Rebecca Wasson
Rebecca Wasson, a senior interior design major from Louisville, Kentucky, now works as an interior designer at K2M Design in Ohio City, after working there as an intern for over a year. As a plus-sized person, she says she’s been intentional about designing spaces that can accommodate everyone. And she wants more people to realize that fat phobia is damaging.
I was bullied a lot as a kid. A lot of the time I was being picked on because of my body. I have been what I would say is plus sized for pretty much most of my life. And because of that, I would get a lot of comments about my weight. I’m an outspoken person and didn’t want people to push me around, but it would happen anyway, just because of the way I looked.
I wanted to get involved in this campaign specifically because there is so little plus-size representation in media. There’s still a lot of fat phobia that isn’t really recognized as discrimination in the same way [that other things are]. There’s a lot of harm that goes into fat phobia, and a lot of people don’t realize how that takes a toll on an individual.
And it’s not always direct, like in words. As someone who’s an interior designer, I think about it all the time, because I’m having to think about things that my peers aren’t necessarily thinking about: if a chair has a wide enough seat for someone with wider hips, or if there are arm rests on a chair that could hit someone’s side. There are certain codes and standards that we have to follow for ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act], but there’s a minimum to that, and it excludes any type of body diversity or consideration for comfort. A lot of people don’t design for what is accessible and comfortable but rather to meet minimums set by the law.
I’m also fairly tall, just under six feet. Because of this, I notice things like countertops being too low for me to comfortably work at, or chairs being really low to the ground. Simple things like that change your day-to-day experience. There are a lot of things that can take a toll on how you feel about yourself. So it’s really important for me, from that perspective, to be someone who stands up for body diversity. No one wants to feel like they don’t fit in the world.
Until somewhat recently, I didn’t feel like I could really talk about these issues. A lot of people think that being overweight or plus size is a choice. And whether that’s true or not doesn’t really matter in the conversation because even if it was a choice, I still deserve to have respect and inclusion. I can still be a good person; the size or shape of my body shouldn’t matter to those things.
It’s important to find people who experience the same things as you. That can help you be more expressive to people who don’t understand or aren’t a part of the community you identify with. Finding a community that uplifts you and supports you and can share in those experiences helps you be a little bit louder about what you’re going through and maybe help others going through something similar.