huh

[metaphortunate]

I think that all this fat activism/Health at Every Size stuff is having an effect on me. Yesterday I went to get my driver's license renewed....and I didn't lie about my weight.

Comments

[submarine_bells]

Why on earth would one have to give one's weight for a driver's license renewal? What possible relevance could it have? *boggle*

[trinker]

they ask for biometric info - hair color/eye color/height/weight.

[submarine_bells]

Huh. Here in South Australia, a driver's license has a photo, date of birth, license-specific info (expiry date, classes of vehicle etc, specific conditions of the license (usually person-specific medical stuff like "must wear wooden leg while driving") and your home address. That's pretty much all. You have to provide proof of ID when you get it renewed, but it's nothing terribly onerous - the previous license (or some other photo-ID) will do the job.

As for weight - how does that serve to ID anyone anyway, given that it's so variable over time for a lot of folk? It sounds a bit pointless to me; but eh, I guess what one's used to always seems normal.

[kest]

I think you probably don't have as big a fake ID problem there as we do here, for multiple reasons, and I suspect that stuff is to cut down on that - match the info roughly with the photo.

[submarine_bells]

Ah yes, that makes sense. Thanks!

[trinker]

Dunno, it's traditional thing dating back at least 40 years. I think the assumption is that you're unlikely to vary more than +/- 5 lb? It's meant to be a rough estimate, but I know a lot of people never update as they gain weight.

[metaphortunate]

Probably for the same reason I had to give a thumbprint. It's an ID.