Flying Fat Friendly Skies

[dreiser]

This whole kerfluffle with Kevin Smith and Southwest Airlines has me oddly nervous about flying out with American Airlines for Wondercon. I mean, I'm way skinnier than I have been in previous years flying but it seems like airlines are upping their standards on who gets tossed off a plane for being fat and I'm still not a tiny girl.

200 lbs and 5'7" is a sight better than 390 lbs and 5'7" which is what I topped off at my worst but it's not particularly within what our culture finds an acceptable weight/height class either. Still, I am flying with American Airlines and I've never had an issue with them before. Plus I can always call Suzanna for help since she works for them and is at Lambert as a high up staff member. That's only in STL though.

I honestly don't try to think too much about fatphobia type shit because I'm more focused on homophobic asshattery in our society but both are pretty bad. I particularly love the overall impressions a lot of my European friends have that everyone in the USA is a Fatty McFatterson and it's only because we're lazy and don't try hard enough to lose weight and has nothing to do with class and those who are poorer can only afford to buy processed food that is notably unhealthy. Food that is good for you is so much more expensive it isn't even funny. Bah. But I suppose my weight adds to that line of thought that we're all overweight here.

Comments

[wolfie.livejournal.com]

My fiancee works for American Airlines. She is of more the latter category you described. She has never been forced to purchase a second seat. I wouldn't worry too much.

[dreiser.livejournal.com]

That's good to know. I wasn't terribly worried about it but after reading the article it did strangely strike me that hey, I'm overweight, and maybe this could happen to me too, you know? Although I've always had good experiences flying with American Airlines. Not so much with Southwest though.

[oneiric22.livejournal.com]

Honestly? You should be fine. I, on the other hand, just bought a second ticket. I'm not at the weight I wanted to be at so it's part for my own comfort and part for avoiding the dirty looks I always get when a tall man sits next to me and spreads out while I am over there in my seat trying to take up as little room as I can all squished up in a ball. Luckily, I have squirreled away quite a vacation nest egg for the year. I think I may have paid less for the second ticket than the first. Hilarious. x.x

[sulkygeek.livejournal.com]

1. I have friends who are shorter than you AND weigh more and they don't seem to have problems flying.

2. Seriously? Going from 390 to 200? You don't see that as a big accomplishment? Because it is-- it takes a lot of discipline to do that naturally, rather than like, gastric bypass or something.

3. From the way my friends complain about their weight, you seem more the norm than not.

[dreiser.livejournal.com]

I've never had an issue but reading about his debacle made me consider that it's very possible one day I might, you know? I'm not terribly concerned about it though. Usually my flights are very boring and filled with typical airport antics.

[dreiser.livejournal.com]

I'm not done losing weight. Ideally I want to be at 150 lbs and then I'll be happy so I don't really consider being stuck at around 200 a good place to be. Like I said, I'm not terribly worried about it but it strikes me as a possibility since I'm not exactly a tiny person.

[sulkygeek.livejournal.com]

Well, you just hit a plateau. But you'll get over the plateau, I'm sure of it. You already lost like, half your body weight. You can do it! I just know it.

Maybe you should try to get pregnant. You lose a bunch of weight whilst breastfeeding. I lost about 30 pounds breast-freeding Caroline and that was only within the first two months. And 30 pounds was a lot more than I gained. Haaaa

That was only a semi-serious suggestion. Although I would so love to squeal over babies with you. I know I'm a boring ass with my babies and all, but they're fun to me.

Anyway! I thnk 150 sounds good. I can't remember if you tried kickboxing or not? Or krav maga? One of my sisters went from 140 to 100 lbs (allegedly. I haven't seen her in a couple years) whilst doing krav maga