Woman asks to move away from 'extremely large' plane passenger, makes her cry.
It's hard to say whether or not this particular passenger was in the wrong in this situation. The story is bizarre. Take a look at this odd Reddit story.
grubbyhousewife writes:
'AITA for offending a plus sized person and possibly body shaming them?'
I was taking a long flight (8 hours) last week. I boarded the plane and took my seat, soon a woman came and took her seat next to me. Now I am all for body positivity (everyone is beautiful) and I do not mean any offense when I say this woman was extremely large.
I’m quite a small person and I was a little nervous about sitting next to her but of course I didn’t want to assume anything negative and hoped for the best. As soon as she sat down I realized this arrangement wasn’t going to work.
The seat clearly couldn’t accommodate her size and she was spilling out on both the aisle side and onto my seat. When the flight attendant asked us to put down our arm rests I literally couldn’t do it.
The woman didn’t seem at all bothered by this. Immediately after take off she starts muttering about how warm she was and I quickly noticed she was becoming increasingly sweaty.
Half her body was pressing into me and I could feel the sweat building up on the fabric of her clothes and where our arms were squished together. When the food trolley came around she moved even further into my space to make way and allow it to go down the aisle.
Once it had passed us she didn’t move back. At this point I was incredibly claustrophobic and on the verge of a panic attack. I cannot stress enough how little of my own seat I was occupying.
I tried to be polite when I asked her if there was any way she could give me a little bit more space as I am a little overwhelmed with the flight and how close together we were. She immediately grew defensive and told me I should have booked an extra seat if I wanted more space.
At this point I was totally overwhelmed and starting to hyperventilate and still she wasn’t making any attempt to move. I looked at her and told her I didn’t need extra space- I only needed the entirety of the space that I paid for.
She still didn’t get the hint and called me entitled and told me to take it up with the airline when we land and to suck it up “like the rest of us” until then. I didn’t know what to do, I couldn’t even get out of my seat to stretch because she was in the aisle seat and wouldn’t budge.
Eventually I asked an air hostess if there were any other seats available, the woman immediately started crying and told the air hostess I had been body shaming her the whole flight.
I felt terrible- I didn’t mean to cause offense and I really didn’t feel I had any choice but I definitely could have been more patient. AITA?
The Reddit mob came out to play in response to this post. Let's take a look at some of the most controversial comments.
kmonpark writes:
You’re definitely NTA. I am a plus-size woman and do my best to scoot as far away from the person I’m sitting next to on a plane just so they’re comfortable sitting next to someone like me. Don’t be afraid to speak up earlier if this happens again, you shouldn’t have to be subjected to someone invading the space you paid for.
promah1984 writes this potentially horrifying comment:
YTA: For saying everyone is beautiful. The more we normalize obesity and call it beautiful. The more people are going to die when they are allowed to affirm their poor behavior.
I rather be called an asshole and have people live, then feed into their delusions.
rustypotatoes writes:
NTA, ask the airline for a refund. In hindsight you should have taken photos. If you can't put down the armrest, then she needed to pay for a second seat.