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Friday, June 6, 2008

“I have had it with these motherfucking [fat people] on this motherfucking plane!”

posted by on June 6 at 8:52 AM

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No playing:

An Indian court has ruled that state-owned airline Air India has the right to prevent its air hostesses from flying for being overweight.

The Delhi high court was responding to a case filed by five air hostesses who had been grounded by the airline for being too fat to fly.

The air hostesses are expected to appeal against the decision.

The reason for the hard judgment has nothing to with aesthetics but with “safety and health” issues.

RSS icon Comments

1

She could eat the plane!

Posted by Gloria | June 6, 2008 8:59 AM
2

i hope the same goes for overweight male pilots...

Posted by tiffany | June 6, 2008 9:21 AM
3

What if one of these stewardesses had a blind spot and ran over a Chinese tourist on the plane? Would we say that it was on purpose? And no, I don't feel like letting it go.

Posted by Charles_Mudede_Is_A_Latent_Racist | June 6, 2008 9:25 AM
4

fat = excess weight = jet fuel.

Posted by max solomon | June 6, 2008 9:27 AM
5

@4: You're very pragmatic. Thanks for breaking it down. That extra poundage on a few ladies really would be enough to send the airline industry into a massive downward spiral.

Posted by unt. | June 6, 2008 9:32 AM
6

I thought flight attendants had to be a certain size to fit through those narrow aisles. At least that's the excuse U.S. companies use.

On the other hand what about the overweight passengers? Should large passengers have to pay additional $$$ for a ticket because they take up extra seat room?

Posted by Y.F. | June 6, 2008 9:41 AM
7

@6 - Aren't some airline companies already doing that? I though I remembered hearing something to that effect.

Posted by Hernandez | June 6, 2008 9:44 AM
8

I used to be a flight attendant and let me tell you, it was the big girls that you WANTED on your plane. Why? Because those lovely ladies of size (hi dan) were the ones that would actually BE ABLE to pick your ass up and throw you out of a burning plane. You think those 5'3", 80lb, straight boy air mattress jerk off fantasies can do that? Some of them can barely open the airplane doors. I know, I've seen it.

This is all about the misogynistic culture of India. It's an almost exact reenactment of drama going down in the airline industries in the 50's & 60's in America. Just go down to the new Flight Attendant Fashion exhibit at the museum of flight and you'll see what I mean. It has not a damn thing to do with safety. It's all about straight men having the hots for the flight attendants. Oh but Richard Gere can't kiss Shilpa Shetty because that's immoral.

Posted by thaumaturgistguy | June 6, 2008 9:48 AM
9

@5: no problem, my pleasure. Here's a little bonus: 20 extra lbs./person x 200 passengers & crew = 2 tons excess weight.

With United now charging for checked bags, we're not far from paying a per pound surcharge for our bloated carcasses. Jet travel's about to go back to the rich exclusively.

Posted by max solomon | June 6, 2008 9:48 AM
10

Domestic turkeys are too fat to fly too and look what happens to them.

Posted by inkweary | June 6, 2008 9:54 AM
11

Heck yeah, #8.

Posted by tabletop_joe | June 6, 2008 10:19 AM
12

You know, if they just built more high-speed passenger rail lines like China and Vietnam and everyone else is doing, this wouldn't be an issue ...

Oh, wait ... I forgot, American audience, you think trains are supposed to take 3 days to cross America instead of 6 hours.

Posted by Will in Seattle | June 6, 2008 10:27 AM
13

Health issues? Is fat contagious?

Posted by keshmeshi | June 6, 2008 10:35 AM
14

here we go again with the fat-hating. way to make big ol' fat me wanna make positive changes in my lifestyle. shit.

Posted by scary tyler moore | June 6, 2008 10:37 AM
15

@14: for an article about punishing excess weight, the comments seem surprisingly free of fat hating.

Posted by max solomon | June 6, 2008 10:50 AM
16

Mothers are being fucked on a plane, Charles? I read the whole article and saw no such thing...

What's with you people needing to say FUCK all the time?

