Woman Who Paid For 2 Seats On A Plane Due To Her Weight Is Asked To 'Squeeze' Into One So A Toddler Could Sit There
All bodies deserve respect.
adrienn / Pexels Airline travel seems to bring out the worst in people. It’s as though being stuck in a small container in the middle of the sky leads people to act on their worst impulses.
Certain passengers tend to make outlandish demands, as though their needs take precedence over everyone else.
A woman who paid for two seats on a plane was asked to ‘squeeze’ into one seat so a toddler could sit there.
A 34-year-old woman wrote to the subreddit r/AITA wondering if she was wrong for standing up for herself on a recent trip after she’d bought herself two seats and was asked to give up one of them for a mom and her toddler.
The woman described herself as obese, saying, “I’m actively working toward losing weight and I’ve made progress but I’m still obese as I’m typing this.”
Despite the fact that no one needs to justify their body to anyone else, morality politics does seem to play a part in how fat people are treated, which might be why the woman qualified her post by explaining that she’s been trying to lose weight.
Photo: Jason Toevs / Pexels
She described her process as a fat person traveling, saying that while booking a cross-country trip, she bought an extra seat “so everyone can be more comfortable,” a statement which highlighted how she thought of others’ comfort, along with her own.
“I know it sucks having to pay for an extra seat but it is what it is,” she said. She referenced Southwest Airlines’ “customer of size” policy, yet noted, “I’ve had some bad experiences with Southwest even before I was obese so I wasn’t doing that.”
In a truly heartbreaking aside, the woman wrote, “It’s mostly my fault I even got fat,” which shows just how insidious diet culture can be. The reality is that all bodies are different. Even the ones that are obese deserve love and care, just as much as anyone else’s body.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with being fat, no matter what society says and no matter what anyone else believes to be true.
On the day of her trip, the woman described how “Everything goes smoothly from checking in to security and boarding, at least at first.”
“This woman comes to my row with a boy who appeared to be about a year old. She told me to squeeze into one seat so her son could sit in the other. She told me, not asked. I told her no and that I paid for this seat for the extra space,” the woman recounted.
“She told the flight attendant I was stealing the seat from her son, then I showed my boarding passes, proving that I, in fact, paid for the extra seat,” she said.
The flight attendant seemed to initially side with the mom and her toddler, and asked the woman to “try to squeeze in,” yet the woman stood up for herself, saying that she wanted the seats she paid for.
The mom made the claim that her son was 18 months old, which meant he could sit in her lap and, as the woman said, “He could do just that.”
“The flight attendant eventually told the mom to put her son in her lap,” she shared. “I got dirty looks and passive-aggressive remarks from her for the entire flight.”
Photo: Rahul Singh / Pexels
The woman wondered if she was wrong for keeping the extra seat she’d paid for, yet commenters on the thread reassured her that she was acting well within her rights to do so. As one person noted, it was the mom who was in the wrong, for “not buying a seat for her son and assuming someone else would give up a seat they paid for.”
One person shared their perspective that the woman was only wrong for how she talked about herself, urging her not to apologize for how much she weighs. “You should always do what you can to be as healthy as you can, but being fat isn't a character flaw or a moral failing,” they said. “We all have our own challenges in life, and you deserve to not be ashamed of your body and yourself even if you aren't currently meeting your goals.”
“If mom wants an extra seat for her kids, she should have purchased one. She's not entitled to a seat you purchased, and you don't need to feel bad for her bad behavior,” they concluded.
We all deserve to be treated with respect, no matter how we present in the world or what our bodies look like. It seems like the mom assumed she could treat the woman poorly because she was obese, yet this woman knew her worth and wasn’t going to be made to feel like she didn’t deserve what she rightfully paid for.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers social issues, pop culture analysis and all things to do with the entertainment industry.