A few years back I had heard that Southwest Airlines was to begin a new sizist policy that would arbitrarily force fat people to buy a second seat for the “comfort and safety” of the other passengers. I haven’t bought a Southwest ticket since and began a small crusade against the company (which was limited to telling everyone I knew to boycott the company due to they fat-hating policy). Unfortunately, I don’t believe I had any success with my persynal crusade.

With the recent news of Independence Air’s closing down, I was beginning to wonder if I would find myself crawling back to the last airline with affordable ticket prices… Southwest, which Amy at Feminist Reprise gives an excellent first-hand account of how these low prices are subsidized by the dignity of other passengers.

Reading Amy’s account of a recent run-in with the size police at Southwest Airlines made me realize two things: 1) Amy is a great persyn, and 2) I’m not willing to sacrifice someone else’s dignity for a few dollars.

Honestly, I don’t believe the airlines really care about your comfort either. Given Southwest’s policy of overbooking, I’m sure they’re hoping to humiliate some of us sufficiently that we’ll go quietly, which means one less person outraged for being booted through the luck of the draw. But let’s be real, folks. None of us flies because we expect it to be a spa-quality experience of relaxation. We fly to get where we’re going even though we know we’re going to be harassed and squished and made to hurry up and wait. And aside from the physical experience of flying, there are lots of things other passengers do that impinge upon my comfort–for example, the omnipresent screaming infant aurally torturing the entire cabin, or the person next to me who took a preflight bath in perfume or aftershave, or the guy in front of me who can’t possibly survive the flight without reclining his seat all the way, further reducing the size of my coffin and presenting me with the unappetizing view of his dandruffy comb-over for the entire flight. Or how about ubercool black turtleneck urban designer dude who preboards even though he’s perfectly able-bodied, and by the time you get to your row he’s installed himself in the aisle seat, with his laptop open and running on the tray table, his bag in the middle seat, giving Crucial Business Instructions to his secretary on his cell phone? How about the attitude he gives you when you have the audacity to request that he move his crap so you can get to your seat?

I work with infants 40 hours a week. I’m a Teaching Assistant at an Early Head Start program. So I hear a lot of crying. But for some reason, the ever-present crying baby on an airline always seems to bug me. Now, I’m not one to complain about it, nor would I even request to move seats. I’m just saying I agree with Amy - there are a LOT more annoying things happening on a plane than possibly having to touch up against someone else. Which, the last time I checked, it doesn’t really matter what size you are on a plane you are probably going to be pressed up against someone (especially if its “My penis is very large so I need a four foot radius” guy who always seems to seat himself in the middle seat and take up both arm rests). I’m hoping these new Air Buses are what they claim to be (far more spacious and economical) and really do put out of business all the Boeings that have encased us in living coffins for far too many years. Great post, Amy!