Plus-size model confronts man who body shamed her on flight, video goes viral

Plus-size model Natalie Hage confronted a passenger who was texting rude messages about her to a friend while sitting next to her.

Updated on: Jul 4, 2017, 15:55:19 IST

Hindustan Times | By HT Correspondent

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Last week while travelling to Los Angeles for a photoshoot, plus-size model Natalie Hage, from Texas, ended up sitting to an extremely rude seatmate. Hage noticed that he was sending his friend hate filled messages about her body.

In a portion of the message the friend of the passenger said, “Hopefully she didn’t have any Mexican food.” The man replies by saying, “I think she ate a Mexican.” (Instagram)

Hage took a photo of what they were writing and put it up on Instagram. In a portion of the message the friend says, “Hopefully she didn’t have any Mexican food.” The man replies by saying, “I think she ate a Mexican.”

i'm shaking right now. i'm on a flight to LA right now on @americanair. i paid almost $70 extra for this seat i'm in because i know i need a little extra leg room. i'm extremely flight anxious but there were only middle seats available so i had to take what i could get. as soon as i sat down, the gentleman on my left began LOUDLY huffing, sighing, and readjusting himself in his seat. i see him furiously texting and then purposefully turning the phone away from me. so, naturally next time he texts, i take a look. the texts were about me and i'm almost positive he took photos of me. not only were the texts about me, but they were really mean and ugly, with even the recipient named 'linda' chiming back with shaming retorts...someone who can't even see the situation. if you can't read the texts, it says 'hopefully she didn't have any mexican food' and his response is 'i think she ate a mexican'. then he proceeds to say he's leaving a 'neck mark on the window' because he's so smashed against the wall. from the photos, you can see i'm not in his space. he's even taken over both arm rests on purpose, coming to my space and digging his elbows into my side...which is in my seat. his next text to her was 'if the news reports a DFW airbus a321 leaving the runway without rotating, that would be my flight.' another i see later? 'if these seats don't hold, it's not going to matter.' and that's just a few of them. there were several more. i didn't do anything to him. i'm in my seat, completely (see photos). i am crumpled into a ball trying to not bother. i'm just so upset. i asked the other man to my right if he'd switch me and told him what the man was saying about me and he said laughed and refused. that's fine, it's not his issue. this is a fat person's daily reality and not just on a plane. this is on a bus, standing in line at the grocery store, at a concert, on the internet. you can be completely in your own space, not bothering anyone, and people will still fuck with you and try to hurt you. all you can do is know you haven't done anything wrong just by existing and to move on. this just makes me a mixture of enraged and super sad.

A post shared by natalie. (@nataliemeansnice) on Jun 29, 2017 at 9:55am PDT

He proceeded to make more remarks, which Hage wrote about in her post.

When the plane landed in California, Hage spoke to the man about what he had said and took a video of their discussion.

The post has garnered over one million views and has been shared over 3,000 times on Facebook in a matter of days. Those commenting complimented Hage for confronting the man.

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