Why Do Woman Do This To Each Other?

How much does physical appearance, specifically weight, influence women’s first impressions of each other? That was a new study conducted by a Yale market researcher and backed by Glamour Magazine. The conclusion, “All women are now judged by their size.”

The poll asked 1800 women (18-40) to envision a female stranger who was either “overweight” or “thin,” then choose one of a pair of words to describe her. The results showed that the participants were WAY more likely to call an overweight woman slow, undisciplined, sloppy and lazy compared to a thin woman. When envisioning a thin woman, those polled were WAY more likely to characterize her as bitchy, mean, controlling, vain, self-centered, conceited and superficial compared to an overweight woman. The study also concluded that “overweight” woman are more likely to characterize other “overweight” woman as slow, undisciplined, sloppy (blah blah) and vice versa with thin woman. Basically, everyone is doing it all the time and it doesn't matter if you're skinny or fat. (Thank you Huffington Post for providing this background information).

Let me remind you that participants knew absolutely nothing about these women except their weight. That made me think. Why are woman so hard on each other; especially when it comes to weight? Why do we find the need to judge others so harshly based on appearance? Is it a defense mechanism when we feel threatened? Or are we just more programed than men to be shallow? Recently, I’ve caught myself judging someone before I’ve heard a single word come out of their mouths…shame on me. Since I would never want someone to judge me on the size of my jeans or for that matter, the designer of my purse, I’ve been trying to work on this.

While Glamour’s got its conclusion, I’m coming up with my own. There’s always going to be someone out there who is prettier, smarter, wealthier, funnier and definitely skinnier than me. Instead of being critical, why not embrace others for who they are and hope they do the same to me. If I actually get to know someone and it turns out I don’t like who they are, then that’s a completely different story.