I agree; I'm a size 18, and extremely conscious of making sure my stuff and my body are not all over somebody else on public transport. I fly moderately often, have compact carry-ons, and always arrange for a window seat so I can snuggle up against the fuselage instead of taking the armrests.

Nobody's comments or shaming can hurt like your own family's. These are the people who are supposed to protect you and help strengthen you, and so tragically often, they cut you down or obsess over controlling your body's size and appearance.

I think we can all agree that bullying and petty judgments about people's physical appearances—or any other aspects of people's lives or choices that do not cause one iota of harm or loss to others—should die in a fire already, and that those who snark on your body say waaay more about themselves and their own…

You have a good point, but I don't think the preferences can be considered trivial and non-discriminatory until dating sites start having "dealbreaker" lists that are prepopulated with equivalent options. Right now, you can find some variant of "I can't stand people who are overweight" or "I won't date fat people"…

People who are worried that thin-shaming is anywhere near as crippling as fat-shaming, please take this short quiz:

Yeah, you should try being a woman sometime.

Same here, amiga.

I, too, live out in the wild woods of the Northwest, and echo what you're saying.

I also worked in aviation, writing flight manuals. Fortunately, I was a contractor, so I was immune from most of the misogynistic bullshit politics, because I didn't have to put up with anything for longer than I could stand it. Here are some of my fave moments at the ol' airplane factory:

He did do things. He fed the fish in Lake Tahoe.

Does anyone read Perez anymore? Like, 2003 called; they'd like their constipated little self-loathing snarkster back.

My state is not among those who pays waitstaff $2.13 an hour and expects them to make up the difference in tips. We have a relatively high state minimum wage (not that it's enough to live on), and waitstaff are not an exception to that minimum wage in WA.

I have to disagree. As a restaurant customer, I can't really tell if the waitress is having a bad day, has slept poorly, if this is just a one-off, or what the issues might be. And I shouldn't have to. I do not want to speculate about the state of mind of the waitstaff, to be honest. It's not my problem, and good…

Or this. Anytime.

Google images of "mid air refueling" and you'll see how they makin' aviation bacon.

"Yeah, really, I don't know what you're complaining about. That pink-clad female character could get laid ANY TIME SHE WANTED TO. What more do you women want, really?"

Heck, when I saw the headline, the first things I thought were, "how about some automobile airbags, oh, and some effective OBSTETRIC AND PRENATAL CARE, there's a good lad."

Representin'. Handsome and grim, but not quite as nasty as O'Brien. For one thing, haven't yet engineered a serious injury that led to my boss' miscarriage, or pushed my gay frenemies to the brink of prison and oblivion by encouraging them to mack on straight colleagues.

I can't recall how it was marketed (whether it was sold as a "girl" or a "neutral" movie), but I wonder why Hollywood in general, Disney especially, can't produce kids/family movies with the same female strength and quality of "The Journey of Natty Gann." They'd rather flop and go into the red on expensive garbage…

Point. Missed.