Scenic Route, Social Change and Mental Health Conversations for Perfectionists
You’ve outgrown perfection, but not your desire to grow.
This is the place where high-functioners, deep feelers, and quiet rebels come home to themselves.
We explore:
- Mental health wisdom (minus toxic positivity)
- Social change (that starts from within)
- System critiques (with actionable solutions)
- Inner wisdom (over external validation)
- Mindfulness for minimalists (no crystals required)
Join Jennifer Walter, sociologist (MASoc UCC) and recovering perfectionist, for weekly conversations that blend critical thinking with oh-so-much compassion.
If you’re questioning everything – or just trying to stay grounded in a chaotic world – this space is for you. We make room for your inner critic and collective action. Because personal healing and social change go hand in hand (with a side of potty humour).
New episodes drop every Tuesday.
The longest way round is the shortest way home – and that's exactly why we're taking the Scenic Route.
Ready to walk the scenic route?
The view here is *chef's kiss.*
Scenic Route, Social Change and Mental Health Conversations for Perfectionists
Does Body Size Affect Your Grades? The Latest Truth About Fat Bias in Education
Can a student’s body size affect their grades? Research says yes. In this episode of The Scenic Route, Jen explores how fat bias and socioeconomic bias shape grades, opportunities, and self-worth.
You’ll hear:
- A personal story of how weight stigma shows up in healthcare.
- A German study of 14,000 students showed that overweight and lower-income kids receive lower grades than equally capable peers.
- Why grades often reflect compliance, neatness, and bias more than actual learning.
- How to judge whether a study is credible using reliability, objectivity, and validity and why validity is the trickiest.
- Practical steps for parents, teachers, and students to challenge fatbias in schools and beyond.
Grades don’t just decide report cards. They decide futures. When body size and class bias affect grades, kids are taught that some people matter less.
This episode is a call to question those systems and to push for a world where all kids can thrive.
👉 Listen now and share this with another parent, teacher, or friend who cares about equity in education.
Mentioned study
Nennstiel, R., & Gilgen, S. (2024). Does chubby Can get lower grades than skinny Sophie? Using an intersectional approach to uncover grading bias in German secondary schools. PLOS ONE, 19(7), e0305703. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0305703
All other mentioned resources are listed on scenicroutepodcast.com
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Hey, beautiful humans, welcome back to the Scenic Route. I'm Jan, your host, and today we're taking a detour into a topic that's uncomfortable but, again, absolutely necessary. We're going to talk about fat bias in education. And before you think, oh, this doesn't affect me, I don't have kids in school, I'm not in school anymore, I'm not fat, whatever, stick with me, please. This isn't just about weight. It's about how we all get charged on things that have nothing to do with what really matters Our abilities, our character and our potential.
Jennifer Walter:There's a different way to think about mental health, and it starts with slowing down. Sometimes, the longest way around is the shortest way home, and that's exactly where we're taking the scenic route. Hi, I'm Jennifer Walter, host of the Scenic Route podcast. Think of me as your sociologist sister in arms and rebel with many causes. Together, we're blending critical thinking with compassion, mental health with a dash of rebellion, and personal healing with collective change. We're trading perfectionism for possibility and toxic positivity for messy growth. Each week, we're exploring the path to better mental health and social transformation. And yes, by the way, pretty crystals are totally optional. You ready to take the scenic route? Let's walk this path together.
Jennifer Walter:Okay, so we're kicking this off with a personal anecdote. See when my son, he usually goes to his like annual checkups to his, to our family doctor, with my partner, who's able, able bodies and slim, normal bodied, of normal appearance, if you want. The appointment is always quick and drama free. We go there. There's a checklist, it's okay. But one time I took him it was just for a checkup because he has been sick before and we went in 10 days later to kind of like have a follow up and see if everything is gone. So two different appointments, same child, same weight, same height, same well-being, same everything, except one partner is slim, one partner is fat. And what happened? The entire conversation shifted to weight. It was suddenly about how pop soda is not a good drink for my four-year-old child. Thanks, Sherlock. So we kind of had the same kid, same health, different treatment, and it's not just my son's health care, it was also my health care. Like for years, my own symptoms were brushed aside because doctors assumed my body shape, explained everything, which spoiler it didn't. And all these small moments add up right. They teach us what society values and what it doesn't. And as much as these personal anecdotes Anecdotes are valuable and every fat person has their story. It's something else when we have data to look at.
Jennifer Walter:So now let's take this into the classroom, because there recently has been a study published and this German study asked the question that almost kind of sounds like a joke. It asks does Chubby Can get lower grades than skinny sophie? And sadly, the answer in a nutshell is spoiler it's yes. Yes, chubby can get, does get lower grades than skinny sophie. So this research wow, they studied more than 14 000 ninth graders, so that's nine grade in germany is around 14 to 15 years old. They compared students with the same standardized tests and abilities. Here's what they found and gets really interesting Students in bigger bodies consistently received lower grades than slimmer peers.
