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stupid entitlement.
Aug. 30th, 2005 12:05 pmOne tiny comment among recent events reminded me of just how much entitlement everyone tolerates on a daily basis.
People (generally men) get heated up when a fat person (generally a woman) sits next to them on an airplane. They get so excited that they feel obliged to write articles about it if they're news columnists, or to fire off online if they're bloggers. Sure, some of the pissed off people are women, and some of the offending fat folk are men, but the overwhelming majority seem to be men complaining about women occupying space.
( Personal experience, cut for length & courtesty )
It's hard for me to not see this as a gendered thing, as indicative that the female body isn't considered all that different from empty space, or that we're supposed to make room for men. Not that it's all men, all the time, but the idea that a certain level of space invasion is acceptable and to be expected - if it's coming from a man to a woman only - is a problem. *
* There's an exception to this, which is those situations when everyone just accepts that they have no personal space - those of y'all outside the US can probably relate to that more.
People (generally men) get heated up when a fat person (generally a woman) sits next to them on an airplane. They get so excited that they feel obliged to write articles about it if they're news columnists, or to fire off online if they're bloggers. Sure, some of the pissed off people are women, and some of the offending fat folk are men, but the overwhelming majority seem to be men complaining about women occupying space.
( Personal experience, cut for length & courtesty )
It's hard for me to not see this as a gendered thing, as indicative that the female body isn't considered all that different from empty space, or that we're supposed to make room for men. Not that it's all men, all the time, but the idea that a certain level of space invasion is acceptable and to be expected - if it's coming from a man to a woman only - is a problem. *
* There's an exception to this, which is those situations when everyone just accepts that they have no personal space - those of y'all outside the US can probably relate to that more.