Posted on 09/19/2023 9:48:31 AM PDT by JonPreston
In 2019, on a trip to the Bahamas with my mom and sister, my flight turned into an uncomfortable ordeal. My seat belt wasn’t long enough to fasten, and a fellow passenger's visceral reaction added to my discomfort. I repeatedly asked the flight attendant for a seat belt extender and was ignored until takeoff, leaving me feeling disregarded and disrespected.
And this wasn’t the first time I’ve dealt with this particular kind of travel stress. I went to Paris in 2014, and found the city cramped and unwelcoming. Narrow staircases, tiny chairs, and compact showers were just the beginning. Throughout my time there, I endured constant staring, rude comments, and fetishistic remarks about my body. But these types of roadblocks aren’t limited to Paris or my flight to Nassau—Society has an anti-fat bias, and you can encounter it anywhere.
Living in a world fueled by fatphobia creates unnecessary barriers, from limited clothing options to discrimination in medical care, employment, and relationships. According to the NIH, more than two in five adults live in a large body. And yet despite this fact, we continue to face daily challenges—including in travel, where inequities like the ones outlined below so often deny us access to the same life-changing experiences available to others.
(Excerpt) Read more at thrillist.com ...
No she lives in a world built for normal sized people and she’s an abnormal size.
+1
Try going to Ford’s Theater in Washington. We were a much smaller people back then.
“I wonder if she realizes that she went to one of the oldest western civilization cities. Narrow roads and tiny staircases were the way those cities organically grew 1,000 years ago. The Romans built many of those roads for their chariots to traverse.”
Most of Paris was built by Napoleon III in the 1870’s there is almost none of the medieval city left. It’s a lot better than say London or Rome.
France is not for fat people. London she can be fat all day just be sure to hail a bobby not the miserable death trap minis.
And stop drinking sugary drinks - sodas and fruit juices.
Same. Last flight was Sept 2017. Next trip to San Diego will be a 923 mile drive in my F150. About 15 hours each way. I'll have my own vehicle instead of a rental. No TSA. No long walks through a large airport hauling a suitcase. Best of all, not sharing a confined space with a large enough group of people to include someone with a communicable disease.
Actually, it is biology that has a fat-bias, and society is just being efficient.
Besides being unhealthy fat people consume more resources, whether it's energy to move about, or clothing, which requires more material and additional handling, and in order to make comparably comfortable accommodations in seating-whether in airplanes, theaters, or sports arenas- there would be fewer seats and lower revenue. Virtually everything about being fat is more expensive than being normal sized.
Gorlock, Destroyer of Toilets
OK, with all this ‘discriminatory’ fat shaming, etc., I propose this:
Make only one size of clothing.
Don’t know yet if it is all ‘small’, or all ‘5XXXL’.
So they can’t claim that clothing sizes ‘discriminate’.
I used to fly in a small commuter plane.
They would ask for the passenger’s weight.
That was to assure the wt vs CG was OK
We all lived through that trauma.
Concepts swimming in lying to oneself meets reality of the true physical Universe.
I agree with you that fat-shaming is a cheap way to feel superior to others. I have a friend who gained an incredible amount of weight just from the side effects of a medication she is taking. People who don’t know her think she’s a glutton when in reality she eats less than I do and I’m only “California fat” at 135 lbs. Pregnancy weight is also much harder to lose than the movies would have you think (or so I’m told). If I see an overweight stranger I don’t say anything because I don’t know her story.
I do make exceptions for those guys (and they are always guys) who fat-shame women while being overweight themselves. But there I am really shaming them more for their hypocrisy rather than for their weight. Plus the acronym for Hypocritical Overweight Gentlemen is just too tempting to resist.
hey Lizzo buy two seats.
My brain can't go there....
Ugh! 😣
A seat belt extension is about $20 on Amazon.
Buy one and STFU.
L
As soon as I read up to this point in the excerpt, it was clear that the writer was of the more "melanin-enhanced" variety.
The whole notion of feeling "disrespected" appears to be the driving force behind much of the behavior and perception in certain 'communities' and among certain demographics.
Unfortunately, anything can now be perceived as a sign of "disrespect" and trigger a violent reaction among those of the urban mindset.
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