [132.236.56.6]) by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.7.6/8.7.3/CNS-4.0p) with ESMTP id IAA22635 for ; Fri, 20 Jun 1997 08:56:05 -0600 (MDT) Received: from port16.lightlink.com (port16.lightlink.com [205.232.34.116]) by cornell.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id KAA02922 for ; Fri, 20 Jun 1997 10:56:02 -0400 (EDT) From: icl1@cornell.edu (Irene C. Limpe) To: socgrad@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Re: Obesity and Discrimination Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 14:56:01 GMT Message-ID: <33ab92e8.17727913@132.236.56.6> References: In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Hi! >A new study just came out by researchers in Finland that said Obese = women=20 >are more discriminated in employment, less likely to be hired, less=20 >likely to keep their jobs as long, and get paid less than women who are= =20 >not overweight. In the United States, statistics show that more children= =20 >are obese than ever before. I'm not surprised. The discrimination against obese people is widespread and often unopposed, sometimes because it is so subtle. >months ago a study suggested that obese women who are married are=20 >happy, and those who are single tend to be depressed. > That is interesting and come to think of it, it's not surprising. I guess it goes to show that lack of social acceptance and support is what contributes to depression among obese women, not the fact that they're obese. >Some have argued that because women have different metabolism, there are= =20 >more obese women than men. Is this true? Why do most studys about = obesity=20 >focus on women? Is it because more women are reportedly obese than men? =46rom what I know, it is easier for men to build muscle because of testosterone. So that even if a man and a woman exert the same effort (say lifting weights of the same weight and for the same duration), the man would gain more muscle than the woman. And since muscle burns calories, it is easier for men to use up calories. This also explains why it is so hard for women to become as bulky as male weight lifters for example. I don't know whether there are more obese women than men, but it seems likely since women are less efficient in building muscle/more efficient in storing fat. It is likely too that if women are the focus of obesity studies, this is partly due to the current obsession over women's appearances that dictate that women should look youthful and be slender, fueled of course by media, the cosmetics and fashion industry, etc.=20 >Why have most of the studies in the News Media been done by scientists=20 >other than sociologists? I would think that sociology is the most=20 Probably because most of the studies are done to find ways to "solve" the problem of obesity. There's a lot of money in coming up with weight-loss products and programs etc. And of course the health risks associated with obesity make it a popular subject for medical science to study. >appropriate discipline to study this problem. I agree with you that this is a highly appropriate subject for sociologists to study, particularly when it comes to discrimination of obese people. Irene --=20 Irene C. Limpe Department of Sociology, Cornell University