JACI STEPHEN: Plus-sized plane travelers who spill into my space shouldn’t be given free extra seats

What a fat load of rubbish!

Jaelynn Chaney – latest contender for Victim Of The Week and self-styled ‘plus-size travel, fashion and lifestyle’ creator – is demanding that the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) must do more to ‘protect’ morbidly obese passengers and even offer them free extra seats.

‘Air travel should be comfortable and accessible for everyone,’ she wrote in an online petition.

But what Jaelynn fails to realize is that everything doesn’t revolve around her.

Indeed, where’s my protection from being suffocated next to someone who spills out the confines of their own seat?

Take this ordeal from a couple years back. It’s a scene many readers may find familiar.

There I was, five feet tall and 112lbs, quietly reading a book alone in an empty row, waiting for take-off.

Jaelynn Chaney, pictured with her partner, is a self-styled ‘plus-size travel, fashion and lifestyle’ influencer from Vancouver

‘As plus-size travelers, my partner and I have unfortunately experienced discrimination and discomfort while flying,’ Jaelynn wrote in her petition

Now, I’ve written before about how I always refuse to give up my seat to anyone who asks to swap. And, by that same standard, I would never dare impose on others to change theirs. So, as the end of boarding inched closer, I prayed that the seats next to me would remain empty.

But then, at the eleventh hour, my heart sank. A larger-than-life lady started maneuvering in beside me. (Her equally larger-than-life container of Coke threatening to drown me in the process.)

Practically pressed up against the window, I tried to ignore it.

I suffer from claustrophobia, so travel by plane is already challenging enough. And we had a good four-hour flight ahead of us. I needed to keep calm.

But then she got out her knitting. And as her elbow threatened to take my eye out with every stitch, my breathing got faster.

I felt like I was being devoured. One strand of wool at a time. I could hardly move.

But guess what? According to Jaelynn, to point any of this out amounts to ‘discrimination’.

In fact, she says, the FAA should provide larger passengers with ‘an extra free seat, or even two or three … depending on their size’.

And who’s going to pay for these ‘free’ extra seats? You are, of course. And I am, through higher fare-rates.

Never mind that America has the worst obesity problem in the world. Nor that being overweight poses serious risks to your health and is a terrible drain on national medical resources. So long as Jaelynn is happy, that’s all that matters. Right?

‘Air travel should be comfortable and accessible for everyone,’ Jaelynn wrote in an online petition

Jaelynn claimed she was forced to squeeze into a seat without removable armrests that caused pain and bruising

She said her fiancé was ‘subjected to hateful comments, disapproving looks, and even refusal to sit next to them, amounting to discrimination’ on one of his flights

Now, of course, this is a free country. A free and very fat country. And Jaelynn can demand whatever she likes, no matter how unreasonable.

But let me feel free to serve a sizeable helping of reality in return: being overweight does not qualify you for special treatment. Just as being healthy weight doesn’t. Isn’t that what equality means?

Yes, a small minority of people suffer weight issues that are entirely out of their control due to medical conditions – and they should receive the necessary support they require.

But the hard truth is, the vast majority of obese people in America – of which there are a staggering 70 million – have got there through bad eating habits, a lack of exercise and inadequate self-control.

And if you don’t meet the parameters of a society that is catered to the ‘normal’ majority – are we even allowed to say that word anymore? – then perhaps you’re the one who needs to be more accommodating.

In fact, it would hardly be unreasonable to argue that if someone is so large they infringe into someone else’s paid-for seat then they should be required to buy additional seating.

Otherwise your unassuming neighbor whose flight has just been thrown into discomfort should be the one seeking a refund.

This is all part of a wider cultural shift. Victimhood is now the new royalty. With everyone competing for the crown.

Plus-sized celebrities like model Ashley Graham or singer Lizzo who shriek that their unhealthy bodies must be celebrated are partly to blame. Since when did saying a healthy lifestyle is aspirational become a cancellable offence?

This blatant attempt by so-called ‘influencer’ Jaelynn to change a world that doesn’t run according to her own egotistical standards came just hours before country singer Jessie James Decker took to Instagram to abuse her sizeable sway as a celebrity and lambast United Airlines.

Jessie echoed her brother-in-law’s claims that her pregnant and therefore ‘high risk’ sister, Sydney Rae Bass, had been forced to get on her ‘hands and knees’ during a United flight and clean up the popcorn her bratty children had chucked in the aisle. Imagine that! Having to clean up after yourself and your kids.

Country singer Jessie James Decker (right) with her sister Sydney Rae Bass who she claims was forced to get on her ‘hands and knees’ during a United flight and clean up popcorn her children had thrown on the floor

In a post on Instagram Jessie said her pregnant sister was ‘high risk’

This is out of control.

No one honestly thinks overweight passengers should be given special privileges that extend to extra freebees. And the same goes for not expecting airline attendants to put up with whatever mess a Z-lister’s pregnant sister throws their way.

The problem is, most people are afraid to say so. But I’m leading the backlash.

You can buy your own extra seats – and pick up your popcorn from the floor while you’re at it.

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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk