CNN’s Candy Crowley Breaks the Cellulite Ceiling : My Gay Friend

CNN’s Candy Crowley Breaks the Cellulite Ceiling

Feb - 25 | no comments | Related : Ladies We Love, Plus Size Gals

Candy Crowley is a lady we love!

Even though the weight of Americans continues to climb, weight discrimination in the workplace and in our society is rampant. Many people consider overweight people to be lazy, sloppy, unmotivated and deliberately unhealthy, when this is not true.

While size discrimination affects both men and women, there are generally more serious and tangible effects on overweight women. So, as statistics are cited showing overweight men get the same jobs as slimmer men, the fact that overweight women are seriously discriminated against gets overlooked.

Candy Alt Crowley (born December 26, 1948) has risen to the top of her field despite any size or gender discrimination. She is an inspiring role model to all women from plus size to any size.

Crowley is a CNN political correspondent, specializing in U.S. presidential, gubernatorial, and Senate elections. She is based in CNN’s Washington bureau, and hosted Inside Politics in place of Judy Woodruff before the show was replaced with The Situation Room. Crowley has covered elections for over two decades. She currently serves as the anchor of the Sunday-morning political talk show State of the Union.

Crowley started her career with radio station WASH in Washington, D.C. as a newsroom assistant. She moved from NBC to CNN in 1987. Crowley is known to be off-camera friends with CNN anchor Anderson Cooper. Crowley was featured twice on the 10th anniversary 2009 August Network Version of the popular gameshow, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? as the expert for the “Ask the Expert” lifeline. Crowley also disclosed on the November 25, 2009 episode of the The Situation Room that she is a vegetarian.

Studies find that Crowley is an exception to the rule of size discrimination in the workplace. Take a look at these statistics:

Workers who are heavier than average are paid $1.25 less an hour. Over a 40-year career, they will earn up to $100,000 less before taxes than their thinner counterparts (Baum, 2004).

Slightly heavy women make about 6% less in wages than standard weight women. Very heavy women make 24% less. Men experience significant wage penalties only at the highest weight levels. (Roehling, 1999)

Heavier workers are not given raises as often as thinner workers. In a study of over 2000 women and men, wage growth rates were 6% lower in a three-year period for heavier workers. (Loh, 1993)

Young women (18 to 25) employees are especially penalized if they are larger than average, earning 12% less than their thinner counterparts (Register, 1990) and being more likely to be found in low-paying jobs (Pagan, 1997). Other factors were ruled out, and the reason for the difference was found to be social bias and discrimination. (Gortmaker, 1996; Stunkard, 1993).

Of people who were 50% or more above their “ideal” weight on the height-weight charts, 26% reported they were denied benefits such as health insurance because of their weight, and 17% reported being fired or being pressured to resign because of their weight (Rothblum, 1990).

Hiring prejudice against larger people has been demonstrated consistently in studies using written descriptions, photographs, videotape, and actors. Larger and smaller job applicants were matched for equal qualifications, equal references, and similar personalities. Hiring staff usually chose the thinner applicants with equal qualifications, and made unfounded assumptions about the larger applicants–such as that they were too aggressive, difficult to work with, lacking in self-discipline, less productive, or less determined–even if they had never met or spoken to the applicants. One study, using photographs, showed that prejudice against heavier applicants was found even when faces were obscured, ruling out the factor of facial attractiveness (Pingitore, 1994; Klassen, 1993; Klesges, 1990; Rothblum, 1988; Decker, 1987; Larkin, 1979).

Let’s honor Candy Crowley for breaking the cellulite ceiling and representing real size women in the national media!

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