Friday, May 8, 2009

Size Discrimination.

I was reading the Atlanta Journal-Constitution online this morning and read an article that brought back some old questions that I had. The article was about Britain's largest clothing store, Marks & Spencer. They had started charging an extra $3 on bras that were DD or larger. A Facebook campaign against that started and 14,000 women signed up to protest. Marks & Spencer has responded and dropped the added charge.

The reason this came to mind is my wife was, in the clothing manufacturers terms, a plus size woman. Because of that any clothes we bought cost at least $2 more than the regular size. I never understood why that was. The price went up on 2X or larger. There is not that much more material in a 2x shirt than there is an XL shirt. So why do they charge more? The same thing is done with mens clothing. It's just not fair to treat them that way.

I saw first hand how people would be so judgmental because of size. A few would actually say something but most would just give dirty looks. There were quite a few times that my wife would cry after we had been out. Her size bothered her but it was very hard for her to lose weight. She tried dieting and exercising, but there were only short term successes. One sad thing is she had actually found a combination that was working. She had lost 40 pounds in the three months before she died.

Putting others down makes some people feel important. Personally I think that only shows how little class they have.

Alfonso Soriano hit two home runs and the Cubs beat the Astros 8-5. Ted Lilly improved to 4-2. The Cubs are in Milwaukee tonight to face the Brewers.
Travis was right. There are 8 pints in a gallon.
Today's question is Grade 1/Animal science.

What is a lamb's mother called?

Being a farm boy, of course I knew the answer to this. 92-17.

2 comments:

Quiggy said...

My late fiancée was also a large woman. We didn't buy much clothes before she passed away, so I don't know what the costs were. But I do remember some of the looks she got, maybe because I'm much more sensitive to my surroundings.

Dana said...

I've dealt with size discrimination for most of my life - both as a child and as an adult. I believe I've been passed over for promotions and for jobs based on presumptions of small minded people. I've always said that size discrimination is the last "acceptable" discrimination practice.

I often wish that those who are so cruel could spend one day in the body of those of us who struggle with weight. They'd likely discover that the only difference between them and us is that our hangups, hurts and insecurities manifest themselves through food.