Should airplanes be retrofitted for increasing rates of obesity? That is what plus-size blogger says and she has launched a petition to the FAA.
This is an uncomfortable story part of a larger social question: Should we re-order society for specific populations? If so, which ones count and which ones do not? Can the world be re-ordered for instance, for both plus-size people and people with dwarfism? And should people without those conditions pay for it?
The petition for plus-size travel demands that airlines standardize and make clear their policy for plus-size travelers. That’s fair enough but it also asks for plus-size travelers to get an extra seat for free, priority boarding and larger bathrooms. The woman behind this petition admits that this will increase costs for non-plus-size travelers.
By this rationale, people with dwarfism should pay less and board last and could be further inconvenienced by larger bathrooms. But could they pay half for their seats?
And then there is the idea that obesity is just something that is here to stay. Some experts predict that over half of the global population will be overweight or obese by 2035. Is that something we’ve universally accepted and are willing to change the world to accommodate? A new best-selling book says that this is something we should accept and accommodate.
Author Virginia Sole-Smith says that we should not think of fat as a “bad thing” because there is no proof that being fat is unhealthy. She says we should absolutely demand a full re-ordering of society and discourage any attempts to eat healthy or exercise as “anti-fat bias.” She encourages people to call themselves fat and says the word should be a “neutral descriptor.”
She says that children should not throw laser tag birthday parties because fat classmates cannot fit in the suits. She says that sports should be changed altogether for fat bodies such as building better rowing boats rather than implementing size requirements for rowers. She says that we should never tell our children what to eat and if they want to eat a package of Oreos for dinner, we should let them because discouraging junk food is oppressive and racist and sexist. I feel like this book is punking me.
