Last year, Kenlie Tiggeman was trying to take a simple flight on Southwest Airlines when a gate agent told her she was "too fat to fly." Understandably, she was furious and humiliated and now she is suing the airline for that public humiliation, not because she wants them to totally amend their policy, but because she wants the policy to be more clearly laid out. She has a good point.
Her story is one of public humiliation. The gate agents came up to her and asked her how much she weighed and publicly humiliated Tiggeman who was close to 300 pounds at the time (she has since lost 120 pounds). She has said that this was a discussion for "point of purchase" rather than at the gate. And I agree with her there. There is no case for public humiliation. Ever.
But this is part of a larger problem that is growing exponentially (no pun intended) as the girth of our population also grows.
The reality is, this is an honest discussion that needs to happen, no matter how uncomfortable it makes us.
Yesterday I flew in coach and, though I am a small-ish person at 5'5" and about a size 4, I was squashed in the middle and not all that comfortable. If I were any taller or wider, I would have been downright uncomfortable. So how could anyone expect a person who was larger to sit comfortably in one seat?
It's not fair, but it's the way planes are built. Now there is talk of expanding seats to accommodate larger people, and while it's the reality right now, this seems like the wrong direction.
Obesity is sometimes the result of a condition or an illness, but it's also very often a result of lifestyle choices. Sure, losing weight is hard. I would never pretend otherwise. But you don't fix an underlying societal problem by building larger seats. You do it by addressing the health issues that make people obese.
We need better food choices and more education about that. We need help building activity into our daily lives and we need support for weight loss. The fact is, we can say with no judgement or mean spirit that obesity is not healthy. Tiggeman obviously knows this, too; otherwise, she wouldn't be losing weight.
Obviously treating people with weight problems like they aren't human or not entitled to their feelings is beyond wrong, but it's also wrong to slap a Band-Aid on a huge health problem because we are afraid of hurting feelings.
By all means, Tiggeman is right about public humiliation. But the answer isn't two seats or bigger seats. It's about helping people get healthy and lose weight so they can do more.
Do you think bigger seats will solve these problems?
Image via Glutnix/Flickr
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Comments 34
In a perfect world, everyone would be at a healthy weight and we'd all fit into airline seats comfortably and we'd all be best friends. It's not like that though, it never will be. Airlines should accommodate all customers fairly, customers shouldn't be expected to just lose weight to fly so airlines can continue to be greedy bastards and stuff as many tiny seats in a plane as possible. But that's just my opinion, they can do as they please with their business.
Anyone want to start a fat airlines? The slogan can be "Big seats for big people".
I'd love it if they made bigger seats...normal-size people can barely fit in them!!!
Totally agree with ponychaser. I'm skinny but I'm 5'7 and there is pretty much no leg room and those seats are waaaaay to squished together . I hate flying :/
Kaerae - it is not common sense to assume the article has incorrect information or that it did when someone else commented......also, if you are one who possesses a great deal of common sense, you would know that in 2012, the definition of common sense is vastly different for different people. It annoys the hell out of me but it's true.
Yes, we have an obvious problem with our weight as a nation, but at what point can we say enough is enough and stop blaming everyone else for our excess weight? People need to take responsibility for not just their weight, but their health and nutrition as well, and they could start by educating themselves on cooking from scratch and upping their activity level. I always hear "Who has time for that?" and other excuses but if you care enough about getting healthy, you'll stop blaming others and make the time. You're worth it.