Woman Loses Job Over "Fat"

Last week, a sales associate at Addition Elle in Canada was fired for using the word fat in her job description on Facebook.

When her manager read Connie Levitsky's job description—“Conquering the world, one well-dressed fat lady at a time”—Levitsky's shifts were cut until the description was edited. After her edit, Levitsky met with the district manager for the first time, only to get fired due to using the word "fat" in her job description at Addition Elle.

In her defense, Levitsky and her friends describe themselves as fat and were taken aback by the store's stance against the word. “Why am I being told that I’m not allowed to use this word?,” said Levitsky.

Once word got out about what happened to Levitsky at Addition Elle, its customers went to social media to condemn the store's policy against the word "fat" and Levitsky's firing. A spokesperson for Addition Elle claimed the store overreacted to Levitsky's initial post, and offered Levitsky her job back. (Levitsky declined the store's offer.)

ILevitsky didn't exactly defy company policy. It isn't clear if Addition Elle discussed its policy against the word "fat" with its employees, especially in social media posts. I once worked for a company where we were encouraged to describe its followers as "passionate" instead of "loyal," due to negative connotations with the latter term.

If a person wants to call themselves "fat" as an accurate self-description and not another word for "ugly," shouldn't they be able to without the Politically Correct Police coming after them? In our society, "fat" is a slur. Rationally, we know It's only a description, like, "short" or "sinewy," but no one ever came home from grade school crying for being called "tall." At least Addition Elle came around and decided to take the stigma out of "fat." Let's hope more follow suit and make "fat" a less-hurtful term.