Obese females, but not males, suffer on payday

Real Life: Dana Knight
Obese females, but not males, suffer on payday

March 19, 2004

Never mind the cute tush, rock-hard abs or clog-free arteries.

You better cut the carbs, fats and calories for the cash.

In a yeah-that-sounds-about-right kind of study released this month,
researchers found that fat women earn 30 percent less money than their
slender counterparts.

So what's new, asks Kathy Summers, who works at the fitness and exercise
facility Curves For Women on Thompson Road.

"That's kind of the way society in general works," says Summers, who
doesn't consider herself thin, but says she's "halfway decent."

"I've always seen the better-looking women get the privileges," she says.

Actually, normal-weight women and even plump ones earn an average of $5,000
more a year than obese women, according to the Finnish study published in
the American Journal of Public Health.

To be discriminated against paywise, the study says, women had to be
considered obese -- not just chunky. Obesity is measured in terms of Body
Mass Index or body fat.

In plain pound terms, an obese woman would be a 5-foot-4-inch female who is
30 pounds or more overweight.

The pay barrier was most evident in professional women who worked
white-collar jobs, where it seemed looks were more important and equated to
intelligence or success.

Obese men, according to the study, faced no sinking salaries due to weight.

Like that's fair. Women already were behind in pay without having to worry
about their behinds.

Full-time working females earn 73 percent of what a full-time male makes,
according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau statistics. Working women's
families lose an average of $4,000 annually because of unequal pay.

It seems the fat factor is yet another area women have to fight through to
be recognized for their abilities.

Career consultant and author Sarah Banda Purvis says "double standards
based on gender differences have been applied in the work world for far too
long."

Among the most tasteless practices, she says, is paying a man more because
of some twisted belief that he has more financial responsibilities and
paying a woman less because she probably has a boyfriend or significant
other who is contributing to her income.

Add some fat to the woman's hips and thighs and the pay disparity is even
more glaring.

But instead of fighting what's a reality of corporate America, Joan
Breibart suggests fighting to get healthy.

"It's not fair, and I don't think any (company) would admit to doing it,
but I know it's the case," says Breibart, a 63-year-old size 6 who is the
president and co-founder of New York-based DietDirectives.com.

"In New York, there are all these retail stores, and they hire people on
the basis of what their size is," she says. "You can't get a job in a
restaurant here unless you are thin."

You can't do much about how employers behave, but you can at least change
yourself, she says.

Breibart's DietDirectives is a weight-loss system based on eating low
quantities of food in an effort to shrink the stomach.

Her concern is wiping out obesity, a super-sized American dilemma. "We have
to fix this problem," she says.

And, we hope, the rest will follow.

And just in case fat women feel picked on, here are a few other random pay
barriers based on physical characteristics, according to a study by London
Guildhall University:

• Plain-looking women earn 11 percent less than their gender average.

• Plain-looking men earn 15 percent less than their gender average.

• Short men earn 10 percent less than tall men and 5 percent less than
average-height men.

Contact Dana Knight at (317) 444-6012 or .

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On 28 Mar 2004 11:28:08 +0100, Jean C did not
write:

NR is troll in case you didn't already know.

He likes photography and he may live in Chicago...excuse he may
EXIST in Chicago. Poor Chicago.

LV


Lady Veteran
- -----------------------------------
"I rode a tank and held a general's rank
when the blitzkrieg raged and the bodies stank..."
- -Rolling Stones, Sympathy for the Devil
- ------------------------------------------------
People who hide behind anonymous remailers and
ridicule fat people are cowardly idiots with no
motive but malice.
- ---------------------------------------------


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On Sun, 28 Mar 2004, Lady Veteran protested a little
too much:

On 28 Mar 2004 11:28:08 +0100, Jean C did not
write:

NR is troll in case you didn't already know.

I traced the Jean C message back to this IP addy: 67.30.10.247. This IP
addy belongs to you according to your NNTP Posting Host. You should learn
how to chain your remailers.


He likes photography and he may live in Chicago...excuse he may
EXIST in Chicago. Poor Chicago.

So, what's your excuse? Are you the troll or is NR sending these Jean C
messages from your PC?

It looks like case of the one who smelt it, dealt it. Now that you have
been caught, crawl back under your rock.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On 28 Mar 2004 22:12:43 +0100, The Troll Hunter
wrote:

On Sun, 28 Mar 2004, Lady Veteran protested a
little too much:

On 28 Mar 2004 11:28:08 +0100, Jean C did not
write:

NR is troll in case you didn't already know.

I traced the Jean C message back to this IP addy: 67.30.10.247.
This IP addy belongs to you according to your NNTP Posting Host.
You should learn how to chain your remailers.

OF COURSE IT IS MY IP ADDRESS NUMBNUTS!!! I REPLIED TO THE
MESSAGE!!!! I DO NOT USE REMAILERS IN ANY SIZE SHAP OR
FORM-****WIT!!!!


He likes photography and he may live in Chicago...excuse he may
EXIST in Chicago. Poor Chicago.

So, what's your excuse? Are you the troll or is NR sending these
Jean C messages from your PC?

It looks like case of the one who smelt it, dealt it. Now that you
have been caught, crawl back under your rock.


STICK THAT UP YOUR ASS YOU ****!!!

LV


Lady Veteran
- -----------------------------------
"I rode a tank and held a general's rank
when the blitzkrieg raged and the bodies stank..."
- -Rolling Stones, Sympathy for the Devil
- ------------------------------------------------
People who hide behind anonymous remailers and
ridicule fat people are cowardly idiots with no
motive but malice.
- ---------------------------------------------


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