Curious Incidents of a Flailing Mermaid

Obesity Ruled as a Disability: My Thoughts

30-Day Blogging Challenge – Day four
Prompt: The Sunday News!: Pick a random article from the headlines and talk about it. Share your opinions and feelings about it. Encourage a conversation.

This prompt has made me realise that I missed something off my 2015 To-Do List. That is to read more news. As a relatively intelligent person, I am absolutely shocking when it comes to current affairs. It is all very well reading all the fiction I can get my hands on, but I feel like I ought to know what is going on in the real world, too.

If this is going to be the new Sunday prompt for the 30 DBC, I might as well start reading the news now. I’ve just found a free six-week trial to The Week. I figure I’m more likely to get involved if I can get a week’s worth of news in one place. No, it is not cheating! It is, however, efficient!

My chosen headline is:

Obesity can be a disability, EU court rules

Guardian UK  

Employers will have to change the way they treat overweight staff following a European Union court ruling that obesity can, in severe cases, constitute a disability.
The landmark decision by the European Court of Justice – in the case of a Danish child-minder who lost his job – establishes a precedent that could affect employment rights across the continent. It stops short, however, of declaring obesity to be a protected characteristic against which all discrimination is prohibited.

If I’m honest, I don’t think I should have chosen this headline because this is the kind of think I’m likely to “go off on one” about and end up annoying a whole host of people. Also, I don’t really want to spend hours on this post, so I will have to limit myself. I promise to try hard not to piss anyone off.

Now, this confuses me, somewhat. There are various reasons why someone might become obese. Yes, for many, it is down to a poor diet and laziness. But, for others it can be due to real medical conditions. To my knowledge, discrimination law already covers the latter: a person cannot be discriminated against in relation to a “long-term” condition.
(N.B – I am aware that my knowledge is based on the UK DDA, but EU law pretty much parallels this).

But, if a person becomes obese due to his or her own doing and inactivity, should they not be encouraged to fix it rather than saying, “it’s okay, we’ll just classify you as disabled”?
(This is where I need to stop myself getting carried away)

Don’t get me wrong; I do understand some of the reasoning behind it. But it is things like this that really annoy me. For several reasons. Predominantly:

1) I thought the world was worrying about the “obesity epidemic”. Surely, by labelling it as an impairment (correct terminology) gives people an excuse and makes the issue more acceptable.

2) I am aware that the ruling does not mean that obese people won’t need to work. However, if a person has gotten so big that it impacts their job, do something about it! Sometimes (not often, granted), I wish that cycling four times a week will stop me being disabled. It won’t. Ever. Don’t give the ‘disabled’ title to something that can be fixed with effort.
Disabled people have a hard enough time as it is with society labelling them as lazy and scroungers. I was once in a bar with a friend having a drink when someone came up to me and said, “I work hard to pay my taxes so you can use your benefits to drink”. My response was to the point: “sometimes I work 65 hours a week, I do not get benefits. Yes, I am disabled but that doesn’t mean I do not work”.

Disclaimer:

• I do not wish to offend anyone at all by writing this. I can just be moody and gobby sometimes.
• As I said, I know there are medical causes to obesity. I am not disputing that.
• I know it isn’t easy to lose weight just like that, I would never say it was. But if it affects life, reasonable efforts should be made. Just like employers are legally required to make reasonable efforts under the DDA.
• My credentials related to this subject: I’m physically disabled, with degrees in social policy and disability studies (thus have an academic interest).
• I know this is not a headline from the past week. But I’ve just seen it, so it counts.
• This is why I do not read the news.