As a plus-size woman working in offices filled with birthday cakes and free snacks, Laura Bogart was hyper-aware of the looks and stares.

　　作为一个身材偏胖的女人，在摆满生日蛋糕和免费零食的办公室里工作的，劳拉·鲍嘉对外表和目光特别敏感。

　　"I would want it and not eat it and think 'What am I going to look like as the only person of size and I'm eating the cupcake?'" she says.

　　“我会很想吃它，但不去吃它，然后想‘作为唯一这样体型的人，我却在吃蛋糕，我会是什么样子呢?’”她说。

　　Bogart, now a freelance writer, has learned to stay silent during discussion of diets and cleanses.

　　鲍嘉现在是一名自由撰稿人，她学会了在讨论饮食和清洁时保持沉默。

　　"This is not the most empowered answer ever, but I put my headphones on and I just don't pay attention," she says.

　　她说：“这从来不是最有力的回答，但是我戴上耳机，不去注意。”

　　Bogart isn't just being paranoid. Research shows that in the workplace, obese employees are stereotyped as "lazy, unmotivated, unintelligent, sloppy and lacking willpower." These stereotypes aren't just hurtful, they can have a direct impact on an employer's perception of an employee.

　　这并不是鲍嘉偏执。研究表明，在工作场所，肥胖的员工被定型为“懒惰、缺乏动力、不聪明、草率粗心、缺乏意志力”。这些刻板印象不仅有害，还会直接影响雇主对员工的看法。

　　The shadow of stigma

　　羞耻感的阴影

　　Studies show that discrimination increases the higher a person's body mass index. Obese or overweight people are often viewed as lacking self-control, which then translates to a lack of desirable leadership skills.

　　研究表明，一个人的体重指数越高，歧视就会增加。肥胖或超重的人通常被认为缺乏自制力，从而意味着缺乏理想的领导技能。

　　As a result, they may be passed over for promotions or, in some cases, they may not get hired in the first place.

　　所以，他们可能会错过晋升机会，或者在某些情况下，他们可能一开始就没有被录用。

　　Women are slightly more likely than men to suffer the fallout from such stereotypes, says Rebecca Pearl, a psychologist and assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania.

　　女性比男性稍微更容易受到这种成见的影响，丽贝卡·珀尔说。她是一位心理学家、宾夕法尼亚大学精神病学副教授。

　　Women tend to experience discrimination beginning at lower BMIs than men, in part because a woman's level of attractiveness can have more of an impact on her career.

　　女性开始受到歧视的BMI值往往比男性更低，部分原因是女性的魅力水平对她的职业生涯的影响更大。

　　It's not only plus-size people who suffer, Pearl says. In an office obsessed with appearance and weight, for example, internalized weight bias can even affect how people perceive themselves and their abilities.

　　珀尔说，受影响的不只是体型偏胖的人。例如，在一个沉迷于外表和体重的办公室里，内在的体重偏见甚至会影响人们如何看待自己和自己的能力。

　　"Weight stigma affects everyone," she says. "So even people who are lean can be affected."

　　“体重的耻辱影响着每一个人，”她说。“所以即使是身材苗条的人也会受到影响。”

　　Fighting the stigma

　　与耻辱感斗争

　　With the exception of Michigan and cities like San Francisco and Washington, DC, overweight people are not a protected class throughout most of the United States, meaning it is technically legal to discriminate against someone based on his or her weight.

　　除了密歇根州和旧金山、华盛顿等城市，美国大部分地区的超重人群都没有受到保护，这意味着从技术上讲，根据体重歧视他人是合法的。

　　"This is the bigger issue: if someone is blatantly discriminated against, there is no legal recourse," Pearl says. "It seems common sense, but it is not included in civil rights protections."

　　“这有一个更大的问题：如果有人受到公然歧视，却没有法律援助。”珀尔说。“这似乎是常识，但它不包括在公民权利保护中。”

　　Because of this, Pearl says, there's often a blind spot in company diversity trainings. Companies may address microaggressions and hostile behavior related to race and gender, but few address how this behavior relates to size.

　　正因为如此，珀尔说，公司的多元化培训往往存在盲点。公司可能会处理与种族和性别有关的较轻微的侵犯和敌对行为，但是很少处理与体型有关的这种行为。

　　"When we see diversity trainings, we don't hear 'body size' and 'body shape' talked about, even though it is a diversity issue," she says. "A major issue with obesity is it's seen as controllable. People face more blame; something like race, it's pretty agreed upon that someone cannot choose or change their race."

　　“当我们看到多元化培训时，我们不会听到人们谈到‘身材大小’和‘身体形态’，尽管这是一个多元化问题。”她说。“肥胖的一个主要问题是它被认为是可以控制的。人们要面对更多的指责;而像种族这种事情，大家一致认为一个人不能选择或改变他们的种族。”

　　Pearl recommends companies include body and size diversity in their workplace trainings, taking special care to include examples of microaggressive behaviors that can spread the bias.

　　珀尔建议，公司在工作培训中应包括身体和体型的多样性，特别注意要包括能传播偏见的轻微侵犯行为的例子。

　　"Even if it's not directed toward them, if they hear someone commenting on other peoples' weight, a negative comment about what someone else's body looks like and the clothing they're wearing — I've heard from patients that's hard not to apply to yourself if you're of that same weight status," Pearl says.

　　“即使不是针对他们，如果他们听到有人评论别人的体重，负面评论别人的身体是什么样子,以及他们穿的衣服——我听来咨询的病人说，如果你有同样体重，很难不把这些评论适用在自己身上。”珀尔说。

　　"It's not uncommon in our culture. There's a lot of talk about weight and dieting and for some reason people feel more inclined to comment on weight than other things."

　　这在我们的文化中并不少见。有很多关于体重和节食的讨论，出于某种原因，人们更倾向于评论体重而不是其他事情。

　　Bogart says to some extent, she's given up on trying to fit into the office mold.

　　鲍嘉说，在某种程度上，她已经放弃了尝试融入这种办公室的模式。

　　"When I was younger, I would hear that stuff and I would be like, 'Oh my God, your nightmare is looking like I look,'" she says. "It's interesting because to some degree, we are always ingrained to look at people of size differently. It's a profound cultural bias. Things will get better, but it will never fully change."

　　“当我年轻时，我听到这样的话，我会想，‘天哪，你的噩梦看起来就像我一样。’”她说。“这很有趣，因为在某种程度上，我们总是根深蒂固地以不同的方式看待不同体型的人。”这是一种深刻的文化偏见。情况会好转，但它永远不会完全改变。