Kate Harding is trying to manipulate the results of a Parade.com’s poll. The Poll is about SouthWest Airline’s policy of making very fat passengers pay for an extra seat.
I think we should feel free to even up the odds a bit.
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First off, great site. Second, thanks for your comment on my site the other day.
This has always been a pet peeve of mine (large passengers’ bodies encroaching on my bought-and-paid-for seats, not falsely inflating internet poll numbers) and, to me, it demonstrates exactly what is wrong with the Fat Acceptance movement. They do not care if their size inconveniences other people, all they care about is other people modifying the world so that they can be comfortable.
I’m a pretty arrogant guy and I pride myself on a healthy narcissism, but these FA people take the cake – horrible pun intended. The ultimate danger is, as you have said in the past, that what they promote is actively dangerous and based on willful ignorance.
To me, the following quote from the comments section on the poll sums up the major issue:
“The FAA uses an average passenger weight of 195 pounds and aircraft seat manufacturers design the seat strength around this average. In other words they estimate that a three passenger seat will safely hold 585 pounds. The seat normally mayl not break if this weight is exceeded in normal situations, but the seat will not withstand the loads induced in an accident..
If two 350 pound passengers and a 180 pound passenger sit in a triple seat set, the total weight would be 880 pounds (150% of the seats designed load), even a hard landing could cause a failure of the seat.
In my 40 years in aviation, I have not seen an airline pay any attention to the total load in a seat set, and I have never seen the FAA try to enforce such. Overweight people significantly reduce their safety and other passengers safety by not purchasing a second seat. The FAA and the airlines should enforce seat load limits.”
No consideration is given to the fact that their weight makes things actively dangerous for other people. They scream “discrimination” without offering a moment’s thought to the people who could be hurt, really, physically hurt, because of their girth.
New reader here, loving this blog. Keep up the good work
Good site. I’m sick of fat acceptance. For those who don’t mind harshness and coarse language, check this post here: http://www.t-nation.com/tmagnum/readTopic.do?id=491379
I posted a comment over at her site, definitely won’t get past her moderation though:
“Should obese flyers buy two airplane seats? Absolutely. Oh sure, you might whine about your rights and all that, but what about the pour soul sitting next to you with your arm flab sinking into his lap? Please be considerate.
And if you do end up taking two seats, that’s one seat that could’ve gone to a paying passenger. Airlines have to pay their bills too, and giving away free seats for the corpulent really isn’t the way to do it.
Deal with it, or lose weight.
”
Cheers
Excellent site. I simply can not fathom why fat activists fail to understand that airlines are businesses that need to sell their seats. And for all their whining that people don’t treat them with consideration, really, how considerate is it to spill over onto your neighbor’s seat?
I don’t understand why this is an offensive policy or controversial at all. If you take up space, you pay for it. This isn’t discrimination. If your ass is large enough to take up more than one seat, then you need to pay.
It’s not fair that people should have their personal space invaded, either, because they’re spilling over into another seat.
Thanks for this blog, you’re doing God/Goddess’s work! Hell yeah! I was very fat last year, and I’ve lost a good amount of weight – I’m about halfway to my goal with 40 lbs to go. I was being self destructive and that’s why I got fat, plain and simple. I never got big enough to not fit in a seat, but I came *very* close. That sucked, and I’ll never go back! Once you lose weight and recover from being a fatty-fat-fat, you feel so much better! Put down the fork, fatties, and stop crying!
Oh god I hate the people who complain about that policy. The airlines do it for safety reasons, namely that obese people in close quarters can inhibit others in their row from…oh…GETTING TO THE EMERGENCY EXITS?!
I think it’s a good policy. Lose weight or take ground transport.
And for the record, I’m fat enough that I can still fit in a single seat, but I have to have the airline seatbelt on the loosest setting possible.