Smith Takes Center Stage to Raise Awareness on Airline Discrimination

He may be known for the creation of a foul-mouthed, Jesus-loving drug dealer and his silent partner-in-crime, but director Kevin Smith has recently donned another hat: that of fat activist.

Earlier this week, Smith made headlines when he took his private beef with Southwest Airlines to the public sphere. In his grassroots attack through Twitter, Smith informed his fans that he had been ejected from a flight because he was deemed “too fat” to fly safely in one seat.

Except that Smith had originally purchased two seats, but volunteered to take a seat on an earlier flight when one became available. This means that although Smith received clearance to board from the ticketing agent and the flight attendants inside of the plane, the pilot drew a completely separate conclusion about just how unsafe Smith’s size ultimately was. As a result, Smith was ejected from the plane, despite being able to lower both armrests.

Unfortunately for weary travelers, Smith’s experience is hardly atypical. Since the introduction of Southwest’s “Persons of Size” policy a few years ago, more than a dozen individuals have been prevented from boarding an aircraft, asked to buy a second ticket immediately before take-off, or ejected from a flight altogether. In one particularly brutal case, an Arizona man flying to California to meet with doctors about a liver transplant was not allowed to board his flight after Southwest demanded he buy a second ticket, though he explained he couldn’t afford one.

While Southwest eventually apologized to Brown, it’s clear their lip service is piecemeal because the discrimination continues. Their own apology to Smith demonstrated that the airline itself doesn’t have any regret for the countless individuals who have experienced the humiliation of having their size weeded out and used to justify an additional, and in some cases, prohibitive, cost. Calling attention to a customer’s inability to lower the armrest infringing on the space of another and preventing a timely escape in the event of an emergency, Southwest stresses the importance of a non-cramped, non-restricted seating arrangement.

Ignoring for a moment that everyone has been stranded on a flight with the kid who insists on kicking the back of their seat, to make the assertion that the “Greyhound of the Skies” is concerned with personal space is laughable. The real message is strictly that the only passengers who matter are the paying ones that are, gee, not persons of size. It’s their comfort, their personal space, their room that should determine who is impacted by the policy, rather than an actual medical standard. And, adding insult to injury, Southwest takes a page from the George W. Bush administration’s playbook: when all else fails, spin your discrimination as a justification for safety.

PLAYING IT SAFE

There is no presented evidence that a larger individual occupying one seat versus two will have a greater ability to interfere with or completely impede the process of emergency evacuation inside of the plane. In some situations, the argument could be made requiring a person of size to occupy two seats may cause a greater disturbance in the orderly fashion Southwest looks to create during such crisis. It suggests that safety isn’t the priority or even the rubric that determines such policies, but profiting of the not-so-friendly skies’ “undesirables.”

Which is all too evident in the feedback left by many on outlets such as Southwest’s blog and Smith’s own Twitter account. A simply Google search of the subject will bring up more than a handful of comments, blaming persons of size for their experiences on flights while dismissing the discrimination entirely. All of which suggests that, if a person can’t be aesthetically appealing by the ridiculous cartoon that is healthy in this country, don’t bother to bring yourself on to a form of public transportation where others will have to bear witness to your gluttony.

It leads to the question of precisely what, if anything, can be done to address the issue. On a very minimal level, it would be great if airlines would stop being gears in the turning wheels of fat-shaming, and recognize that all of their customers pay for their flights and deserve to be comfortable. Instead of getting hung up on the discomfort a small person might feel by having to raise the armrest separating them from their traveling neighbor, airline attendants need to imagine the discomfort that comes from having one’s size drawn to the center of attention. Given a choice between raising an armrest or raising visibility, it’s probably a safe bet most passengers, regardless of size, would most certainly prefer the former.

Beyond that, only Michigan has an established law preventing discrimination based on size. While Michigan does have one of the highest concentrations of individuals who are overweight and obese, it isn’t enough to be lacking a national policy when the number of Americans who fit into either of these categories constitutes an epidemic. Furthermore, in a country that prevents discrimination based on religion, ethnicity and skin color, it isn’t exactly an extreme leap of logic to likewise prohibit discriminating based on a medical condition.

Most certainly, Southwest made a poor decision in subjecting Smith to their discriminatory policy. As they glibly observed on their own blog, the man famous for playing “Silent Bob” did anything but remain mum on the issue. Smith himself decided against suing Southwest, deciding a media campaign to raise awareness on the policy was more necessary. We can only hope that lawmakers take notice that the time for change is now.