Weight, What?

*see what I did there?

Pagan Kennedy recently posted on Instagram, “This jaw-dropping chart from The Economist reveals that to get a job in America, a woman needs to be thin. Females who transformed their bodies with GLP-1s were almost 30 percent more likely to land jobs than those who didn't. How many people are taking the drug simply to escape the cruelty of fatphobia?”

The chart and the quote made me throw up in my mouth, and not in a non-cute bulimic way. The obesity penalty is not a new buzz word; it’s embedded into a systemic fatphobia that has existed for ages. For example, in 2004, CBS News reported on a 240 pound, 5 foot five inch waitress who was alleged fired because of an “image” issue, a corporate way to shield itself from the other, more incriminating reason.

What is the female obesity penalty? One definition cites it as “the social and financial costs women bear due to their body size.”

Body size, and not body dysmorphia. Body size as perceived by others.

But back to the article that Pagan Kennedy posted about it. In a paper called “GLP-1–Induced Weight Loss and the Female Obesity Penalty,” Rebecca Diamond—who is a professor in the Department of Economics at Harvard University, tracked women between 25-61 (taking into consideration that 62 is the age an American can declare retirement and receive social security as well as Medicare) who take GLP-1 and its weight loss impact on the employment candidacy to hiring rate. (She also tracked the “marriage market,” mental health, and considered the onus of affordability but I’m focusing on the work place data for now.) She posits that “Unemployment falls by 8.2 percentage points post treatment and 16.1 percentage points after 1.5+ years.” She concludes that those who weigh less benefit from the “labor-market valuation of body weight.”

Now I know, have always known, that how one presents herself in the office space matters. Our personal style exudes who we are. I’ve never been naive about that.

But: Is this the new math? Female Obesity Penalty + Post-Menopausal Women + Ageism = Fewer thick women over 50 in the workplace.

Diamond’s paper reminded me of an incident at a corporate job where I was a Vice President, some years ago. A male colleague, who I considered a work-friend, said to me, “You know, if you lost eight pounds, you’d have the hottest body.” (Context: we were talking about where to get lunch from and I said I was on a strict diet as I was prepping to have surgery and needed to get my red blood count up).

He said it to me at work. With his outside voice.

I weighed at the time, 107 pounds. (I know this because that was my weight for almost thirty years, super consistent, and only dipped lower during periods of great distress, like when my Dad died, or the pandemic or when Rocky died, like that). 8 pounds less?

Girl.

The empirical data in Diamond’s research suggests that not only do women who are looking for a job and who are over 50 have to stretch their skin until there is no definition left to it, they have to force their bodies to suppress their appetite until they lose enough weight so they can compete ala the Hunger Games in their bid to be hired.

You can see why I threw up in my mouth. And not because a GLP-1 is making me nauseous. And not because people are taking GLP-1. No, it’s worse than that. The added pressure of holding in my stomach with two sets of Spanx in addition to being post-menopausal with my natural hair color still ebullient and healthy as I resume my job search made me angry.

Post-menopause, I have softer curves. In more places. Some of it toned, thanks to a regimen of weight lifting and the elliptical, and some of it is just jiggling and jolly. I only recently was able to make peace with all of it, my FUPA too. And I’m not turning back. I feel happy with my body. I feel free with it, in ways I didn’t when I weighed so much less.

The GLP-1 is today’s Heroin Chic. That era in the 90s where women who were on the cover of magazines, glorifying that size zero. It was another way of patriarchal control over our bodies. The same gatekeepers who determined what their corporate image will allow.

Fatphobia is cruel. Ageism is also cruel. I can’t even with the menopause.

What are we going to do about it? We will continue to saturate the workplace with our bodies ourselves. In any shape, in any state, in any size. We will continue to fuck with whomever fucks with us. We will continue to take the fucking estradiol, if only to ease the thermal nuclear sensations of menopause.

And above all, we will continue to find employers who will hire us because of our fucking talent and not because of how we look.