`WALK OF SHAME' - Obese flyer booted from flight in US

a reply to: ladyinwaiting

Nope.

This is just the overly-sensitive being overly-sensitive about wanting being fat/obese called something else, so they can pull the victim card.

Saying being fat is a lifestyle issue isn't abuse. It's reality. Feelings don't belong in this.

I happen to have a horse in this race. WEEELL, not fat but tall. Now I can't help how god dealt cards. I'm just over 6foot 6 inches and well remember seat sizes and seat throws being larger and as for the weight issue the normal luggage weight used to be 30 ks per passenger. Now the airlines in their wisdom narrowed the seats and shortened the throw, and reduced the luggage allowance to 15ks and in the odd instance to 10ks. All of this was not done with their customers comfort or safety in mind but profit. So chuck the fat guy off, a seat remains empty, how many seats get left empty before your ticket price goes up because they are not carrying enough passengers. Ah, but you'll say it's only the odd times, but why did they narrow the seats down? To get another row of maybe 6 seats? Yes, they do think that small.

a reply to: Misterlondon

Thank you for being honest and coming up with one of the few replies that does not offend me. Excess weight cannot be controlled in many as it's due to medical conditions. The negative member replies here are just as bad as anyone justifying denying a seat to a person with a wheelchair as boarding the plane will take a little longer.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

Coming soon? Standing instead of sitting on planes
www.cnn.com...

While I'm not going to be judgmental about WHY this guy is obese, I will say that if he takes up more than one seat, for whatever reason, then he should be required to buy more than one seat.

Who knows...maybe this guy was obese due to a medical reason through no fault of his own -- I don't know and I don't care; the reason he is obese is not relevant. That fact remains that if I had a medical condition that required me to take up more than one seat (say I had both arms in casts and was required to keep my elbows pointint out away from my body), I would be required to buy two seats.

This should be no different.

a reply to: crayzeed

I'm only 6'1" but disproportionately long legs so I suffer my own challenges but they don't ever infringe on anyone else's paid for space.
Only fat people do that on commercial transport.

originally posted by: MysticPearl
a reply to: [post=20585980]ladyinwaiting[/po

Saying being fat is a lifestyle issue isn't abuse. It's reality. Feelings don't belong in this.

Oh. I'll have to remember that the next time I talk to a person. No feelings. Feelings don't belong in this. Gotcha.

Where the hell is my eye-roll emo when I need it?

Or maybe a face/palm would be better? Can't decide.

@@

originally posted by: Stormdancer777
a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

Coming soon? Standing instead of sitting on planes
www.cnn.com...

I'm happy with that option if it is cheaper

*Edit*
I'd happily be squeezed up with a fat person if that was the agreed contract.
When I pay for a chair with defined boundaries of space though...I will challenge anyone who breaches it.

Actually, if I were to call a blonde a blonde, or a short person, short, or a skinny person, skinny, and was attacked for stating what logic and common sense dictates is true, the abuse is actually leveled towards myself, not towards the skinny person who was called skinny.

The abuse is coming from the other side, attacking those of us operating in reality because they no longer accept fat being fat or skinny being skinny and instead want new labels thrown about, new definitions, more acceptance, etc, even though it's just a distraction from the most basic of observations.

I don't doubt the fat/obese might have personal inner demons they deal with, or health issues, or varying personal situations which effect them, but fat is still fat, obese is still obese and dragging the conversation elsewhere is simple deflection. If I watch a race and there's an obvious slow runner, it's not offensive to call that person slow. It's fact. Maybe they tried real hard, train real hard, had previous injuries, didn't sleep well, etc, but slow is still slow. It's an insult to reality to argue otherwise.

Well, it's only going to get worse as obesity rates increase. America is becoming increasingly accommodating of obese people. It's not only accepted, but defended. Instead of developing a culture in which being obese is discouraged, we have "plus sized models" and social justice warriors on a crusade to defend unhealthy, overweight people.

Look, I get it -- medical conditions can make you overweight. Guess what? Most of those medical conditions can be overcome through diet, exercise, and the proper medication or a gastric bypass.

I used to be a morbidly obese person. (medically diagnosed)

I know what its like.

So don't come after me. I don't want to hear it, and it only proves my points.

I also happen to know at the end of the day it's a choice because there ARE things you can DO.

Other countries don't have such a high obesity rate, and they don't have as many people blaming their obesity on medical conditions. So what's the real issue?

I think it's part blame-shifting and part American diet. I think there are environmental factors in America, along with a culture and attitude that nothing is ever anyone's fault.

a reply to: ladyinwaiting

Observing fat as fat doesn't involve feelings.

Observing a fat person spilling over into space you paid for on an airplane doesn't involve feelings.

Just as a smoker blowing smoke in your face is a simple observation devoid of feelings, although someone else might attempt to drag the observation into the friend that person just lost and he needs a smoke as a vice and to release stress, or that his parents were smokers so he's more likely to be a smoker and yada yada.

