Kevin Smith and Southwest

It’s obvious that many of my friends have very strong feelings about this whole debacle. Because of that, I tend to want to stay out of it all together, even though I feel pretty strongly about the whole situation as well. However, I feel like just putting this out there would be a relief for me, so I’m gonna do it. This blog is also an effort to get me to come out of my shell a bit more, so here goes.

There’s way too many places out there to get info on what happened. For the airline’s side, see their blog, “Nuts about Southwest” or most any of the news reports. For Kevin’s side, see his SModcasts (106 and 107) and several of his video SModscasts available as well. You can also check out his twittering at @ThatKevinSmith.

I generally like Kevin Smith. I like most of his movies, but usually for over-arching themes, interesting characters, and insightful ideas, which I do think speak volumes of his generation. I enjoy them despite some of their more offensive bits (I’m sorry, I can’t stand Jay). The criticism he has received for being profane while discussing this incident on Twitter seems just silly to me, since he uses profanity all the time – from when he’s really pissed off to when he’s professing love for his wife. Profanity follows passion when it comes to Kevin Smith, so it just seems like a moot argument to me.

Here’s what I don’t like about how he was treated. Southwest does have a clear policy regarding their customers “of size” – and it is defined by being able to lower the armrests, or the pilot’s discretion. Kevin was able to lower his armrests, both women seated next to him had no complaints and the pilot said nothing about removing him specifically.

So there was no reason for him to be removed, according to their own policy.

On top of that, he was removed in a humiliating manner. This coupled with the story of Natali (on his second Southwest flight – see SModcast 107), frustrates me. The whole situation seems to say that Southwest may arbitrarily decide you are too fat to fly with them, and then may proceed to remove you from a flight in a humiliating manner.

Can’t they make sure this is covered when purchasing a ticket? Or even picking up the ticket at the gate? Why are these people making it all the way into their seats and then being pulled of the plane in full view of 50 to over a hundred people who are pretty damn sure why?

Now, this is an private company and I fully support their right to behave however they wish. I do not presume to tell them they must accommodate overweight passengers, or that they even need to treat them with respect and dignity. However, I personally think their behavior is appalling and will certainly not be flying with them. That, thankfully, is my right.

Many people have attempted to brush off the situation with a “What do you expect from the Wal-Mart of the skies?”. In any company I deal with (including Wal-Mart) I expect to be treated like a human being, with the basic respect that deserves (by default – respect can justifiably be lost).

Having been both underweight and borderline obese in my life (according to the criminally misused BMI), I have seen the difference in basic treatment, and I find it appalling. I fully admit to being in that group at one point, but have since come to see that behavior as ignorant, mean, and completely lacking compassion. People who disguise their hatred of fat people with concern for their health are, on the whole, full of shit. When you point out that you are quite healthy by all medical indications, it does nothing to change their perception. Spending over two years attempting to get my thyroid problem properly treated by various doctors, I can say first hand that if you are fat, many are not at all concerned with your health. My HEALTH was often dismissed and only losing weight was a suitable goal – which is an extra knife to the heart for someone with a thyroid condition. Now that I am on the road to a fully correct treatment plan, the weight is starting to come off on it’s own – gee, what a surprise!!

There is a plethora of information out there debunking that weight is fully in every person’s control – that it is always (or even often) just a matter of “eat less and exercise more”. I highly recommend Junkfood Science for a good start.

I also highly recommend Kate Harding’s article on the Kevin Smith fiasco. It does a good job of summarizing many of my frustrations with the fallout.