4 ms·

Society decides what is acceptable by making it acceptable. Universities used to not have wheelchair ramps; a similar provocative title in those days may have b

by rdlw 4y ago

Society decides what is acceptable by making it acceptable. Universities used to not have wheelchair ramps; a similar provocative title in those days may have been "Americans can't walk well enough to learn". The reason people couldn't access those buildings was a straightforward _physical_ reason yet it was still a deliberate choice to make those buildings accessible to people who could walk and inaccessible to those who could not. When a medical school purchases tables, a decision must be made as to what kinds of corpses it will accommodate, and the decision has been made that 200lb, 6' is the limit. That choice could have been different. For the record, I don't think this instance is fat-shaming, for the reason that the bodies were donated with the goal of advancing science in some nebulous way, not specifically to be dissected at a medical school. So the cost of buying an expanded table may prevent the school from buying a different, more useful piece of equipment, and it's probably not directly going against the person's wishes.

bluedino 4y ago
I'm good friends with a guy who works at Walmart, he's an assistant store manager, and has worked there since we were in high school. About 10 years back he was telling me about the scooters they have in the store, and how they had started receiving a heavier-duty model. I forgot the exact weight capacity-but it was somewhere around 500lbs. Then it dawned on me that somewhere along the line, people had to complain about the scooters not being big enough, or enough scooters were damaged by large individuals. Enough people eventually complained that Walmart had a meeting at their corporate offices to decide "how big" of customers they were going to accommodate with the newer, heavier-duty scooters. There were probably polls and studies, weighing people out in the field, etc. Not to mention the work the company that provides the scooters had to do.
hn_throwaway_99 4y ago
That is partially true, but it misses 2 important factors: 1. Accommodating larger people usually is just fundamentally more expensive. Space costs money. I mean, airplane seats are famously narrow, and while yes, it's a deliberate chose, if airplane seats were considerably wider it would make airlines unprofitable. I'm not saying that's a big reason here (designing a bigger table isn't that much in the grand scheme of things), but it's not just deciding between two equally valid choices. 2. A bigger reason in this case, though, which is pointed out in the article, is that most of these bodies are used for dissection and training. Dissecting an obese body, if doing it for the purpose of anatomical study, is much, much more difficult.

by rdlw 4y ago

bluedino 4y ago

I'm good friends with a guy who works at Walmart, he's an assistant store manager, and has worked there since we were in high school. About 10 years back he was telling me about the scooters they have in the store, and how they had started receiving a heavier-duty model. I forgot the exact weight capacity-but it was somewhere around 500lbs. Then it dawned on me that somewhere along the line, people had to complain about the scooters not being big enough, or enough scooters were damaged by large individuals. Enough people eventually complained that Walmart had a meeting at their corporate offices to decide "how big" of customers they were going to accommodate with the newer, heavier-duty scooters. There were probably polls and studies, weighing people out in the field, etc. Not to mention the work the company that provides the scooters had to do.

hn_throwaway_99 4y ago

That is partially true, but it misses 2 important factors: 1. Accommodating larger people usually is just fundamentally more expensive. Space costs money. I mean, airplane seats are famously narrow, and while yes, it's a deliberate chose, if airplane seats were considerably wider it would make airlines unprofitable. I'm not saying that's a big reason here (designing a bigger table isn't that much in the grand scheme of things), but it's not just deciding between two equally valid choices. 2. A bigger reason in this case, though, which is pointed out in the article, is that most of these bodies are used for dissection and training. Dissecting an obese body, if doing it for the purpose of anatomical study, is much, much more difficult.