- Hoda Kotb, 60, says she was body-shamed by a former boss when she was youthful.
- “He goes, ‘Hey, I obtained an concept. Perhaps you would possibly need to attempt to get on the treadmill,'” Kotb mentioned, recalling his phrases.
- Within the US, there aren’t any federal legal guidelines that prohibit weight discrimination.
Hoda Kotb, 60, says she was body-shamed by her former boss.
Throughout Monday’s episode of “At the moment with Hoda and Jenna,” Kotb recalled how her former boss had made feedback about her weight when she was youthful.
“I nonetheless bear in mind I had simply began working in a small market. And I performed basketball in highschool, so I all the time assumed I used to be in form despite the fact that, actually, after faculty and stuff, I wasn’t,” Kotb instructed her cohost, Jenna Bush Hager.
“I nonetheless bear in mind my boss going to me, ‘Hey, Hoda,’ and I used to be like, ‘Yeah?’ He goes, ‘Hey, I obtained an concept. Perhaps you would possibly need to attempt to get on the treadmill,'” Kotb mentioned, recalling his phrases.
Kotb says she was shocked by his remark as a result of she did not see herself that approach.
“You recognize when you could have a notion of your self that’s not the notion of the world?” Kotb mentioned. “Yeah, so I used to be like, ‘What are you speaking about?'”
She went on to clarify that “should you do not match,” folks will “need you to put on one thing a sure approach, minimize your hair a sure approach, converse a sure approach.”
However when folks faux to be somebody they don’t seem to be, they will begin dropping who they are surely, Kotb mentioned, including that there are occasions when folks do must “do issues to suit into a piece surroundings.”
Kotb’s remark took place throughout a dialogue on the present about Timothée Chalamet and the way he lately shared that he was instructed to alter his physique sort early in his profession to land larger roles.
A 2023 survey by the Society for Human Useful resource Administration discovered that just about 72% of US employees who’ve skilled unfair remedy at work as a consequence of their weight say it made them really feel like quitting their jobs. Moreover, 11% of HR professionals surveyed say overweight staff at their group are usually not all the time handled as pretty as average-weight staff.
There aren’t any federal legal guidelines that prohibit weight discrimination, though some cities within the US — corresponding to San Francisco and Washington DC — have handed native legal guidelines banning weight discrimination. In 2023, New York Metropolis handed a regulation making weight discrimination unlawful.
Michigan was the primary state to cross a regulation that forestalls weight discrimination.
Emily Capelli, a psychotherapist, beforehand instructed Enterprise Insider that it may be useful to talk up in opposition to weight stigma.
“You possibly can say, simply merely, ‘That feels fatphobic,’ or ‘That hurts my emotions’,” Capelli suggests. “This falls underneath setting boundaries with folks, and I feel it is useful to say that setting boundaries is a talent. Like using a motorcycle, you may work on this talent.”
There are additionally methods to alter the topic or shut down the dialog if the subject comes up, she mentioned: “It is completely OK to stroll away.”
A consultant for Kotb didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark despatched by Enterprise Insider exterior common hours.
