Back of the Bus

This was inevitable. Lets not get into the headless fatty phenomena. How it's ok to pick out a person because of their size or appearance, take pictures of them while their unaware, and disseminate that picture to maximize humiliation. Their fat, they won't mind / privacy doesn't exist / it's funny / It's for their own good and . . . D00d, they're fat! But no, let's not go there.

Instead, lets get into the Flying While Fat thing. We've already had instances of fat people being denied  travel despite failing health. We've had multiple instances of people being stranded after getting to their destination without trouble and then being denied travel while trying to get home. People trying to comply with the 'two seat rule' have been set up to fail and then denied the right to travel. Many of these situations would commonly be called extortion or fraud. Paying for goods or services and then being told you need to pay more to actually GET them. Actually getting some of the goods or services and then being told to pay more to get the rest. Paying for more than the goods or services are worth and then getting something completely useless. But, since it's Fat People being extorted and defrauded, it's just 'The right thing to do'.

Of course embarrassment, extortion, and added inconvenience, are not enough. The question now is; should fat people be allowed to fly at all? The NYPost seems to indicate that the answer should be 'no'. But then the Post has always been about a half step above such tabloid intellectual exercises as the National Enquirer and the Weekly World News in it's editorial accuracy as well as it ethics. So, you'll excuse me for taking their report with a bucket of salt (Thank goodness my BP is good. Oh, wait! I'm fat! That's just not possible. My bad.). I'll believe their report that an investigation was done by the American Airlines or what the ultimate outcome of this particular incident was when I see it somewhere else, thanks. What can be taken from the Post's questionable coverage? Pretty much what can be taken from the reporting done by almost any other publication covering any other 'Obesity Epipanic' story; Fat people aren't human and need to be humiliated / punished for being fat.

As always with this particular issue it comes down to the obvious assumption that fat people like to be shoehorned into tiny seats for hours. That we enjoy being ostracized and publicly shamed since that's how you successfully lose weight. We're just looking for motivation, that's all. Unfortunately the rest society is also made uncomfortable so, no matter how embarrassed or degraded fatty also feels after having to stuff him/her self into a too small chair, we need the extra hardship of paying more AND possibly not even being able to get where we're going. Oh! And lets not forget how dangerous fatty is. Now, it seems, we're also a safety hazard. Apparently the 200 / 300 / 400 pounds of body weight some people are so brazen as to carry around in public might cause the plane to run out of fuel, or crash, or something. Trapping all the other innocent, unoffending, passengers onboard a burning / sinking / falling plane by clogging up the emergency exits with their fat. Not that the several tons of normal weight passengers, their thousands of pounds of luggage, or the underweight passengers who lack the bulk or strength to even OPEN those emergency exits. No, just the Fat passengers. They're going to crash my plane with their fat! Oh, the horror!! Which, of course, leads to, 'I don't care how they get to where they need to go. Make 'um walk. It's good for 'um! Hur-hur-hur!' If we must fly, then the obvious solution is to treat us as cargo or livestock. We're not human, remember? Besides, It's all our fault, since we should know better than to show up at an airport fat anyway.

This we get from one picture of a man sitting on a seat armrest, either before the plane has taken off, or after it's already landed (Please note the open luggage racks and other passengers standing further down the isle) with a pair of empty seats in the row behind him (His? Naah, Fat people don't buy extra seats before hand, that's why they should be banned), and leaning towards the person in the seat next to him. A person who is leaning towards him as well (Couldn't be talking to someone he knows. Fat people don't know anybody). Nope. He's too fat for the seat + the guy next to him is going to get crushed + He's fat. It's dangerous + I HATE sitting next to fat people but they LOVE sitting next to me = Kick Fatty off the plane.

No Fat Hatred going on here. 

Muzak Therapy:

Devo / Gates of Steel