(Update: their website is gone and some board members resigned. It appears the agency has devolved)
An Open Letter to Sheraton Cadwell Orchestras Management,
I recently read an article citing your email requiring your singers to fit a certain BMI standard. My name is Kira McCarthy and I am an advocate for Eating Disorder Awareness and Body Politics. I have spent the last few years of my life putting myself into the public spotlight to bring awareness to my main message, which is: Your Body. Your Business.
I grew up surrounded by messages that said being thin and able-bodied equaled success. Thinness was equated with self-control, self-discipline, desirability, and praise.
We live in a world where mainstream assumptions and stereotypes tell us that “othered bodies” are incapable, ugly, unhealthy, and ultimately, unlovable.
The truth is, your body is your own and no one else’s. Your body is worthy and deserves love, period.
In your email to your staff you wrote:
“Although almost all of our vocalists are fit and slim – the way our boutique orchestra would like our front line performing artists to be … two of our featured singers were not. We hope that they would, as such, refrain from using tight-fitting dresses and use loose (less physically-revealing, less physically-accentuating) dresses instead.”
You specifically called out 2 singers and told your company that they were fat. You shamed them. Worse, you shamed them publicly. You shamed their bodies and the way they choose to dress those bodies.
You also wrote:
"As per our highly selective casting requirements for vocal artists taking on a prominent leading role on stage, only singers who are physically fit and slim (or at the very least, those who know how to dress strategically/suitably in order to not bring attention to their temporary physical/dietary indulgences) would be showcased with our boutique orchestras.”
That entire paragraph is offensive, elitist, discriminatory, and makes multiple assumptions about bodies. Specifically, having already stated that 2 of your singers are what you consider to be overweight, you go on to blame their size on "dietary indulgences", suggesting that if they did not "indulge" in foods that you do not approve of, their bodies would magically meet with your approval.
There have been many studies to counteract the term "obesity epidemic". These studies show that there is often no correlation between weight and health. (And even when there is, that is still no one else's business).
I teach elementary school and it saddens me to the core that yet another generation of children is growing up to believe that your body determines your worth. I envision a world where all people are valued for who they are, and what they contribute, not by what they look like. I teach my students to challenge social constructions of “proper” and “worthy” bodies in a world that so often demonizes, pathologizes, and “others” those who aren’t thin, white, and able-bodied.
If my grade seven students can be inclusive of all bodies, then so can you.
Kira McCarthy