Jennifer Walter:Students from lower income families also received lower grades than wealthier classmates or classmates of higher social status, and if both apply, the disadvantages are stacked Like. That's how intersectionalism works, right? So if you were a fat boy from lower socioeconomic status, you're basically fucked. So body size matters, socioeconomic status matters. Together they shape futures. So I think we need to do a quick detour. Can we trust this study? Whenever I share research, I want you to know this isn't about cherry picking scary numbers. So we want to see if there's actually merit behind any study you read or I'm going to share with you.
Jennifer Walter:So there's always kind of like the three big markers for if the study holds up, um, their reliability, objectivity and validity. Reliability is did the results hold up across different tests? Um, no matter like how they're analyzed, they analyzed it. They run different tests. It was repulsed by a state. Could you redo it? Could you rerun the entire thing and come to the same conclusion? Yeah, that's reliability. Objectivity did they keep their opinions out In this case? Yes, they control for intelligence, behavior and personality. Right, they had standardized tests. They run models of personality tests, personality models, behavior models they did that. Also, when you run quantitative data, it's's, or it's, easier to control your own objectivity, for example, when you run. When you run and when you do an interview with someone, that will more mostly be qualitative research, it's really hard to take out your entire personality and your views on the matter out of it. So that's that.
Jennifer Walter:And the third big marker is validity, and I want to linger there for a moment because this is the trickiest one. Validity asks are we actually measuring what we're saying? We're measuring and here's the thing in social sciences, concepts like stress, intelligence, social class very abstract. You can't stick a thermometer in someone's brain and measure stress the way you measure temperature. Researchers have to decide how to operationalize, how to turn these fuzzy concepts into measurable things. So if we take stress, you could measure it by asking how many hours someone works, but it doesn't really capture stress. It by asking how many hours someone works, but it doesn't really capture stress.
Jennifer Walter:So a valid study would have to ask about symptoms or common stress symptoms. Are you experiencing those? How are you feeling? Are you sleeping? Or collecting biological markers like cortisol spikes, like very different things, or social class? How do you define it? By income, by education, occupation, cultural tastes? Each definition gives you kind of like a different angle and maybe different results. That's why validity is messy. There's no single perfect way to pin down human experience, but there's a shared common consensus among the research community.
Jennifer Walter:So in this study, validity mattered because the researchers weren't just comparing grades. They used standardized test scores like objective external measures of ability against teacher assigned grades. When the two didn't match, the gap revealed bias. And that's smart design. It doesn't make the study flawless by any means, but it means they really were measuring the thing they claim to the influences of certain variables like body size, socioeconomic status, on grades. So if you remember one thing about validity, it's this. It's about asking whether the research is capturing the actual reality it wants to understand or it's just kind of like circling around it.
Jennifer Walter:But these are the three big ones. Bonus checks are for transparency. Right, in this study they were upfront about limitations, like the underrepresentation of some groups and the sample size. Just kind of being upfront and clear and saying, oh, this is what it is what it is and this could have an impact or not. We just don't know. Also, funding this study came from academic institutions, not industry players with an agenda. But if you see, like a weight loss study that has been funded by weight watchers, I would probably be cautious. But so, all in all, this research, I think, is very incredible, is very credible, incredible, incredible.
Jennifer Walter:So you know, you might, might be wondering why is this really? Why does this matter? Right, it's just grades. And here's the thing. Right, our world currently is still built on grades so much. Right, they decide who gets into college, who goes to university, who gets scholarships, who lands jobs and also how kids see themselves, because bias in a grade book doesn't stay there. It shapes confidence, opportunity and self-worth for the years to come. And here is where it gets even more uncomfortable. Grades themselves are shaky at best.
Jennifer Walter:There's numerous research that kind of like taps into the bigger problem with grades. There's Alfie Kohn who says grades turn leaning into kind of like a game of compliance. Kids stop asking questions and start figuring out how to give the teacher exactly what they want. This is surely I mean, that's part of me. I was just really good at just giving teacher what they want. Just they would shut up and I get the good grades and I could go home and do what I actually wanted to do.
Jennifer Walter:Or we have blake william, who found that grades can actually show how much kids are learning. They show how kids rank in every subject, but they don't really show you what, what you need to grow, where is the potential where you can get better. It just kind of like shows it is in the moment. Brookhart showed that grades often mix in things like effort, neatness or even personality. So again, this study goes back, goes into that. You know there actually is. We have this big, this study in Germany who actually showed okay, if you're a fat boy with low economic status, this is reflected in your grades and we have big reviews like Sadler and Stiggins, who revealed that grades vary wildly between teachers, schools and regions. So they're not.
