Sensitive subject: several female patients in our program have told me that a byproduct of their weight loss has been a very marked change in the attention they get in their professional worlds. When giving lectures or leading a meeting, before their weight loss they noticed that a relative lack of attention from their audience, especially men. When significant weight loss occurred, then it seemed to be the case that the audience was hanging on every word. There was a bit of anger in this realization, because professionally, whether overweight or not, the same person was giving the same talk...but yet, only because of a physical appearance change, the message was being attended to.
It is clearly not "right" or "fair" but it is reality that often we are judged by our physical appearance. When I went to my first meeting of the American Society of Bariatric Physicians, I was surprised to see that over 75% of the physicians were overweight. How much credibility can an overweight phsyician have in trying to help people lose weight?
I know this is a very sensitive subject because we deserve to be judged by what is "inside" of us, not the external package. But, truth is what people first see is the external part. Professionally, career progression is probably influenced to some extent on our ability to present a healthy look.
Please feel free to post comments on this issue. It is a very, very sensitive one for many people.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment