Especially when labeled like that, signed, Fat Fuck
/minor hijack/ I once walked into the men’s clothing department and, after looking around the pants section for a while, walked up ro a clerk and asked where they keep the “Fat-Ass” pants. I had no qualms about acknowledging that my body was decidedly pear-shaped.
In the .mil unit I was in, our maintenance test pilot, been around forever at the time started publicly calling one of the Crew Chiefs “Tubby”, one-piece flight suits are decidedly not necessarily flattering to the figure, put it that way. He was starting to trend in a pronounced pear or spherical shape.
We all laughed our ass off, because the guy started getting a little butt-hurt about the whole affair. In those days overweight or obesity was not looked upon favorably for careerists. The test pilot was very well liked and respected by everyone, a former DI, and accustomed to doling out those sorts of insults, and was really nothing more than an occasional gentle chiding, as far as that goes. Peer pressure is a powerful thing.
As you can see, I have no qualms about it either, even if I don’t like the particular label that @Common_Tater used. I, too, have labels for other people, and I try to avoid using them in forum space. I find restraint is a good thing in all but the BBQ Pit.
The funny thing for me was that I didn’t really look particularly obese; some people were surprised when they found out how much I weighed. The problem was that most of my weight seemed to be in my butt and thighs (I used to joke that “everything below my waist was oversized”). I had to buy pants with a higher waist size than I actually had just to be able to fit into them. The other issue I had was that larger waist sizes were difficult to find with shorter inseams. Eventually, I discovered the Big & Tall Men’s stores sold “full-cut” pants that accommodated my body shape better than standard pants.
Well, it’s powerful in inducing other people to join in on mocking and insulting fat people, at least. It doesn’t have much power for purposes that would be actually useful, such as causing the targets of the mockery and insults to lose weight.
Yeah pretty straightforward textbook bullying behavior.
I came across a similar discussion elsewhere on the internet.
Should tall people be upgraded free of charge to extended seating?
Probably easier to lose weight than it is to shorten oneself.
Well, I’m tall, too.
That’s not totally clear. Many people shrink with age. And while leg reduction surgery isn’t a common procedure, if there was demand for it, i bet it would be less risky than bariatric surgery. And have a higher success rate. (That is, it would reduce height more reliable than bariatric surgery reduces weight.)
Or ya know, you could eat less. No surgery involved. Taking a chunk of bone out of both legs is serious shit. I know, I had a hip replaced.
You miss the clear point.
Dieting, the “just eat less” approach, has a poor success rate for long term fat loss. Which is not to say that making nutritional and activity lifestyle changes are not important and worthwhile, they are, but the expectation that such will result in an obese individual becoming normal weight in a sustained manner is unrealistic and improbable. Healthier yes.
Yes, I understand. And it can be very difficult. Perhaps Puzzlegal was being sarcastic. In extreme cases of legs being too long for the body and causing problems, sure shorten them. But if you’re proportional, no way.
I’m 6’2-3" Size 13 feet. Airlplanes are not a happy place for me. Extended seating helps though.
I wasn’t being sarcastic. The reason no one has leg reduction surgery is because there isn’t a demand to be shorter. If there were enormous social benefits to reduced height, I’m sure that surgery would be commonplace.
There are enormous social benefits to being less fat. The odds of going from “so obese you need two seats” to “normal weight” by “just eating less” is pretty close to zero, as best as i can tell. People with a normal appetite and metabolism just don’t get that fat.
(There are also health issues with being obese, but honestly, i think social issues tend to be more motivating than “health issues down the road”, and the health benefits of major dieting are contested. There’s no question that it’s healthier to never get very fat. But some of the methods of dropping weight have significant health risks, too. Including the likelihood that the weight won’t stay off.)
The new drugs may make it more obtainable, though. They seem to help people with inappropriate appetites.
And i don’t know why Discourse thinks that’s a reply to DSeid. Sometimes it gets confused.
I honestly don’t know why you brought this up then. There is a demand for more room on airplanes. I have ran into situations where extended seating is not available. At all, they don’t have it. I’ll gladly pay for it. It’s to the point that my wife and I will sometimes fly first class if offered (my Wife is petite). It’s obscenely expensive though.
But this is turning into a hi-jack by me. I do see the similarity between needing bigger/two seats, and needing more room because you are tall. If obese passengers get two seats, I sure as shit should get extra leg room.
I only brought it up because i doubt the truth of the statement “it’s easier to stop being obese than to stop being too tall to fit”. But i agree that it’s a hijack from the main point of the thread, which is whether airlines should have an obligation to give passengers enough space they can fit into.
Despite not being tall, i often have trouble fitting fore-to-aft in airline seats. I’ve been mostly flying JetBlue (which gives a little more space at all price points) and often paying for “more space”, in fact. I’m surprised you can’t buy the extended legroom seats, because I’ve had little trouble doing so. I agree that it’s nice when airlines offer a variety of spacing.
I’m also wondering about the logistics of giving an obese passenger two seats. I mean, wouldn’t that be hideously uncomfortable? And would the restraints even work? (Their head would be between seats, not against a head rest.) I guess some airlines do it, so it must kinda work? I’d have thought first class (which has wider seats) would have been the only practical answer. (And my friend who is obese has started flying first class, so she can fit.)
Yeah, I think it’s Frontier or Southwest that does not offer it on certain routes.
Yeah, this is weird too. I think what you have though is a large person would take one seat, and the extra seat is to keep them from… overflowing into the person next to them. Donno.
I did find the ‘secret’ button to allow you to raise the armrest on the aisle seat. I can at least scooch out a bit before standing up. I cannot stand up under the overhead bins. I’m tall but not THAT tall. I’m the guy that helps people get their carry-on luggage down.
I don’t know about Frontier but Southwest doesn’t have assigned seats; you can sit wherever you like.