Sizeism
I'm sure most of you have heard about how Kevin Smith was kicked off a Southwest flight for being "too fat" despite being able to lower the armrests as Southwest's policy states passengers should.
Blatant sizeism right there, and of course there are commenters around the internet saying "OMG LOSE WEIGHT FATTY" as if it's that simple. This is a policy that's been in place in many airlines around the world and many people have had to suffer the embarrassment of being singled out because airlines have tiny seats. It's sizeism to single out obese people and not say "larger" folks like those who are tall or simply broader than others. Airlines should make their seats larger or fix their policies to include other "customers of size."
The fact of the matter is, Southwest nor any other airline has any business kicking off paying customers who were following their rules. While Smith's experience was unfortunate, it's perhaps a good thing that it happened to someone with 1.6 million twitter followers. Maybe some CHANGE will actually happen regarding these policies.
For some reason sizeism is still "ok" because fatties are just people who are lazy, right?? No. Actually not. Yes, obesity is a problem in America and other western nations, but being assholes and shaming obese people isn't going to fix the problem! It'll only perpetuate it by not allowing these people to live normal lives. How are obese people going to exercise if they're constantly worried about assholes judging them? How will they eat? People constantly judge overweight and obese people and it's not easy to just turn away from all of that and not care.
I support the "Health at Any Size" movement. Why? Because they've really got the best idea. It doesn't really matter what one's size is, the important thing is being healthy. People should be taught to eat healthy and exercise without concentrating on weight loss. It's a lifestyle change and that's really what people should be working on, not the latest diet guaranteed to let them keep the weight off for 2 months. Weight loss will come, slowly perhaps, but the individual will be better off in that regard.
Unfortunately it'll probably never happen because the world is populated by a bunch of assholes who think everyone else's health is their business.
Blatant sizeism right there, and of course there are commenters around the internet saying "OMG LOSE WEIGHT FATTY" as if it's that simple. This is a policy that's been in place in many airlines around the world and many people have had to suffer the embarrassment of being singled out because airlines have tiny seats. It's sizeism to single out obese people and not say "larger" folks like those who are tall or simply broader than others. Airlines should make their seats larger or fix their policies to include other "customers of size."
The fact of the matter is, Southwest nor any other airline has any business kicking off paying customers who were following their rules. While Smith's experience was unfortunate, it's perhaps a good thing that it happened to someone with 1.6 million twitter followers. Maybe some CHANGE will actually happen regarding these policies.
For some reason sizeism is still "ok" because fatties are just people who are lazy, right?? No. Actually not. Yes, obesity is a problem in America and other western nations, but being assholes and shaming obese people isn't going to fix the problem! It'll only perpetuate it by not allowing these people to live normal lives. How are obese people going to exercise if they're constantly worried about assholes judging them? How will they eat? People constantly judge overweight and obese people and it's not easy to just turn away from all of that and not care.
I support the "Health at Any Size" movement. Why? Because they've really got the best idea. It doesn't really matter what one's size is, the important thing is being healthy. People should be taught to eat healthy and exercise without concentrating on weight loss. It's a lifestyle change and that's really what people should be working on, not the latest diet guaranteed to let them keep the weight off for 2 months. Weight loss will come, slowly perhaps, but the individual will be better off in that regard.
Unfortunately it'll probably never happen because the world is populated by a bunch of assholes who think everyone else's health is their business.