Plus-Size Model Confronts Man Who Body-Shamed Her On Plane

When US plus-size model Natalie Hage settled down on a flight to Los Angeles last week, she was entirely minding her own business.

Nevertheless, the passenger next to her "began LOUDLY huffing, sighing, and readjusting himself in his seat".

Natalie - who recalled the nasty incident to her 125K followers on Instagram - then witnessed the man "furiously texting" someone called Linda.

The "mean and ugly" messages, she says, "were all about me".

The photos Natalie posted (above) clearly show the man has enough space, and yet he texts that he's leaving a "neck mark on the window" because he has so little room.

In his texts, he says of Natalie, "I think she ate a Mexican" and jokes that the plane can't take off because of her. "If these seats don't hold, it's not going to matter," he adds.

"I didn't do anything to him," Natalie said. "I'm in my seat, completely (see photos). I am crumpled into a ball trying to not bother.

"This is a fat person's daily reality and not just on a plane," she continued.

"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."

While worrying that her voice would be shaky, Natalie eventually decided to confront the fat-shaming passenger "who did this shitty shit thing to me" at the end of the flight.

And she captured the moment on a video posted to Facebook.

In the footage - which has since gone viral - Natalie politely introduces herself to the man. "I couldn't help notice you were sending really horrible text messages about me to somebody," she says.

"Do you normally make fun of fat people, is that something that you like to do?"

The man, whom Natalie refers to as "Eric", laughs as he apologizes, and says he has been drinking. He later claims she shouldn't be sitting in the emergency aisle, as she wouldn't have been able to help anyone out.

Bizarrely, he then offers to take Natalie to dinner "for the trouble".

"Don't ever treat somebody like that again," Natalie tells him.

Since posting about the random bully, Natalie has been bombarded with support from people all over the world, who recognise her bravery in confronting such "an asshole".

"Nothing more than an immature hateful middle school bully! Unbelievable that a grown ass man could be so small," one person wrote.

"I'm sorry you had to deal with this..," another commented. "It's so upsetting in many ways. We will never be rid of this type of ignorance. You are my new spirit animal ❤ I couldn't have handled this situation with such grace and class."

"I'm so impressed w/ how you handled the situation & stood up for yourself (& for others alike)," a third person added. "It's really sad people like that exist in this world. They're just miserable & mean-spirited individuals!"

Natalie says she immediately felt better for calling the man out on his cruel behaviour.

"I feel good about the interaction because you should have SEEN his 'holy shit' face when I called him out," she wrote.

Good people of the world: 1. Fat-shamers called Eric: zero.

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