JACI STEPHEN: Why are so many flight attendants so FAT, some can’t even buckle up?

Fat. So I said it. Not overweight, not morbidly obese, not with thyroid problems. Fat.

And how fat do you have to be to not fit in an airplane jump seat?

Chelsea Blackmon found out the hard way. As a member of Spirit Airlines’ cabin crew, she has filed a lawsuit against her in Florida, alleging that she was discriminated against after she was unable to fit into a jump seat on her Airbus A319.

After Ms Blackmon – who is black – was removed from the plane, she was reportedly given just over a month to lose weight, although she claims a white colleague was given several months. After Ms. Blackmon failed to fit in the seat a second time, she says Spirit fired her.

If it is indeed true that white companions were given more time to lose weight, then she may well have a case. It goes without saying that racial discrimination is morally wrong.

But beyond the legality of the case, there is a broader issue here. Just that. Should someone too fat to fit in a folding seat be allowed near passengers who rely on the crew to ensure their own well-being at 30,000 feet? Can someone who is clearly struggling with their own health count on them to take care of yours during a crisis?

When will we stop making excuses for being fat? There. I said it again.

I fly a lot, with many different airlines, to many different countries and in recent years I’ve noticed that the female crew members in particular are getting taller – fewer the men, who generally seem to be very proud of their appearance.

Chelsea Blackmon (above) found out the hard way. As a member of Spirit Airlines’ cabin crew, she has filed a lawsuit against her in Florida, alleging that she was discriminated against after she was unable to fit into a jump seat on her Airbus A319.

But many of the women are now struggling even to help you pack your bag into the overhead compartment, sounding like they’re lifting their own body weight while panting throughout the surgery. Eventually they give up and before they may need to be resuscitated by paramedics, they call a male colleague for help.

They even fight when they pass each other in the aisle. I even saw a tall woman with huge fingers struggling with a corkscrew and managed to make it look like she was struggling to escape a mine shaft.

I had to climb through oversized companions just to get to the toilet. I choke on when a body falls on me just to try to fix my tv screen.

It’s bad enough having to deal with fat passengers taking up half your own seat in addition to their own, let alone overweight crew members.

Obviously, people come in all shapes and sizes. I know that it’s not easy to eat right and exercise when life is so busy that you don’t have time for yourself. And of course people have the right to make their own decisions. But I’m not talking about that.

If your choices affect everyone else, we have a problem. Flight attendants are just that – flight attendants. If you’re too fat to bend down an aisle and sweep up a broken glass someone dropped, then don’t “supervise” anyone.

Decades ago, airlines had weight standards for flight attendants that now obviously seem ridiculous, but maybe — just maybe — has the scale tipped too far the other way?

Regardless, I know I’ve been accused of being obese, being unsympathetic and whatnot, but isn’t it about time we addressed this very serious issue and called obesity for what it is? overeating

So, while you’re sitting here smoking over your gallon of Diet Coke (have you ever seen a skinny person drink a diet drink? No, neither have I), answer this question honestly.

If being fat is such a great thing, why is the diet industry such big business? Why do people travel halfway around the world to have cheaper surgery to suck the fat out of themselves? Why do they swallow pills to try to lose weight faster? Why are the jaws wired and gastric balloons inserted to inflate the stomach?

Why did Rebel Wilson and Mindy Kaling decide to lose a ton of weight? Easy. That’s because they know they look and feel a lot better than when photographers had to reach into their pockets to adjust the widescreen lens to their size.

Incredibly, 41.9 percent of American adults are considered obese.

Head to Vegas, a glutton’s paradise, where tourists queuing at 5 a.m. will make the most of the all-you-can-eat breakfast if it kills them — which, given the way they stack their plates, probably will be the case. I look at their poor kids who are already terribly overweight before their age hits double digits. This week, the Centers for Disease Control created a new body mass index (BMI) category for obese children because so many off the charts were fat.

After Ms. Blackmon failed to fit in the seat a second time, she says Spirit fired her.

Many will likely end up with eating disorders and body image issues. It’s not because the media puts pressure on them to be skinny – although they certainly have done so more in the past than they do today – but because they feel powerless.

The dangers of fat—heart disease, stroke, and more—should be publicized as publicly as the health horrors of smoking are now. This isn’t an advertisement or glorification of a “thin” mentality – it’s just common sense.

I’ve never been what you would call skinny, and yes, I’ve been dieting, so I’m really not unsympathetic to what a lot of people have to endure in their struggles. I understand the embarrassment and upset that the Spirit situation has caused Ms Blackmon when it is actually discovered that she was the victim of racial discrimination.

But there’s that word again. Everyone is a victim now and we live in a society where people are increasingly refusing to take responsibility for the situations they find themselves in and when it comes to fat these situations are almost always individual caused. Nobody force feeds you. Nobody starved you and then locked you up at McDonald’s for a week. The pizza fairy didn’t pay you a secret visit in the middle of the night and waved a pepperoni cake.

At a time when we are grappling with energy bills, inflation, job cuts and pesky life-stealing viruses, the solution to coping is not to stuff your face any more than before, which is exactly what many people have been doing during Covid. Research has found that snacking has increased, with a preference for sweets and highly processed foods over fruits, vegetables and fresh foods. Okay, but there’s a chasm between comfort food and the perverse desire to be Heffalump of the Year.

How bad does the country’s health have to get before someone says enough?

Spirit Airlines might have discriminated against Ms. Blackmon, but there was always something she could have done to avoid her situation in the first place. In fact, I’m going to address it in the diet book I’ve decided to write. There are no pages, just a title.

EAT less.