According to Emily Walker, the city may be all jaw-droppingly gorgeous vistas, but it is also full of body discriminating citizens—what she refers to as an "institutional dislike of ... plus-sized, or more plainly, young fat women." And it doesn't stop there...
The grad student describes in a poignant piece in The Observer how she basically fell out of love for the West Coast city after moving there from Portland, Oregon, to study at UBC in 2004.
From struggling to find clothes to fit her 18-size frame (she had borrow a friend's brother's swim trunks), to becoming "celibate as Mother Teresa," Walker laments the plummet in her self-esteem which she attributes to her denigrating locale.
An experience, she claims, is not matched in other cities, including those "brimming with beautiful blondes." Only Vancouver deems it appropriate to openly (and covertly) berate Walker about her weight.
From the man in the bar who told her she wasn't "as feminine as other girls because [of her size]" to the slurs on the street, snickers in bars, and snide looks from the stroller fit moms in Kits.
Having found that her large friends living elsewhere don't face this kind of perpetual body discrimination and have "great dating lives," Walker is, well, ready to walk in order to receive the respect she deserves and is convinced she would receive elsewhere. Can you really blame her?
"I’m tired of feeling like a second-class citizen in a city I’ve grown to love in spite of everything. You promise me that things will be different and then just when I think you might have really changed, you kick me in the teeth again."
Does a city have a civic duty to encourage weight loss in its citizens, or is discrimination, discrimination?
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