First, recent studies have determined that prejudice against overweight people is much more pronounced against women than men. Roehling unearthed the gender angle to pre-judging overweight people in 2009 while studying CEOs. “This pattern of findings is consistent with previous research indicating that, at least among white Americans, there is a tendency to hold women to harsher weight standards,” he wrote.

In 2010, social scientists at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, devised an imaginative experiment in which they digitally altered photos of mythical candidates for public office and asked the respondents in the study to judge those in the photographs for 14 character traits: competence, reliability, strong leadership, dependability, laziness, likeability, morality, honesty, self-discipline, energy, caring, able to inspire, intelligence, and ability to perform a strenuous job.

The beauty of this study is that it crosses disciplines, as did its principal authors: It was devised by Beth J. Miller, a political scientist, and Jennifer D. Lundgren, a clinical psychologist who is now president of the Obesity Society.

Once again, the sexist double-standard manifested itself. Female “candidates” who carried excess weight were routinely devalued more than similarly girthed male candidates. But that wasn’t all. There was fascinating data about portly men: Overweight men — but not truly obese men — actually were judged more positively than thin ones. “Larger body size may be an asset for male candidates,” Miller and Lundgren stated in a subsequent paper, postulating that this finding was not inconsistent with the gender bias they detected. “There is significant pressure for women in western society to be thin,” they wrote, “but for men there is pressure to have muscle mass.”