WARNING: Fat-shaming, sizeism

Are You Too Fat to Fly?



This morning I read an article indicating that another passenger had been publicly shamed for being too fat for a single seat on a Southwest flight.



I left a long comment on it (mine’s the one by “Andrea”), but a lot of the vitriol in the comments there got me to thinking about something important that I don’t think people always realize when they leave messages there: according to Southwest’s definition, they might be too fat to fly.



How can you tell? Well, Southwest’s standard for too fat to fly is that you must be narrower than their armrests, which are 17" apart. People threw that number, the 17, around in the comments like it was an important holy grail. Maybe it seems like a big number to them. Maybe it seems like a big number to you?



Well, fortunately, it’s an extremely easy number to check. Are you too fat to fly? There’s a simple way to find out.



You see, the standard (US) size of a sheet of paper is 8 ½" by 11". All you have to do is tape two sheets of paper together – 8 ½ * 2 = 17. (Don’t tape them together the long way – you’ll have 22", which Southwest thinks is far too much.)



Now that you’ve got them together, maybe that still looks like a generous width to you? Well, see what happens when you put those two pieces of paper together on a table or a hard chair, and sit on them. I did.







This is me. It turns out, according to that rubric, I’m too fat to fly. Like many women, I tend to carry my weight in my thighs and hips. That tiny plane seat just doesn’t cut it for me – seated, at my widest point, my hips are wider than 17".



You know what, Southwest? Maybe it’s time to consider that 17" may simply not be enough for anyone. Maybe we’re all too fat to fly.



How about you, tumblr? Are you too fat to fly too?