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- Newsgroups: alt.feminism
- Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!news.cso.uiuc.edu!levine
- From: levine@symcom.math.uiuc.edu (Lenore Levine)
- Subject: Re: Boycotts (was Re: Why are many low-income women fat?)
- References: <Bzq9q5.78w@news.cso.uiuc.edu> <1992Dec23.210442.9390@wam.umd.edu> <BzqELE.8Hs@news.cso.uiuc.edu> <1992Dec23.221605.13141@wam.umd.edu>
- Message-ID: <BzqHn9.9CK@news.cso.uiuc.edu>
- Sender: usenet@news.cso.uiuc.edu (Net Noise owner)
- Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
- Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 22:40:20 GMT
- Lines: 49
-
- rsrodger@wam.umd.edu (Yamanari) writes:
-
- (Re boycott of companies that won't hire large people.)
-
- > I would probably advise you that you need to take such policies
- > in context. For instance, I think it's in New York, a very obese
- > man is suing McDonalds for not providing a table that he can
- > fit into. This man is enourmous--for McDonalds to provide
- > proper seating for this mans physique would require them to halve
- > (or less) the number of seats they can fitin their restaurants.
- > McDonalds can seat people from 30 to 350 lb folks pretty much
- > fine.
-
- The companies I am referring to, implement these policies against
- individuals who are at all over the weight tables. They would implement
- them against me (average height and a size 20)!
-
- > That, one. Two, I would suggest that you consider whether
- > these jobs are jobs that an obese individual can properly fill,
- > that is, look at the activity the job involves (physical
- > activity and safety, especially).
-
- Systems analyst? (A specific example related to me on the net.)
- Most of these jobs are highly technical positions...
-
- Third, take a look at the
- > work areas that the companies _have right now_ (I think it's
- > rediculous to make them rebuild) and make sure that those
- > (and not bigotry) aren't the underlying reason.
-
- How does someone my size need a special work area?
-
- I think you are not cynical enough. These companies are not
- discriminating against Andre the Giant type people, but against
- Lech Walesa and Roseanne Barr type people.
-
- (By the way, note the winter conditions faced by the ancestors
- of these two individuals.)
-
- > After all this, there are alternatives that are better than
- > boycotts. Publicity, media.
-
- > Boycotts don't hurt anything but the employees of the company.
-
- I am not sure whether the boycott I described would work. But I know
- I would not knowingly buy products from a company that refused to hire
- people my size.
-
- Lenore Levine
-