Hello. I’m a size 16.
I go to the gym. I eat my five a day. I have never tried a deep-fried Mars Bar. I keep myself healthy, and I am still a size 16. According to BBC reports, that’s the UK average size for an adult female.
Yet, in lecture theatres, the desk presses against my stomach, and the chair crushes my thighs. It leaves sore red stripes, a sense of shame, and anger.
“I always kind of thought campuses were more accepting – that we are all here on some kind of academic journey and that’s enough to bring us all to the same level,” says Ali Rees, a University of Stirling undergraduate, “but every time I try to go to the bathroom in Cottrell or use one of the fold up lecture tables, I’m reminded that no matter how much I achieve academically, I will never be what society wants.”
It’s quite the topic in America. NYU graduate Penelope Gould writes in Medium that she had to “squeeze into” lecture theatre seats so often, she developed bruises on her thighs. Kate Manne, an associate philosophy professor at Cornell, campaigns for “deconstructing fat bias.”
“Size inclusivity needs to be a material commitment. So many classrooms don’t have chairs and desks that fit larger bodies or even bodies that are tall, broad, or bodies that are disabled,” Manne said in the Harvard Gazette. “We need to look at whether every classroom has seating arrangements suitable for a large range of bodies. Until we do that, we’re not even taking the first steps towards a genuinely inclusive material space for learning.”
Lucie Smith, a Stirling graduate, affirms this. “University lecture seats are designed with money in mind about packing in as many people as possible, not the dignity and comfort of their students that would foster the inclusive environment they claim to have.”
Cramped university furniture is indicative of an entire culture. It’s a world where Paris Fashion week just brought us another parade of tiny models. It’s a world of girls on TikTok bragging about having Coke Zero for dinner. I felt like I had to justify my size so people would keep reading this.
Evidence submitted to the UK government in 2020 links increased weight stigma and plummeting physical and mental health. The study shows shaming people into losing weight increases weight gain, limits evidence-based healthcare and tanks mental health.
So, when academia brings thousands of diet culture victims into the same, cramped space, why can’t we do something?
Featured Image Credit: University of Stirling
