Flying While Fat
Flying While Fat: OMG the anxiety and paranoia it can create in our own brains when we fly. I know all too well, myself.
This is a Guest Blog from my friend and customer, Rachel Morales Warne. Rachel is one wise, wicked, sassy, and sexy woman. She is an amazing Mom, wife, and friend and also a kick ass activist. I love her for sharing this and I know you all will love what she has to say about TAKING UP SPACE. (hint: you’re allowed to!)
Rachel is one of our Curvy Girl Cover Girls and has been traveling for work this past week and she has some insight on Flying While Fat that I know you all will be able to relate to. Thankfully, some airlines are actually taking into consideration that most humans are not comfortable in 17″ wide seats. (Southwest Airlines is particularly sensitive and they have a “Person of Size” policy in case you need to know a fat friendly airline.) Also, there is a Facebook group called “Flying While Fat” and you all need to know about the Rad Fatty Merit Badges from Stacy Bias if you don’t already. I know we are all SIDE EYE SURVIVORS! www.RadFatties.com
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Rachel: “I guess if I’m going to embrace this fat girl activist thing I better woman up.
So here we go.
Fat and traveling, or the art of trying to make yourself smaller.
This week I have been on a whirlwind tour of the East Coast. Chicago, Boston and New York. Planes, Trains and automobiles. There is always a little bit of panic when you are fat and travel. I have never been singled out and pulled out of line, ordered to purchase an extra seat. Clearly I must be some beastly monster who can’t fit in her seat. Or at least take up as much room as the 6 foot gentleman who is taking up his seat as well as half of my very stuffed chair. The small panic of wondering if the slowly reducing in size safety belt. Will I have to ask for an extender. I spent all my time in the assigned pre-board area sizing up other people in line. Clearly that guy is bigger than me.
I was not singled out this trip, not yet. But I have been spending too much time in the space of “will I be singled out”. I didn’t need an extender, barely. Managed to not have my elbows knocked by the beverage cart. But here is what I did notice. I made every attempt to make myself smaller. Shrinking in the seat. Avoiding the arm rests. Trying not to move. I didn’t realize I was doing it until my Train ride from Boston to New York. It was a packed train where I had to share a space. So when the gentleman a good 4 inches shorter sat beside me, I found myself leaning into the window, away from the arm rest, not relaxing. WHY? I actually asked myself why. I then spent the next 45 minutes trying to settle into my seat. MY SEAT. The seat that I filled up very nicely. Didn’t over flow. He didn’t have a problem man-spreading next to me. Taking up both arm rests, talking loudly on his phone. Seriously, WTF.
I wonder when in my life journey that I felt that as a fat chic I needed to be an illusionist as well. Try and go un-noticed, shrink down in your seat so no one notices. Contort yourself uncomfortably. As if I were some big game animal trying to go unnoticed in the wild. They can’t shame me if they don’t see me. This trip has reinforced the notion that I should stand out. Full size, in living color. I’m a big girl. Have always been. I paid for the space that I am occupying, just like everyone else.
Now the reprogramming begins. No one can shame me if I don’t let them. Sure they can say whatever they want, I don’t have to listen. Who I do hear is myself. I need to speak better to myself, because if anyone said the things to me that I say to myself I would be taking them down a notch. The hardest part of the journey is being kind to yourself. One fat step at a time.”.
#fatlikeme #curvygirlsrock #effyourbeautystandards #fatshaming
Stacy Bias: RadFatties.com Merit Badges
You have to go and check out all of the other fun merit badges Stacy has created for all of us rad fatties! She has a Facebook page, too.
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