Jennifer Walter:So keep it short. Grades are inconsistent. They're not as reliable as not as reliable as we might wish they were right. So yours truly puts it very bluntly Grades don't measure learning, they measure compliance, perception, maybe stress, resistance. And when we add bias, especially like class bias, on top of that, grades stop looking like measures of learning and they more look like measures of social sorting. So this wouldn't be the scenic ride podcast if we would end with this and be like no, there you go, you have it now, suck it up or actually want to do something.
Jennifer Walter:So what can we do? Let's look at schools. If you're're a parent, pay attention to patterns. If your child's report card doesn't match what they do or what they can, their ability, look closely and maybe approach schools your school, your teacher. If you do, go in with curiosity and not accusation, ask teachers. Can you help me understand why there is such a difference between the test scores and how I perceive my child's ability? Open dialogue without putting anyone on the defensive. Support your child, let them know the grade is not a reflection of their intelligence or worth remind them that bias lives in systems and not in who they are. For teachers, reflect on your grading practice. Ask am I rewarding compliance, maybe more so than competence? Am I unconsciously lowering expectations based on body size or background? Do things I know about this child, like what their parents are doing, whatever like does this influence my grading? And share your thoughts and processes in staff meetings In healthcare.
Jennifer Walter:Always keep, if you're a fat person, always keep advocating for yourself. I know it's hard, I know it's tiresome, but it must be done. We're not there yet that we have practitioners who treat you the same as they would a Finn person. So maybe ask would you give the same advice to a Finn patient with these symptoms? Make sure they see beyond your weight. Or teach your kids to advocate for themselves by modeling respectful pushback when doctors reduced him to their body size in the workplace. Just notice who gets promoted and who doesn't. Notice whose ideas get picked on. Get picked up in meetings. Who is seen as leadership material.
Jennifer Walter:Air quotes and call out any and all appearance-based comments, even the ones that masquerade as like health concerns. Like we're done with commenting on people's appearances and bodies. Like it we're done. Next, support colleagues who share that they bias um because it's a long. It's a hard journey to like, facing this um on the daily and then actually doing something against this, maybe going to hr or whatever and I don't know.
Jennifer Walter:At home. Normalize body diversity um. Have books, children's books, books with different sized bodies in it. Don't make weight a constant conversation um. Be mindful of where you add in diet, talk anything and this is very different from person to person, but standard sentences would be anything like I worked out for two hours today, so now I deserve this chocolate muffin. Be very curious on the words you use yourself when you talk about your weight or the weight of others. Compliment your kids and other people for that matter, on who they are and not how they look, because usually how they look is the least interesting part about them. Talk openly and age appropriately about bias so your kids can spot it too. Or when it comes to media support fad creators, fad creators, fat stylists, fat fashion designers, whatever.
Jennifer Walter:Unfollow accounts that push diet culture. Like immediately unfollow anyone who's ever mentioned any kind of diet, cleansing diarrhea, shit tea. Like unfollow um and share stories and uplift images that celebrate body diversity. Right, because fat bias doesn't stop at the classroom door. It shows up in health care, um, where bigger patients get less care or the wrong care. Shows up at work, where appearances, influences, influence promotions. Shows up in media like tired diet.
Jennifer Walter:Culture teaches us to shrink ourselves and we know the effect on social media, of social media on the body image of young boys and girls. So bias thrives in silence, shame thrives in silence. Challenging it every day in schools and clinics and offices. Challenging it. It chips away at the system. Right, and that's ultimately what we want to do. We want to chip away at it. And here's the bigger picture.
Jennifer Walter:Fat bias isn't just about weight. It's about how society measures worth. When we grade kids on their bodies instead of their abilities, we're teaching them that some humans matter less, and that's not the world I want for my kid or yours. So, to end this, please share this episode with a friend or a fellow parent. Talk to your kids about bias, ask yourself what the on reflect on how you talk about weight and body size, and remind your kids yourself that worth isn't measured by a scale and it's definitely not measured by a great book, and just keep up taking space and live your life. So that's it for today's cine grout. Keep taking up space, keep asking questions and keep pushing for a world where all kids and all people can drive. And just like that, we've reached the end of another journey together on the CineGroud podcast. Thank you for spending time with us. Curious for more stories or in search of the resources mentioned in today's episode, visit us at cinegrouppodcastcom for everything you need.
Jennifer Walter:And if you're ready to embrace your scenic route, I've got something special for you. Step off the beaten path with my scenic route affirmation card deck. It's crafted for those moments when you're seeking courage, yearning to trust your inner voice and eager to carve out a path authentically, unmistakably yours. Pick your scenic route affirmation today and let it support you. Excited about where your journey might lead? I certainly am. Remember, the scenic route is not just about the destination, but the experiences, learnings and joy we discover along the way. Thank you for being here and I look forward to seeing you on the scenic route again.
