Weighing In on Title VII

My mind has sparked a flare of inquisitiveness after Reading the previous blog “The Case for Weight (part 1),” concerning prohibiting body weight discrimination. When considering gender stereotypes and the weight restrictions placed on both men and women, I wonder if the law should protect both overweight and obese applicants and employees from employment discrimination, specifically through Title VII. When an employer, male or female, chooses or declines to hire, fire, or promote an individual based on either preconceptions about a male or female’s ideal physical appearance or on stereotypes of overweight and obese men and women, one would think believe the employment decision would constitute sex discrimination. In a weight-sex discrimination context, a legal reason for an adverse employment decision (weight) only arises due to an illegal stereotype of an individual’s desired appearance by today’s society. In order to reach this kind of hidden stereotype and bias through law, one must explore the statistical analysis within the context of Title VII Discrimination claims. To me, this stands as a direct parallel tying back to the Social and Cognitive Theory and Anti-Discrimination Law we discussed last week when reading the article by Krieger. I wonder if the Social/Cognitive Theory could be applied to the bias buried within gender stereotypes as a means to make a claim within Sex Discrimination under Title VII?