Now that I have put this emotionally grueling year full of shitty non-boyfriends and their emotional assholery behind me (yeah, I finally found a good one, of course when I was specifically NOT looking or even wanting one, of course, I find the most amazing guy EVAR, lucky me!), I can go back to kvetching about *other* things I truly despise that suck the life out of me. Like the airlines.
As I type this, I am 30,000 feet in the air (as usual, or so it seems) on a cross-country flight. This one for personal reasons, not work, for a change. (Yay!) As ready as I usually am to get home after an extended period away, I have been dreading the return flight. I knew I wouldn't be lucky enough to get a cross-country first class upgrade, since I got one on the way out, so I knew I'd be back in cattle class. The nickname "cattle class" is not a reflection on those who buy those seats (since I'm obviously one of them), but rather a reflection of how the airline industry treats us to turn a profit.
I have frequently bemoaned the lack of both traveler space and couth on airplanes (remember this gem of a post/rant?), but a quick google turned up a very interesting article here about the airlines' justification and origins of design of the passenger seats currently in use.
The article reveals that current seat widths were based on the average man's hip width measurement.
Wait, what?
Men don't have 'real' hips. Not noticeable ones, anyway. And that's not the widest part of the body (for most of us) - the shoulders are.
So, also as I type this, I am forced to engage in some VERY unintentional shoulder frottage with my seat-neighbor. Who by all appearances does not appear to be much larger than average (but really, should these seats which are meant to accommodate ALL passengers be designed only to accommodate the bare minimum of the average traveler size and leave those who skew larger out in the cold? Or, um, overlapping their neighbors? That's shitty.), but somehow just by sitting normally in his seat has managed to take up enough shoulder space in MY seat that I have felt forced to lean to the right (for once in my life, heh heh heh) and into the aisle.
Having back and neck issues, it is already uncomfortable enough for me to fly. But when I have to minimize myself to fit into the space left over for me, despite probably having paid the same or more for my ticket, I get shitty real quick. I've tried not to huff and puff and roll my eyes or play unnecessary games of elbonics with this dude (and many others on the countless flights I have to take for work), but at the end of the day, it JUST ISN'T FAIR.
And don't get it twisted - this isn't a 'fat rant'. I fucking HATE when people are judgmental and sizeist. This seat sizing isn't fair to many people who are not morbidly obese (and even if they were, so what? There's no human law saying we all need to be the same damn size, so get over yourself already.). Some people are just blessed (cursed?) with a wide shoulder spread. I happen to be one of them, when compared to the average woman. Yes, I've been told I'm 'statuesque' (among other things). Hooray. I've been told by partners that, "one day, I hope to have shoulders like yours.' (And no, that did NOT win him any favor with me. In fact, it got him some severe side-eye and a night on the sofa.) I'm also hard to buy clothes for, and apparently impossible to comfortably fit in a coach airline seat on USAirways flights.
Another issue I believe may be at play here is societal gender roles. I am well aware of the fact that many men feel completely entitled to sit down and spread out as far as they possibly can, since that is what boys are taught from infancy. They are entitled to their space in their world, whereas women are taught to be quiet, meek, polite, and almost invisible (yeah, that didn't stick with me, fortunately my family gave me different - better - messaging: that I am equal to everybody else and just as entitled to exist as they are - and I followed that instead of society's oppressive messaging). I see it over and over again when a guy plops down in a seat near me on an airplane and immediately spreads his knees as far apart as possible, as if he's got some magnets of opposite polarity fighting it out and is absolutely entitled to that space. Then he will proceed to take over the elbow rests, and sit back forcibly enough to blast me out of my seated position with his shoulders and won't even apologize for the intrusion. I am left, as society expects, to wedge myself uncomfortably sideways in my seat lest I be seen as a difficult bitch.
So WTF, airline industry? I've read another article stating that passengers who continue to troll for cheap airline tickets DESERVE to be herded like the cattle they (we) are, and that we should pony up more $ if we want bigger seats. Really? Do we have this problem on public transportation too? Metro cars? Buses? No, just the private for-profit airline industry. It's SHITTY.
I know that ranting on my tiny little blog won't change anything in the industry, but it's like a temper tantrum - I had to kick my feet and slam my virtual fists into something until I tired myself out. We're landing now, so I guess my tantrum is over. But hopefully some readers will at least have more awareness of the space they take up in this world and can be more self-aware of possibly intruding upon someone else's in the future.
