Seriously Southwest Seriously?

Recently film director and comedian Kevin Smith, age 39, says he was kicked off a Southwest airplane because he was "too fat to fly." While Southwest never used those particular words, according to Kevin Smith he was escorted from the plane for being a “safety concern.” Not ten minutes after he boarded a new plane, he witnessed a fellow passenger pulled aside and advised to purchase a second ticket due to her weight issue. Enraged Kevin Smith immediately sent out several tweets to his over 1.6 million followers.

Southwest has responded posting to their blog and with tweets claiming they have left him messages on his voicemail. According to Kevin Smith via Twitter he has yet received anything. He talks about it on this blogcast.

According to The Journal of the American Medical Association, over 68 percent of Americans are overweight, and 33.8 percent of that group is considered obese. Does Southwest or any airline really want to alienate this demographic considering the economy? Many lament customer service is dead in America, have we really taken it one step further and is it now possible, even encouraged for companies to publically shame their customers? What if this customer had been black? or handicapped?

While discrimination against fat people is nothing new, "fatphobia", "weightism" and "sizeism" are all terms which have been used to describe the pervasive cultural prejudice in American society. Overweight people report they are more likely to be discriminated against in the employment sector, to be denied health insurance coverage and to be constantly judged by those around them: family members, peers, and perfect strangers on the street. When did this behavior become accepted? Even encouraged?

Kevin Smith is in a unique position, with immediate access to almost 2 million people and an apparent lack of shame in publically sharing what many would consider a humiliating experience. However how many people have experienced a similar situation and said nothing, to no one, ever?

You know what...Southwest ...what you're doing...it's not friendlier skies.

Seriously Southwest Seriously?