I don't think we ever owe corporations protections of their profits. They have most of the laws in their favours--vide the US Supreme Court decision to consider them person, who can thus donate unlimited unreported amounts to political campaigns--and they have untold abilities to protect themselves. We, on the other hand, are far less protected.

I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that when airlines are making seats smaller and smaller, and people are getting fatter and fatter, there's something wrong.

And when that's compounded by policies that say they can decide when someone is too fat and needs two seats, and they can do so without warning, on the spot, with no recourse on the part of the traveler, then it's simply extortion. That's *quite* a different thing than Shazzy deciding on her own to be more comfortable.

And what about the professional implications? Does that make it ok for companies not to hire fat people, since it's more expensive for us to travel? This is NOT a small issue.

Egg, my apologies, but as any teacher, or meeting convenor, who has paid attention will tell you, women speak for less frequently than men. And the larger or more public the group, the less we speak. In a lecture course that I teach with about 80 students, we can go weeks without hearing a female voice, unless I make a point of asking to hear from women students.

As someone who did not adore breastfeeding, even though I sometimes have mutual ANR fantasies, let me remind you of the downsides.

A. you suddenly find yourself in public with a wet t-shirt.
B. you ache if you aren't emptied regularly.
C. I thought pumping hurt like a ... well, you know.

Just some realities to check in on before flying with the fantasy!

Hmmmm. Was just talking tonight about my childhood crush on Raymond Burr.
And William Conrad as Nero Wolfe (not as Cannon).
Sidney Greenstreet, to go back even further.
Orson Welles. *swoon*

I feel certain I'm missing some important old names. But they'll come to me. Perhaps in my dreams... *looks off into the distance, wistfully...*

Ugh. I'm with Weesha--I hate those names. They make me feel like an item in the supermarket. Think of something about *you*, not something you share with everyone else here!

I wrote a complaint. The email is <james@ruraldating.co.uk>. Here's what I said--please feel free to take whatever seems useful and use it:

Hi,

I'm writing to let you know why I *won't* be using your site, in spite of it's appeal. Perhaps you'll change your policies, and I can consider joining up. I know these same issues affect other fat-aware potential users.

1. Please don't steal photos from other sites. We all know you've done it, and it JUST discredits you in the community.

2. Don't use the word 'overweight'. I'm not 'over' anything, except some fantasy produced by life insurance companies and swallowed by the medical profession and the general public. I am fat, plump, zaftig, juicy, cuddly, Rubenesque, chubby, abundant, and many other things, but I am NOT overweight. I am exactly the weight I am, and the only thing it's over is someone else's opinion of who I should be.

Thanks! I hope you decide to become a thoughtful site that doesn't steal photos and uses respectful language about fat people. I'd love to come use your site then.

My doc told me that fatty foods surpress the valve function, if I remember correctly. So you might try avoiding high fat foods and see if it helps.

The basic non-pharm advice is:

1. Reduce intake of fatty foods.
2. Prop up your bed a bit, probably from under the mattress.
3. Don't eat after supper.

I feel like I'm forgetting one... Ah, well. Hope something helps.

That's a great point, dude. I think people are really voting against their own interests. What they think is something like this: 'Well, sure, I've got a bit of a spare tire, but those huge people are disgusting. That obviously has nothing to do with me.' Well, let them wait another five years, and as they expand and the seats shrink, it won't be so easy!

1. I would like a job for everyone else in my fam. That would be huge. Might lead to enough money to get regular massages to ease up the fibro symptoms, stuff like that.

2. I would like governments to start prioritising people over banks and wealth. I am disgusted with pretty much everywhere, and I could do with a bit of good deed doing somewhere. Choosing to support people without work, or sick, or in need of education.

3. I would love to find a lover who's a genuine, unafraid, FA, who isn't married, who could spend some time with me, and who might even be inclined to feed me. I know this is even less likely than the previous wish, but well...

Well, chubbyhoney, part of the issue, they say, is that skinnies don't like the spillage coming into contact with them. See below, though--I'm not convinced.

Here's the seat issue, as I see it, in a few nutshells.

1. Seats are not a fixed size. As we all know the vary from airline to airline, and for those of us who have been flying for decades, they've gotten smaller and smaller and smaller, while people have simultaneously been getting bigger.

2. Airlines didn't always use the same business model as they do now. When I was younger, people didn't fly *nearly* as often as we do now. Seats were bigger, and more expensive, and none of this was an issue. Also, if I remember correctly, most European airlines were nationalised, or at least semi-nationalised. Not subsidised, I don't think, although I honestly don't know. Nonetheless, there were no discount airlines, and flying was mostly done by business people and the wealthy.

3. Finally, I think we have to wonder what's being sold when a person buys a ticket. We generally, until very, very recently, have assumed that what we were buying is one person's travel, not 25 inches of seat space. Why should fat people pay more for travel? We are still each one person, and not less of one because there's more of us. Very buff passengers, who weigh more, are not being asked to pay more, yet they accrue the same fuel costs, so it can't be that. I've sat next to people who didn't mind my hips touching them, and others who were so skinny that we didn't even touch, so it can't be that either.

Once you really look at it, it's the intersection of, on the one hand, fat hatred run amok among the public, and on the other hand the grotesque profiteering of airlines. If they had kept their original business models, they wouldn't be in this predicament. And we'd be using a lot less fuel, contributing less to global warning, etc.