Sizeism: The Theory Of Justice System

Sizeism is a social problem that occurs when a person’s body fails to meet society’s ideals and thus are treated unjustly because of their size. A large percentage of the American population is affected by sizeism because there are more people who are considered to be overweight than there are people who are considered to be thinner/ underweight. “According to the Centers for Disease Control, two-thirds of adult Americans are now overweight and half of those qualify as obese” (Fletcher). Sizeism is important because it places worth on each individual person and creates a hierarchy with thin, underweight people on the top and larger or overweight people on the bottom. This form of oppression takes away a persons right for equal treatment while causing negative mental health, self confidence issues, body image negativity, and leaving large people with fewer opportunities within society.
John Rawls, a contemporary theorist, is famous for his revival of the Utilitarianism theory which encouraged sacrificing the rights and well-being of other people for the greater good. If the

Basically, Rawls’ theory through the original position suggests that when people are asked to choose between principles, they would decide based off the circumstances of choice not based off how someone looks or fits into society’s box of expectations. On page 33, Lebacqz explains that the original position pushes the parties to choose fairly based off the circumstances with no bias. On page 34, Lebacqz exclaims that the parties that fall under the veil of ignorance choose principals even though they lack certain knowledge and could come off as impartial/unfair. If we apply this theory to our society, our society has conditioned us to fall under the veil of ignorance by creating a hierarchy and separating people into two categories “them” and