When The Going Gets Tough, Blame it on Fat People
After 9/11, Kanye West on an all-star television benefit to help raise money for families who lost loved ones in the tragedy, got on national TV and surprised everyone with his unscripted proclamation that “George Bush hates Black people.” I’m beginning to think we as a nation don’t like fat people either.
Ryanair Airlines, a low-budget Irish airline just announced that overweight passengers will have to pay by the pound to fly. Ouch! Don’t get cocky that we, in this country, are more sensitive to the plight of the obese. United Airlines and Southwest Airlines, to name a few, recently have required overweight passengers to buy an additional seat if they want to be permitted on the flight. There is an actual policy which defines ‘being too overweight to fly.’ “A passenger must fit in a single seat with armrests down and/or require only one seat belt extender.” Seriously?
Has it really come to this? Are we as a nation so fat that airline policy has to specify “more than one seat belt extender?” Isn’t the fact that such a thing exists as a seat belt extender troubling enough. But, now you find yourself dancing the hora in the aisle if you are fat enough to only require one seat belt extender, not the dreaded two.
I have to admit that I’m a little confused. The last time I flew I could barely fit my purse underneath the seat in front of me and I felt incestuously close to my relatively slim seat mate who happened to be a stranger. I’m still stuck on the notion of two seat belt extenders. Houston we really do have a problem!
Now, I’m not one to blame all of the world’s ills on fat people; skinny people do more than their share of screwing up. Just this past Earth Day, when overweight and obese people were basically blamed for causing global warming, even I thought this was harsh and far reaching.
Except now when the Association for Airline Passenger Rights comes out blasting airlines for discriminating against fat people, I take pause. Let’s consider for a moment my new favorite airline policy of weighing luggage. Is anybody’s luggage ever the right weight? No, this is a sneaky way for airlines to get away with an additional fee to check your bags. If my luggage, whether or not is stuffed like a sausage, gets charged up to 50 bucks extra, is it really a stretch to charge people for the extra baggage they are carrying on their butts?
Forgive me for sounding callous, but there are several realities to this scenario that trump being politically correct. First, fuel expenditure and airplane safety are dependent on the excess weight that the plane is having to support. If airlines raise the already exorbitant cost of flying to match the increased girth of the passengers, this is not right either. I exercise regularly and eat right. I forgo the need for even one seat belt extender, let alone two. Why should I have to get a second mortgage on my home in order to fly? This isn’t being discriminatory, it’s being frank.
Secondly, there is no such thing as a short airplane flight. Even when the flight is supposed to last less than an hour, it is always a lengthy ordeal. Throw in layovers and cross-country travel and you are looking at hours cramped in a confining space with strangers. If you are so large that you require two seat belt extenders and your arm rest has to stay permanently in the up position, you are guaranteed sitting at least one butt cheek on my lap. The only difference between then and now is you were getting away with it for free. This is not being discriminatory, this is being real.
Couple this with the Swine Flu mania and I am not a happy camper. I think planes are cesspools of germs in the best of times. But, when there is a genuine flu epidemic sweeping the world, I for sure don’t want to be spooning with a stranger, fat or not on the airplane. Seats on the plane are designed to be individual seats, not love seats. Wanting your own seat on a plane is not being selfish for comfort reasons, it is being prudent against the spread of disease.
The final reason this airplane policy of requiring obese people to purchase an additional seat does not offend me is because it is illustrative of a much bigger issue at play. This isn’t about passengers’ rights to fly. It is about how jaded we have become as a society as to what is acceptable when it comes to weight. The bottom line is this. It is not ok for your health to be so fat that you can’t fit on an airplane properly. This is not being discriminatory, it’s saving your life. By feeling the punch in your wallet, you are hopefully feeling the punch in your gut to get healthy. Forget about flying and double seat belt extensions. Living is of much greater import than the cost of any airplane seats.
Tags: obesity and air travel, overweight passengers, pay by the pound airfare