This type of discrimination can take a number of forms, ranging from refusing to hire someone because they are considered to be too short or too tall, to treating overweight and underweight individuals with disdain.
A number of states and localities have laws specifically prohibiting discrimination on the basis of height and weight unless based on actual job requirements.
Depending on where in the world one is and how one lives their life, people may have a tendency to be especially tall, slender, short, or plump, and many societies have internalized attitudes about size.
In the U.S. we can observe many public facilities shaped by this "normative" body, including: telephone booths, drinking fountains, bleachers, bathroom outlets (sinks, toilets, stalls), chairs, tables, turnstiles, elevators, staircases, vending machines, and doorways.
Design assumptions are drawn about the size and shape of the users (height, weight, proportionate length of arms and legs, width of hips and shoulders).
This discrimination was experienced in multiple settings, including from employers, interactions within the health-care field, in educational atmospheres, as well as within personal and familial relationships.
With the exception of the state of Michigan and several localities that have passed legislation explicitly prohibiting weight-based discrimination (i.e., San Francisco and Santa Cruz in California; Washington, DC; Binghamton, New York; Urbana, Illinois; New York City, New York (in employment, housing, and public accommodations);[16] and Madison, Wisconsin), Americans have no viable means for seeking legal recourse in the face of weight discrimination, and existing US civil rights laws prohibit discrimination only on the basis of age, race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.