Woman’s Post About Being Body Shamed On Her Flight By Her Seatmate Goes Viral

Editor’s note: After this post was written, it was discovered in a second post that Katie Kiacz said she actually saw his text messages on his phone. It was not clear from her original post if the man was speaking to someone out loud or not. You can see Katie’s second post for clarification here. 

If you’ve ever been body-shamed, then you know the awful feelings of humiliation & devastation that it can stir up. Why some asshats think it’s acceptable to publicly condemn others based on their size or appearance is beyond me, but one woman refused to endure such crappy treatment in silence. 

Katie Kiacz’s Facebook post  is an open letter entitled, “Dear Man on Flight DL 1723”  and it calls out a fellow passenger who threw some grossly insensitive behavior her way.

With over 90K shares in a single day, it’s clear that social media is screaming “A-frigging-MEN!” in support of calling out those that think this shit is acceptable.

The post, published on her page on January 22, describes the experience she had while flying from Orlando to Detroit. The minute she boarded her flight, Katie overheard her seatmate refer to her as “a 2 ton woman”, and that sitting next to her was “not good”. 

A humiliating introduction to be sure- but it gets worse. Katie quietly addressed the man’s “concerns” by pointing out to him:

“I am not two tons but I did just have a baby.”

I’m already heartbroken for Katie, and HATING this dude. The rude comments were bad enough. Katie doesn’t weigh two tons, obviously, or anything close to it. Even if she did, still blatantly obnoxious, guy. 

But knowing that Katie is freshly post-partum makes it even more heartbreaking.

Anyone who has had a baby knows how self-conscious a woman can feel about her body after delivery, and Rude Dude has just hit her where it hurts the most.

Not like he cares, of course- his only response to this revelation is to sigh, get up, & quietly ask the flight attendant for a seat change (there were no new seats available). So he and Katie are forced to sit next to one another for the duration of the flight.

Can we say A-W-K-W-A-R-D??

We know this guy’s not a decent human being. But even a semi-decent person would attempt to smooth over the damage in order to co-exist for the remainder of the flight, right?

Wrong. As Katie describes, Rude Dude’s response is to do…. nothing.

You did not apologize. You did not even acknowledge my existence throughout the remainder of the flight. 

Is your blood boiling yet? I’m not sure what I would have done if I were in Katie’s shoes, but there would have been tears. Probably some sort of ugly-crying, because this behavior is the kind that threatens to dig deep into your psyche & leave scars behind.

Katie’s response, however, isn’t to let this hurt her self-esteem, because SHE’S not the one with the problem. 

So why am I posting? To call you out. Because I do not exist to please you. Because I will take up as much space as I want.

Rude Dude’s attitude, like that of too many people out there, is the problem. What right did he have to pronounce such a scathing judgement over Katie, or anyone else for that matter? Why in decent society does someone think he can get away with saying such cruel & de-humanizing things?

And it’s obvious from the massive amount of sympathetic comments that many, MANY women can relate to Katie’s experience.

It’s also a point she makes; would this man have been as outspoken about her appearance if she were male? Likely not.

As a woman, I am sick of this shit. Would he have said that had I been a man? Or had my daughter and husband with me? I don’t know. But women deal with these attitudes and behavior more than men, that I do know. And I. Am. Over. It.

While this guy intended to shame Katie for what he felt was her unsuitable appearance, the shame should belong to him alone. She deliberately made her post public to call out this guy’s appalling behavior, and for good reason. 

Katie’s choice to share her experience on social media was a powerful stance in support of shutting down the body-shamers out there who think they can say whatever they want, without repercussion, about another person’s appearance.

Based on the tremendous amount of shares her post has already earned, hopefully word will get back to Rude Dude’s family about his shitty behavior. Like Katie, we’re ALL fed up with having to deal with this kind of utter nonsense.