Getting into psychoanalysis of why that person might be fat and the personal trials and tribulations involved is a different conversation.

a reply to: grainofsand

did you pay for a space to not be infringed? Or did you pay for travel?

I don't think we are buying mobile space. when i book it to the general ledger it goes to "travel - air" , not "Lease - public space"

It seems to me the real problem is that this person was not informed prior to boarding and advised what to do, rather than exposing him to the ridicule of a plane full of passengers and all of us who have flown very many times, know what jerks fellow passengers can be. People on a plane filled with strangers turn off all the filters.

As far as the bullies who get off on treating overweight people as if they are plague carriers, they are just bullies and consider the source. People with low self esteem always look for reasons to attack others and physical differences are easy targets. If an overweight person were not available they would just find something else like clothes worn to vent on.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Shortcuts to DIA:
1. There are two security lines, most people think there is one
2. If you check bags, don't go inside, the checkers outside are free and small tips are appreciated
3. Many flights offer online iterineray for mobile phones dont waste time getting a ticket. Many people don't use this and it even sometimes shares a line with ClearID.
4. After you get your online ticket, you can check in online
5. If you're at concourse A, you don't have to take the train, you can walk there faster
6. Wear flip-flops and sport your laptop in your hands, don't need to remove anything from your bags
7. If you're super late request a personal screening. It works fastest even if they're annoyed, they've done it for me, they'll do it for you.

I assumed an I travel every week answer. I don't that often but I've been doing this from a baby with divorced out of state parents. My dad makes that look small. He's at a hotel like 190 days a year all around the world and has platinum status and gets bumped still.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

If you lost a bunch of weight and took on a healthier lifestyle, that great. I mean that in all sincerity.

I too at one time went from a fit 185 to a fat 250. Could have sat there and blamed genetics, blamed the world, blamed everyone else but I completely changed my diet, went back to exercising 6X a week and later got back down to the fit 185 I was. Have maintained it. Know why my weight ballooned up? Stopped exercising, ate fastfood every day and drank too much beer. Once I took up exercise, swapped fast food for high quality meat and salads along with fruits/veggies, cut out the alcohol, the weight came off. It's simple science. There's no way it wouldn't come off under a new, healthier lifestyle.

I had friends and relatives who witnessed that then took up the same, saw similar results. And as a gym regular, I've met countless people who once lived an unhealthy lifestyle and took up exercise and eating healthy and now are quite fit, or at the least more healthy than they were.

And there's countless examples of that across this country.

No one has to do that though. Live however you like, I don't care. Just stop attempting to argue it's something other than it is and don't argue it's the responsibility of others to pay for your choices. It's not. Almost always comes down to the individual and personal accountability outside rare circumstances.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
a reply to: grainofsand

did you pay for a space to not be infringed? Or did you pay for travel?

I don't think we are buying mobile space. when i book it to the general ledger it goes to "travel - air" , not "Lease - public space"

Whatever fella, if you were sat next to me and squeezing my body in the chair I paid for I would look you in the eye and tell you I was unhappy about it and also tell you your inability to stay in solely in your chair was your problem, not mine.
I'd fight over it fella, I really would if the fat guy got aggressive about it. I'd be sensible though and keep UK justice definitions of reasonable force in mind...that will get a walk out in any western courtroom.

I also want to state that the airlines themselves are a guilty party.

Have you SEEN the size of the seats these days!?

I no longer weigh 265 pounds, but even at 140 pounds *I* barley fit into the seats! It's beyond insane how many people they expect to pack into the a tiny, pressurized metal tube. I can't even imagine someone taller than myself.

It seems almost like a safety hazard to me...

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

I wonder how rich he is and if he knows who I even remotely claim to be...cattle class lmfao indeed

a reply to: grainofsand

i would expect nothing less from you.

And while I will still assert that it would utlimately be your problem and not mine (were i still large enough to spill into your seat, anyway), and that you'd end up having to get over it (or get the airline involved), i absolutely love that you are willing to push back a little when pushed. THAT'S the British attitude that I know and love.

a reply to: MysticPearl

That's the thing -- there's always something someone can do. Diet, exercise, medication -- even gastric bypass surgery.

We don't see obesity levels like this in the UK, France, Germany, Spain or Italy. Why?

Are Americans just super unlucky when it comes to being afflicted with so many unfortunate medical conditions? Do we just have really horrible DNA here in America?

The truth hurts -- we're a nation raised on junk food, salt and sugar. We're a nation were personal responsibility isn't a noble or desirable trait to have. In fact, blame-shifting in America is now an art form. Look around these forums, you can see blame shifting all over the place. It's worse now than it was even just 10 years ago.

Most of those doing the blame shifting are Americans. I think our media and culture encourages zero-responsibility. America is obsessed with celebrity reality TV in which those people never take personal responsibility for anything.