kevin smith and the giant pr cluster

[keryx]

This is a pretty cool thing Twitter can do: Kevin Smith (yes, that Kevin Smith) can embarrass Southwest Airlines much more publicly than the average person. They apparently kicked him off a plane for being inconveniently fat. Maybe.

There's a longer post on Shapely Prose about both Smith's experience and the longstanding asshattery of a couple of airlines (at least one other airline, United, does the same) when it comes to fat folk. Nevermind the right or wrongness of the occasional two-seat purchase policy: it's the occasional that really sucks. It's an inconsistently and unfairly applied policy.

Look, I don't know why airlines have such a hard time achieving profitability. I don't know what's reasonable to expect so that they can continue to fly and pay people who make that happen. But it does seem like air travel has become more and more uncomfortable over time - not for me, or even for just fat people, but for people as a whole. The discussion around this particular issue always seems to include so much blame for other humans, rather than the compassion and empathy that is arguably our natural state. It's the system. It's a system we're actively participating in when we defend our space, occupy as much of it as possible with our bags, and complain at the noises made by the smiling baby sitting in a lap next to us.

Air travel doesn't always make people assholes. It often makes us kin. A couple of weeks ago when everyone headed south got rebooked onto the same 5 early morning flights, we got an entire group going to figure out how the airline's process was meant to work, and to inform other passengers (yeah, I got picked for recon; that was pretty fun) so no one got stuck in the wrong line.

Both, though, are part of the same thing: it's a lousy system built on crappy processes. No one ought to have to struggle to find the right line. No one ought to wonder whether some policy will be applied to them or not [Er, not to mention that fatness ought not be a thing one can be shamed for, period. It should be a difference we all just accommodate because we're people, and people are good.].

Comments

[box-o-spiders.livejournal.com]

I saw this on the news and was freaking out! I am not pleased that Kevin Smith had to go through such a frustrating experience, but glad that he took advantage of his ability to reach a vast audience with his outrage. His willingness to shine a spotlight on a persistent and rather ignored issue has meant more public discussion and debate as well as shame FINALLY being placed on the airlines and not their passengers.