Choosing “Victimhood” for Fun and Profit
3rd May 2024
Let us assume for the moment that a woman who has 20 years of experience as an executive secretary, types 100 wpm, can take shorthand like a tape recorder, and is smart as a whip, discreet, well-groomed, and pleasant to all is also a few pounds north of what is an acceptable weight for a woman according to Hollywood — 90 lbs. with impossibly large breasts. She gets raises every year and is considered indispensable by her executive boss.
Let us say further, sadly, that boss has a heart attack one day and dies. A new executive is chosen who has his own ideas about what the “face” of the corporation should be. He wants a sleek, young secretary who is a Size 2. The old secretary is let go and she files a suit for size discrimination, since it was unfortunately mentioned in an ill-advised email that that was the real reason. Uh oh. You can fire someone for NO reason, but not for a WRONG reason!
Now I am no attorney and don’t even play one on TV. However, I would be inclined to side with the excellent but slightly zaftig secretary. Wouldn’t you? She is doing a great job but has been thrown out in the street simply for being too large. Let us pretend that she wins her lawsuit and retires to Samoa where her nickname from now on will be “Slim.”
But…follow me around one more bend. Another secretary in the firm, not nearly as skilled, not nearly as efficient or even pleasant, is of “normal” weight as determined by the thoroughly discredited “BMI” calculations. She has had a couple of warnings about tardiness and ineptitude and sees the handwriting on the wall. So, she deliberately GAINS 70 lbs. in order to have a literal and figurative cushion of immunity against losing her job. “You can’t fire me,” she gloats, “I’m FAT!” Adding, “But you better not use that word, because that is fat-shaming and that is actionable. Neener, neener.”