|
March 26, 2008 12:31 pm
Author goes to bat for short, fat people
"As a short person, I want to make sure that people growing up in a culture that is so biased against short people have some recourse if they're not looked at based on their merit and are instead looked at based on their height."
By Rachel Kolokoff
CNHI News Service
BOSTON — At 4 feet 8 inches tall, Marblehead resident Ellen Frankel understands firsthand how society can discriminate against short people. In fact, she's written the book on it.
The author of "Beyond Measure," an account of the social bias faced by short people, Frankel said it is time for state lawmakers to make it illegal for employers to discriminate against workers based on height and weight.
"We want a law that's going to protect those people, celebrate size diversity and not expect everyone to look like cookie cutters of each other," Frankel said in an interview at the Massachusetts Statehouse Tuesday.
Frankel supports a bill by Rep. Byron Rushing, D-Boston, that would add height and weight to the list of traits currently acknowledged in state anti-discrimination laws such as race, religion, age and gender. Lawmakers heard Frankel and other supporters of the bill Tuesday at a hearing before the Committee on Labor and Workforce Development.
A licensed clinical social worker in the field of eating disorders since 1987, Frankel has faced social discrimination in the past and hopes the legislation would help deter employers from acting on bias.
Frankel pointed to growth hormone injections given to healthy children as an extreme example of prejudice against short people. She said there's nothing physically wrong with the children, they're just short.
"As a short person, I want to make sure that people growing up in a culture that is so biased against short people have some recourse if they're not looked at based on their merit and are instead looked at based on their height," Frankel said.
In 2003, a study in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that an employee could expect to receive $789 more annually for each inch exceeding average height - 5 feet 9 inches for a man and 5 feet 4 inches for a woman.
The report by University of Florida psychiatrist Timothy Judge and University of North Carolina researcher Daniel Cable was based on four studies in the United States and Great Britain that followed thousands of people from childhood to adulthood.
Rushing said he has talked with many who share Frankel's concern. Since he first filed height and weight legislation 10 years ago, Rushing has gotten significant feedback from people in Massachusetts and across the country.
But Rep. Bradley Jones Jr., R-North Reading, said height and weight discrimination doesn't merit legislators' attention, especially with the Legislature's session ending July 31. Jones is also concerned that obesity would be out of place alongside unchangeable traits currently considered in state anti-discrimination laws.
Obesity is not optional, however, a study by Rebecca Puhl, director of research at Yale's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Research, indicates.
Rachel Kolokoff writes for The Eagle-Tribune in North Andover, Mass.
|
