The story is jaw-dropping. One week before finals,the national office of the largest sorority in the country sends out eviction notices to 23 of 35 members. The reason:they are not attractive enough to recruit the type of new members the national office believes meets Delta Zeta standards.

As reported in The New York Times,

Worried that a negative stereotype of the sorority was contributing to a decline in membership that had left its Greek-columned house here half empty, Delta Zeta’s national officers interviewed 35 DePauw members in November, quizzing them about their dedication to recruitment. They judged 23 of the women insufficiently committed and later told them to vacate the sorority house.

The 23 members included every woman who was overweight. They also included the only black, Korean and Vietnamese members. The dozen students allowed to stay were slender and popular with fraternity men — conventionally pretty women the sorority hoped could attract new recruits.

There is the expected outrage. Few, who read the article, can feel anything but disgust for the cruelty of the national office.

And yet, sororities are big business. Like any business with a brand to protect they expect members to live the brand.
If the sorority doesn't meet it's bottom line, they have to close their doors just like any other business or nonprofit.

Do the same people who are appalled at the hideous treatment of these young women feel the same way about businesses who routinely discriminate against the fat?

In The-F-Word Rachel Richardson writes about fat bias in the workplace.

About eight years ago, when I weighed 300 pounds, I was desperate to find a new job. I’d get called for interviews in which I thought I did relatively well, only to never get any calls back.

Fast forward just a couple years later. My professional qualifications are still relatively the same, but I weigh less than half my original body weight. I am hired at one of the premier global computer corporations in its corporate human resources department.

Coincidence? Maybe. But in my experiences, there is a vast difference in the way one is treated professionally when fat and when thin.

In her post, Richardson links to an MSNBC report on fat discrimination in the workplace.

America’s TV boss Donald Trump, who has been in a war of words with Rosie O’Donnell, told Entertainment Tonight recently that: “If I were running 'The View," I’d fire Rosie. I’d look her right in that fat ugly face of hers and say, ‘Rosie, you're fired.’ ”

Let’s say Trump was indeed Rosie’s boss and phrased his firing just like that, could he be charged with workplace discrimination? If he had said, “I’d look her right in that Asian ugly face” or “black ugly face” the answer would be a no-brainer.

But when it comes to obesity discrimination, the rotund among us have few if any rights when it comes to being hired, fired or promoted.

The reporter of that story,, Eve Tahmincioglu, has a blog,CareerDiva,

Recently I had a stomach virus that made me, what seemed, deathly ill for about a month. I lost about 10 pounds as a result and couldn’t believe the reaction I got from some of my female friends. One friend actually said she wished she could get a stomach virus so she could lose some weight. I couldn’t believe she would say such a thing given I conveyed to her how sick I was and how I was unable to really enjoy my life for those horrible weeks.

And this from Big Fat Blog about fat discrimination in Canada

A small online poll found that 25% of human resource execs admitted weight had a role in their hiring decisions. Another 35% suggested it might, on a subconscious level. Scary to think that 60% of those surveyed ultimately thought it was fine to judge a person on one's size, isn't it? [Thanks, Sandy.]

According to Charity Froggenhall at Eh..not so much only Michigan has an anti-fat discrimination law on the books.

Fat discrimination is an every day occurance in this country. The fact that a sorority discriminates against the fat is not news.
What is news is the sheer number of women they evicted.

Would this be a story if they had evicted three or five girls because they were fat? Probably not. And that's the real problem.

We are fascinated with this story because of the sheer number of members the sorority was willing to get rid of to reach their ultimate goal of 90 some members by 2009.

We are not truly appalled at the reason the women were evicted.Would anyone be writing or caring about three or five fat girls told to move out?

The number of girls evicted forces us to turn the spotlight on ourselves. We do not like what we see.

The actions of the Delta Zeta national office makes us take a good look at what we really believe. If we are outraged at what happened to these girls then let us be outraged at businesses that treat the fat as incompetent and less than.

Let us be outraged at ourselves for thinking it's perfectly fine for businesses to keep fat people in the back office.

Let us be outraged at ourselves for thinking that fat people are slobs, have no self discipline,and are less qualified to do management jobs.

Will this story finally be the catalyst to implement anti-fat discrimination laws? Fat chance of that happening any time soon.

Nothing that happens to Delta Zeta can compare to the anguish that these 23 women have suffered.

But if nothing happens about fat discrimination in the workplace then this will simply be another story that captured our attention for a few minutes in between Anna Nicole and Britney.

Elana blogs about business culture at FunnyBusiness