The rise of the Me Too movement has brought many injustices up for conversation that weren’t talked about before. One such injustice that has been a buzz word this year is Thin Privilege.
On July 22, 2018, Cora Harrington, author of the book Intimate Detail, made a series of posts on twitter describing thin privilege. The original twitter thread has been retweeted more than 4,000 times and liked more than 21,000 times bringing the conversation of thin privilege to the mainstream.
“You don’t have to ‘feel thin’ to have thin privilege,” Harrington states in her twitter post. “thin privilege means societal discrimination and prejudice does not target you for being thin. It means your weight/body type is seen as ‘normal’.”
The discriminations listed by Harrington include being told to lose weight, being sneered at when eating treats, being able to go shopping and find clothes and public transit riders being displeased to see you on the public transit.
On February 5, 2019, BBC Sesh, a social media channel owned by BBC Wales, uploaded a video to Facebook titled thin privilege, where the host relisting the same discriminations. The video also calls for thin people to acknowledge their privilege and accept that they have it.
One of the biggest examples that Harrington uses as discrimination against overweight people is the lack of ability to buy clothes. Finding a store that sells the size of clothes big enough is harder to find and more expensive.
“It’s unfair,” stated Jessica Ponce, a nursing student at chabot college. “Why should someone have to pay more for clothes. Clothes should be clothes, it should be the same price for everyone.”
“It’s not really hard to find clothes that fit,” stated Jacob Emmerich, a business administration. “I mostly buy online, if not I can’t go to a walmart or a target, but go to a big and tall store and their clothes are of nicer quality anyway. It’s kinda a pain, but I’m not worried about it.”
Nathan Sojourn states after being asked if he could find clothes that fit, “Yes actually, I’m skinny and I can’t find pants. Pants are always too short or too wide, They don’t fit!”
If Thin Privilege is being able to walk into any store and finding clothes that fit doesn’t seem to be completely a privilege that Thin people hold. A person of plus size goes to a designer who makes clothes for plus size people.
A person in need of smaller sizes often needs to deal with clothes that don’t quite fit, or go to the junior’s section for clothes. Would it be a plus size privilege to be able to get clothes that fit compared to people of a very thin or short body type?
“I found public transit to be somewhat of a pleasant experience depending on the day.” Michael Leonor, a mass communications major at Chabot. “I wasn’t annoyed by overweight people boarding the bus, I was more concerned with muggers possibility being on the bus, and the guy in the back who played music loudly without headphones.”