Posted by Hartiepie | June 6, 2008 10:58 AM
17

They could become part-time models. Depending on the street, they are most definitely in the top three good-looking girls on the street.

Posted by kebabs | June 6, 2008 11:01 AM
18

I was a flight attendant for one of the few airlines in the country that actually hired fat girls. It was a regional airline, and I often had the misfortune to be paired with these sumptious stewardesses. It was painful. People leaned towards the window in a wave-like fashion whenever the drink cart came down the aisle. The jumpseat in the back of the plane was in the middle of the aisle, so when the plane was full she'd be forced to sit in the laps of two unfortunate souls. I felt sorry for them, and they almost always quit after a month or so.

Posted by Bryce Beamish | June 6, 2008 11:02 AM
19

U.S. flight attendant applicants, whether they be male or female, get automatically rejected for being over six feet tall. Is that any less disciminatory than a weight range restriction? I think not.

Posted by Smarm | June 6, 2008 11:04 AM
20

@13 Actually fat is contagious in a way. Recent studies show that the more time you hang around with people who over-eat the likelier you are to begin over-eating.

Posted by inkweary | June 6, 2008 11:31 AM
21

Well at a time when they are considering, or even moving towards, charging riders by weight, why wouldn't they need to keep the same standard with their staff.

Posted by monkey | June 6, 2008 11:32 AM
22

On behalf of the Danish Height Advisory Council, we think the rules barring flight attendants and flight stewards who are over 6 feet (180 cm) tall are not only discriminatory, but unjust, since more than 90 percent of our adults under 40 are at least this height.

We will join in protests by standing in front of the lines of departure time screens at terminals and keeping people from seeing what time their plane leaves, until justice is given and our citizenry can resume their rightful place as flight attendants and flight stewards!

How's the weather down there, Americans?

Posted by Danish Height Advisory Council | June 6, 2008 11:34 AM
23

"What's with you people"

Posted by j beezer | June 6, 2008 11:39 AM
24

@8: What you say makes sense, but surely there's some line between a "big girl" and "too obese to be of any use in an emergency", right? I have no information on the specific women in the Air India incident, so I'm not suggesting that was the case there, but in the abstract it seems like there must be a point at which someone is simply too fat to do their job.

Posted by also | June 6, 2008 11:47 AM
25

I have flown many, many times and I can't say that any of the flight attendants have ever been anything close to "sumptuous" or "5'3", 80lb, straight boy air mattress jerk off fantasies". Often, they are men or middle aged ladies with too much makeup.

Posted by prenks | June 6, 2008 12:11 PM
26

@20,

Yeah, I'm sure that would affect someone traveling on a plane for a couple hours.

Posted by keshmeshi | June 6, 2008 12:16 PM
27

Who wants to be a flight attendant, anyway? That job is going to be phased out by instructional video and robotic drink carts.

Posted by tabletop_joe | June 6, 2008 12:34 PM
28

Uh, why is it not simply legal to have "must be pretty" be part of their job description? It's perfectly legal to require good looks for models and movie stars.

Posted by David Wright | June 6, 2008 12:42 PM
29

#8 is probably right.

If you fit in a set with the arms down, and can walk the isles without hitting people on both sides, there really shouldn't be a problem. Being fit isn't always about being thin. The airlines are trying to project an image, but their ideals need some adjustment.

If you can't strap into a chair, or navigate the isle without banging in to customers, then the airline does have valid reason for concern.

Posted by Dougsf | June 6, 2008 1:15 PM
30

@28 - maybe in this country, but not all countries.

Posted by Will in Seattle | June 6, 2008 1:34 PM
31

The plane should have a bumpersticker "NO FAT CHICKS!"

US flight attendants are fat and old and cranky bitches because the executives are raiding the pension plans when the company goes bankrupt. The companies can't afford to hire hot, young, nubile flight attendants.

Flying on domestic airlines are a fucking pain in the ass.

Take a Greyhound Bus. With airline delays they are just as fast as planes, no crabby flight attendants, and reasonably priced.

Posted by robot2501 | June 7, 2008 5:15 AM

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