職場新禁忌：千萬別在辦公室談論身材！

As a plus-size woman working in offices filled with birthday cakes and free snacks, Laura Bogart was hyper-aware of the looks and stares.

作爲一個身材偏胖的女人，在擺滿生日蛋糕和免費零食的辦公室裏工作的，勞拉·鮑嘉對外表和目光特別敏感。

"I would want it and not eat it and think 'What am I going to look like as the only person of size and I'm eating the cupcake?'" she says.

“我會很想吃它，但不去吃它，然後想‘作爲唯一這樣體型的人，我卻在吃蛋糕，我會是什麼樣子呢？’”她說。

Bogart, now a freelance writer, has learned to stay silent during discussion of diets and cleanses.

鮑嘉現在是一名自由撰稿人，她學會了在討論飲食和清潔時保持沉默。

"This is not the most empowered answer ever, but I put my headphones on and I just don't pay attention," she says.

她說：“這從來不是最有力的回答，但是我戴上耳機，不去注意。”

Bogart isn't just being paranoid. Research shows that in the workplace, obese employees are stereotyped as "lazy, unmotivated, unintelligent, sloppy and lacking willpower." These stereotypes aren't just hurtful, they can have a direct impact on an employer's perception of an employee.

這並不是鮑嘉偏執。研究表明，在工作場所，肥胖的員工被定型爲“懶惰、缺乏動力、不聰明、草率粗心、缺乏意志力”。這些刻板印象不僅有害，還會直接影響僱主對員工的看法。

The shadow of stigma

羞恥感的陰影

Studies show that discrimination increases the higher a person's body mass index. Obese or overweight people are often viewed as lacking self-control, which then translates to a lack of desirable leadership skills.

研究表明，一個人的體重指數越高，歧視就會增加。肥胖或超重的人通常被認爲缺乏自制力，從而意味着缺乏理想的領導技能。

As a result, they may be passed over for promotions or, in some cases, they may not get hired in the first place.

所以，他們可能會錯過晉升機會，或者在某些情況下，他們可能一開始就沒有被錄用。

Women are slightly more likely than men to suffer the fallout from such stereotypes, says Rebecca Pearl, a psychologist and assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania.

女性比男性稍微更容易受到這種成見的影響，麗貝卡·珀爾說。她是一位心理學家、賓夕法尼亞大學精神病學副教授。

Women tend to experience discrimination beginning at lower BMIs than men, in part because a woman's level of attractiveness can have more of an impact on her career.

女性開始受到歧視的BMI值往往比男性更低，部分原因是女性的魅力水平對她的職業生涯的影響更大。

It's not only plus-size people who suffer, Pearl says. In an office obsessed with appearance and weight, for example, internalized weight bias can even affect how people perceive themselves and their abilities.

珀爾說，受影響的不只是體型偏胖的人。例如，在一個沉迷於外表和體重的辦公室裏，內在的體重偏見甚至會影響人們如何看待自己和自己的能力。

"Weight stigma affects everyone," she says. "So even people who are lean can be affected."

“體重的恥辱影響着每一個人，”她說。“所以即使是身材苗條的人也會受到影響。”

Fighting the stigma

與恥辱感鬥爭

With the exception of Michigan and cities like San Francisco and Washington, DC, overweight people are not a protected class throughout most of the United States, meaning it is technically legal to discriminate against someone based on his or her weight.

除了密歇根州和舊金山、華盛頓等城市，美國大部分地區的超重人羣都沒有受到保護，這意味着從技術上講，根據體重歧視他人是合法的。

"This is the bigger issue: if someone is blatantly discriminated against, there is no legal recourse," Pearl says. "It seems common sense, but it is not included in civil rights protections."

“這有一個更大的問題：如果有人受到公然歧視，卻沒有法律援助。”珀爾說。“這似乎是常識，但它不包括在公民權利保護中。”

Because of this, Pearl says, there's often a blind spot in company diversity trainings. Companies may address microaggressions and hostile behavior related to race and gender, but few address how this behavior relates to size.

正因爲如此，珀爾說，公司的多元化培訓往往存在盲點。公司可能會處理與種族和性別有關的較輕微的侵犯和敵對行爲，但是很少處理與體型有關的這種行爲。

"When we see diversity trainings, we don't hear 'body size' and 'body shape' talked about, even though it is a diversity issue," she says. "A major issue with obesity is it's seen as controllable. People face more blame; something like race, it's pretty agreed upon that someone cannot choose or change their race."

“當我們看到多元化培訓時，我們不會聽到人們談到‘身材大小’和‘身體形態’，儘管這是一個多元化問題。”她說。“肥胖的一個主要問題是它被認爲是可以控制的。人們要面對更多的指責；而像種族這種事情，大家一致認爲一個人不能選擇或改變他們的種族。”

Pearl recommends companies include body and size diversity in their workplace trainings, taking special care to include examples of microaggressive behaviors that can spread the bias.

珀爾建議，公司在工作培訓中應包括身體和體型的多樣性，特別注意要包括能傳播偏見的輕微侵犯行爲的例子。

"Even if it's not directed toward them, if they hear someone commenting on other peoples' weight, a negative comment about what someone else's body looks like and the clothing they're wearing — I've heard from patients that's hard not to apply to yourself if you're of that same weight status," Pearl says.

“即使不是針對他們，如果他們聽到有人評論別人的體重，負面評論別人的身體是什麼樣子,以及他們穿的衣服——我聽來諮詢的病人說，如果你有同樣體重，很難不把這些評論適用在自己身上。”珀爾說。

"It's not uncommon in our culture. There's a lot of talk about weight and dieting and for some reason people feel more inclined to comment on weight than other things."

這在我們的文化中並不少見。有很多關於體重和節食的討論，出於某種原因，人們更傾向於評論體重而不是其他事情。

Bogart says to some extent, she's given up on trying to fit into the office mold.

鮑嘉說，在某種程度上，她已經放棄了嘗試融入這種辦公室的模式。

"When I was younger, I would hear that stuff and I would be like, 'Oh my God, your nightmare is looking like I look,'" she says. "It's interesting because to some degree, we are always ingrained to look at people of size differently. It's a profound cultural bias. Things will get better, but it will never fully change."

“當我年輕時，我聽到這樣的話，我會想，‘天哪，你的噩夢看起來就像我一樣。’”她說。“這很有趣，因爲在某種程度上，我們總是根深蒂固地以不同的方式看待不同體型的人。”這是一種深刻的文化偏見。情況會好轉，但它永遠不會完全改變。

翻譯：小楠