July, 2010 – A slender woman, and frequent flyer, gets “booted” from her seat on Southwest airlines. Why? An obese 14 year old Vegas bound passenger needed said seat. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not here to spread hate to the overweight. I get it. You’ve got an obese mom, or, dad, or best friend – whatever. This isn’t about you; What bothers me the most is the lack of justice surrounding the decision made by Southwest in this case. First of all, aforementioned 14 year old passenger arrived late for the flight. Secondly – and more importantly – it is a well known fact that obese passengers are required to purchase two seats. He only paid for one.

Now let’s switch to another recent story in the news. Urban Outfitters recently came out with this gem:

Naturally, every anti-rexia protester across the planet began complaining that it promoted eating disorders, and the shirts were shucked from the shelves. Or from the website, at least. “Young women are already impressionable thanks to anorexic models in magazines” Bla bla bla.

Okay. That’s fine. But you know who else is “young and impressionable”? Young latch key kids like “Fat Little Johnny” who are sitting at home after school, playing world of warcraft, or some Microsoft manufactured gaming console, while consuming everything from butter basted popcorn to Papa John’s (because, under the tutelage of their new president, schools are losing funding; so instead of having the option of some worthwhile after-school activity, they resort to video games and recreational eating).

Now, you can indeed blame the parents for keeping around crappy food. They could have bought him a wii instead of a sedentary video game. But you can’t blame them for “not always being there”. The economy sucks, so they have to work late to support their family, lest they lose their jobs. And god forbid little Johnny play outside to get his exercise, lest he get molested. Or kidnapped. Or sodomized…by the bad man down the street. You get my point. To quote a G.E.D. bearing self proclaimed simultaneous intellect and gangster I once heard in a bar, “It is what it is”.

But I digress. While the “eat less” v-neck got vetoed, I think it’s protesters are forgetting a very important fact: Eating disorders” exist in the other direction as well – on an exponential and epidemic level. But that doesn’t keep shirts like this

or this

from being made, sold, and worn in XXL by the corpulent coalition that modern America is becoming.

Which brings me back to fat little Johnny, Maybe, for him, it’s even worse – it’s summertime. School is out, so instead of seven hours spent in classrooms learning and not snacking, he’s just been sitting at home, eating for entertainment all day, while the only two parts of his body getting any exercise are his thumbs, as they desperately toggle pixelated villains on the plasma screen that sits before him. Then, mom and dad get home, and make him consume yet another “healthy” meal which will ultimately result in double or triple his recommended caloric intake for the day. And tomorrow, young Johnny will excitedly prepare for his Vegas vacation. But, instead, as he boards Southwest Airlines, the whole world will make an example out of him because he was the “fat kid who got the thin woman kicked off the plane”.

It may not be too late for Not-so-little-Johnny. Perhaps this news story will serve as a “wake up call” for his new diet and exercise program pre-freshman or sophomore year of high school. However, as for the rest of you “should-know-better-obese” types, if you can’t exercise and also can’t afford the extra ticket, my advice is that you spend a little less on the big macs, twinkies, or whatever your preference may be. Hey, maybe in the end, you’ll need only one seat, and have all that extra cash to spend on some *real* fun once you get to Vegas!

As for the food fashion, my personal opinion coincides with the old adage of “all things in moderation”; but people are free to do as they please and express it as they see fit (pardon the pun). So, until they disallow advertisement of one eating disorder (ie – the plethora of “eat more” shirts I saw on my google-image search quest), they shouldn’t be nixing the “nibble less” messages either.

Hugs and Kisses (but not too many if they’re the Hershey kind šŸ˜‰ ),
<3~A