Obama’s female appointees face ‘weighty’ issues

Within hours after the news broke that Souter was resigning, concerns arose that Kagan and Sotomayor might be too fat to replace him. A commentator on the site DemConWatch.com noted that of the three most-mentioned candidates “the oldest (federal judge Diane Wood) is the only one who looks healthy,” while Kagan and Sotomayor “are quite overweight. That’s a risk factor that they may not last too long on the court because of their health.”

via Fat Judges Need Not Apply – The Daily Beast .

Had this sort of analysis been done when Justices Scalia and Thomas rose to the Supreme Court, the recent inquiries would be less problematic. But there doesn’t seem to have been any significant discussion about these men’s health prior to their appointments.

Now similar questions have arisen about the weight and health of Dr. Regina Benjamin, President Obama’s nominee for Surgeon General. Dr. Benjamin’s story is one of service, extreme self-sacrifice, and caring concern for her patients and community.  It’s hard to believe that there are many people, regardless of their physical attributes, that would be a better selection for the post. Does her weight really matter?

Against the backdrop of her commitment, such weight issues seem not only superficial, but also provide a convenient mask for something else, as with Judge Sotomayor:

In the cases of Kagan and Sotomayor, the absurd idea that their weight represents the sort of health risk that ought to be taken into account when considering whether to appoint them to the Supreme Court illustrates both how hysteria about being “overweight” has gotten out of control, and how such concerns often camouflage less-respectable impulses.

via Fat Judges Need Not Apply – The Daily Beast .

It may be that we are seeing more of these weight-related concerns because these two nominees are Latina and African-American women.  Research has found that weight discrimination may have a greater impact on certain groups of women of color, in part because larger percentages of them are overweight, or possibly because weight discrimination is fairly common among women generally.

Ultimately, Judge Sotomayor and Dr. Benjamin are both eminently qualified for their positions and should be left to deal with the weightier issues of their respective roles, not the “weight” ones.