Plane sense

I travel a lot on business so I have occasion to think about what is happening with airline seats. They're making them smaller, it seems to me. And then people of size are being required to purchase two tickets. In some instances, this may be appropriate, but can't we find a way to do it that is more respectful of differences?

I have heard more than one fellow traveler say that they were confronted as they boarded the plane and told they would be required to purchase two seats. In each case, the traveler felt they had been embarrassed by the very company they were supporting with their ticket purchase. Is this how airlines want to treat their customers?

Maybe rather than confronting people as they show up we can have a way of knowing in advance that someone may need more space and ticketing them appropriately frmo the start? If we don't treat it like it's taboo, maybe we can build it into online reservations systems and so forth. I dont' know, but it seems worth a shot.

I also want everyone to know that if you are required to buy two airline seats because you are plus size, you are entitled to a full refund of the second seat if there is an unoccupied seat anywhere on your flight. So, look around and notice any empty seats as the plane takes off. If there is just one, no matter where, you can contact the airline and receive a full refund of the second seat you purchased.

Also, I wonder if airline personnel could just make seatbelt extenders readily available for customers who need them to take when they board, rather than having to ask for them. Just another thought about how to show respect for things their customers may be sensitive about. After all, we've given up all dignity and privacy in order to fly these days, so maybe our airlines can reach out and be even more respectful than they have in the past, making our flying experience more sensitive to our individual needs.

Big on Style offers lots of clothing and accessories that make travel easier. Most especially, we search for clothing that is lightweight, easy to pack and carry, and easy care. Our tencel and silks don't wrinkle much, are easy to get wrinkles out of when they do occur in transit, and especially the silks won't drive up the weight on your suitcase or hog precious suitcase space. Visit our website to see plus size designer fashions for career and special occasion that are easy on the suitcase, look fabulous, and are easy care.

Good luck out there in the wild blue yonder.
Dr. Beata

Family Guy exudes hate--aren't we past that yet?

Last night's Family Guy was a dispicable display of hatred, discrimination, and false stereotypes about fat people. It left me thinking that we are truly the last group that it is perfectly okay to make fun of, put down, hate, and show in the most negative possible light. How terribly sad and hurtful to everyone, including people of size and our loved ones.

What would be really unusual, Family Guy, would be a model for how we can all love ourselves and each other completely and unconditionally as we are.

What makes it okay for people to spew hate and false stereotypes about us? WHAT MAKES THIS POSSIBLE IS OUR HATRED TOWARD OURSELVES. Our inability to love ourselves because of our body size is reverberated throughout our society.

When we love ourselves as we are, unconditionally, we will not stand for such negative presentations. When we truly love ourselves, WE WILL NOT TOLERATE SUCH DISPLAYS OF HATE. We will incite our loved ones to bombard such exhibitions with public outcry...and stop them post-haste. We will rise up and cause sponsors of such displays to pull out, not interested in losing the business of plus size people nationwide. We could force the advertisors and programmers to present us in a body positive, healthy way.

Let's make it so.
Dr. Beata

Love Your Body Day--Let's Make it Today

This announcement is a direct quote from the Love Your Body Day website--click here to see more--http://loveyourbody.nowfoundation.org/index.html.

"Do you love what you see when you look in the mirror?"

"Hollywood and the fashion, cosmetics and diet industries work hard to make each of us believe that our bodies are unacceptable and need constant improvement. Print ads and television commercials reduce us to body parts — lips, legs, breasts — airbrushed and touched up to meet impossible standards. TV shows tell women and teenage girls that cosmetic surgery is good for self-esteem. Is it any wonder that more than 80% of fourth-grade girls have been on some form of fad diet?"

"Women and girls spend billions of dollars every year on cosmetics, fashion, magazines and diet aids. These industries can't use negative images to sell their products without our assistance.
Together, we can fight back."

"Love Your Body Day 2005 is [was] October 19"

At Big on Style, we work hard to create an environment that invites our customers to "Love your body!" Before we opened our store, we had a fung shui priest come and bless our business. She put a special blessing on our mirrors "Only Beauty Seen Here." In other words, our mirrors only reflect beauty. So, on the many occasions when a woman comes in telling us how much she can't stand her body and how "ugly" she is, we have her look in one of our mirrors. If she can see herself, we all know she is beautiful, no matter what the larger society's mirrors may be telling her.

Our mirrors cannot lie, their mirrors are very distorted.

In plus size fashions, our message is the opposite of most in the fashion industry. Their message is, "Make yourself fit this." And our message is, "If it doesn't fit, it's the clothes that are the problem, not your body. Your body is perfect just the way it is."

So go out and love your body today...and remember, Only Beauty Seen Here.

Dr. Beata

Quote for the Week

"You're never anywhere until the slowest part of you gets there."

Blog in Style at Big on Style's Blog!

Indulge me just for a moment. This is my very first post here on the Big on Style blog. Maybe we should call it **Blog on Style** to mark the occasion.

My question for this first Big on Style blog post is simple, Can we as women love our bodies as they are? And I mean that whether the rest of the world ever comes around to appreciating people for who they are rather than their body size. So, whether the rest of the world comes around, can you love your body just the way it is?

If so, what's your secret? Can you share it with the rest of us?

And if not, what gets in the way? What are the top three stoppers that get in the way of you loving your body just as it is? Name them. Help the rest of us name ours.

Because the fact is (here's the far flung facts part), if you love your body, it won't matter what size or shape it is, everyone else will love it, too. If you dress your body well and treat it like your best friend (after all, it is the vehicle of your spirit...the actual you), you will project that love and caring throughout your life. Others will respond. But most of all, you will know the truth of yourself--that you are perfect, beautiful, and strong just the way you are.

So go on, let us hear it...put in your two cents.

Dr. Beata