Is There A Case For Legitimate Discrimination With Fatties?

[Deskdiary]

I don't think fat people (are we still allowed to describe fat people as fat?) should be discrimination against as a rule, but I endured a very uncomfortable flight a few years ago when I was sat next to an enormously fat woman who was taking up at least a third of my space, and in situations like this I feel fat people do deserve to be discriminated against.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12076041/NYC-ban-weight-discrimination-critics-warn-allow-people-sue-everything.html

[Untitled]

if you always book an empty seat next to yourself then surely you run the risk of preventing someone else from taking the flight at all? seems a much bigger inconvenience

[New Judge]

//i do not think it makes sense to say that fat people have an obligation to make their fellow passengers comfortable//

There seems to be a bit of a theme developing here. Here’s a couple of extracts from your posts discussing the protests at the Coronation:

// peaceful enjoyment is a right you have at home not in places that are shared by the public//

// Nobody has any innate right to go outside in a public place and have a lovley time without being annoyed by anyone else.//

Whilst I accept that the two situations are somewhat different, the philosophy seems very similar: “I must not be prevented from doing what I want to do. Even though I know it may be having an adverse effect on others, I should not be expected to moderate my behaviour to mitigate their discomfort.”

By contrast:

//It is respect and consideration for other peoples personal space. My own comfort, too. It is embarrassing and distressing to think I might be making a stranger uncomfortable for hours with no escape//

[andy-hughes]

In the UK, we are, and always have been, biased against fat people.

There is an inbuilt Pavlovian response in almost all of us, that subconsciously registers a fat person as either stupid, or lacking in self-respect, or both.

For me, the notion of people 'celebrating' obesity is absurd, because it is dangerous to health for anyone to be obese, there is no 'good way' to be massively overweight.

When I see people in the media making a big deal of being 'proud' to be fat, I think it sends out as much a wrong message as it does to demean obese people.

I would suggest that discriminating against fat people in terms of employment, is as fundamentally wrong as discriminating against colour or religion, but there are already protection rules in place regarding discrimination without valid and appropriate reasons.

I am all for tolerance, but the notion that obesity should be effectively encouraged in this way, I believe to be a wrong move.

[douglas9401]

I've paid through the nose for a seat, not to donate a portion of it to someone who won't stop eating.

When it all shakes out that's the bottom line. If you need more than one seat you need to pay for it or find another way of getting where you want to go.

[Old_Geezer]

The solution isn't to support discrimination in such a case, it's to let the airline know that they need to provide sufficient space for all individuals.

[steg]

Instead of punishing the fat.. reward the skinnies for a change.. ;)

Skinny lives matter

[andy-hughes]

OG - If airlines provide enough space for everyone to be comfortable, there would be half the people flying, paying twice the price for it.

[barry1010]

It is accepted on fairground rides that a person must be above or below a certain height/girth for safety reasons. If you don't fit the criteria, you don't ride.
Maybe airlines should adopt the same policy - if you are above a certain height or waist measurement you can't book a standard seat.

It is physically impossible for me to sit on a standard seat with my knees in front of me, I am far too tall. I would have to encroach on space both sides of me and still be in discomfort. I accept that I have to pay for extra leg room if I want to fly.

[naomi24]

I don't think it is discrimination. If people need extra space they should pay for it.

[chanel5]

I was sitting on the last-but-one chair in a row of chairs in hospital waiting room. End chair (beside me) was next to the wall.
A hugely obese man walked over and tried to squeeze his bulk onto the end chair. I couldn't understand why he had not sat on some of the other empty chairs in the row, where he could have occupied a double seat.
He couldn't fit his bulk on a single chair, and his entire left thigh was pressing down on my (skinny) right thigh, and the left side of his torso was crushing my (equally skinny) shoulder and chest against the back of my chair.
I tapped his arm and asked him to move and that was when I realised that he had a learning disability.
After several attempts to try to get him to move, I was finding it difficult to breathe and my leg had gone numb, and the man was becoming agitated because I kept tapping and pushing him and talking in his ear to try to get him to move so that I could get up.
Eventually a passing woman in a white coat saw my plight and called over some nurses who were able to locate the man's carer who persuaded him to move.
Nurses put an oxygen mask on me as I had been hyperventilating, and I had pain in my thigh and groin for four days afterwards.
And I have been left with a very real fear of hugely obese people.

[ToraToraTora]

I agree if you choose to be fat then expect discrimination, but that is what happens already isn't it?

[douglas9401]

Not just their options they need to weigh.

[ToraToraTora]

what i do worry about though is how obesity is defined. Using the current definition most rugby players are clinically obese so we do need do get rid of the ridiculous BMI that they use.