Traveling in economy seats is notoriously uncomfortable, especially when your co-passenger is plus-sized. The lack of space can sometimes become too much to handle, but how should you react in such situations?
A Redditor shared an encounter that might offer some food for thought: "I was taking a long flight (8 hours) last week. I boarded the plane and took my seat, soon an extremely large woman came and took her seat next to me. 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."
However, "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."
The passenger couldn't even put down their armrest when the flight attendant asked them to. On the other hand, their plus-sized neighbor didn't seem to be bothered by all this.
Soon, she even started sweating profusely, so much so that "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."
It got worse when the food tray came and the plus-sized woman (who was on the aisle seat) pushed even further inward to let the cart pass. But once it was gone, she didn't attempt to move back and continued occupying the additional space she had taken up from the Redditor's seat. "At this point, I was incredibly claustrophobic and on the verge of a panic attack."
Finally, the passenger politely asked the lady if she could move a little bit as they were squished too close to each other. However, "she immediately grew defensive and told me I should have booked an extra seat if I wanted more space."
The passenger replied, "I didn't need extra space- I only needed the entirety of the space that I paid for." However, the woman didn't budge. Instead, she called the passenger entitled and told them to suck it up "like the rest of us".
Finally, the passenger asked an air hostess if there were other seats available so that she could move. "The woman immediately started crying and told the air hostess, I had been body shaming her the whole flight."
The passenger was left speechless: "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."
The post received more than 1400 upvotes and 350 comments. Most agreed that the passenger's reaction was completely natural and had nothing to do with body shaming. Even those who identified themselves as oversized agreed with this opinion
One person said: "I went into this post a bit hesitant since I am a larger woman myself, but it seems like she got really defensive for no reason. You tried your best to be polite, and you were being moved out of your own seat. I wouldn't worry about it." The comment received more than 2700 upvotes.
Another commenter pointed out, "The large person is supposed to book the extra seat, at least if you fly American Airlines. I imagine others require something similar."
Some also pointed out that even though the person who posted the story was not at fault, the reaction from the plus sized woman was understandable.
"As someone who has struggled with her weight on and off for years, I know how hard it is to lose weight and how painful it is when something as simple as sitting next to someone on a plane is hard to do just because you're overweight. That's something this woman needs to work out internally but you're not responsible for how she was feeling in that moment."
What do you think? Should the passenger have "sucked it up", or were they right in complaining about it? Leave us a comment below.