A plus-size Detroit rapper filed a discrimination lawsuit against the ride-share service Lyft after a driver denied entry citing her size.
Attorneys for Dajua Blanding, a body-positive singer also known as Dank Demoss, filed the suit claiming Lyft violated her rights in Michigan where obesity is recognized as a protected characteristic.
Blanding recorded the incident wherein the driver denied service, claiming the car was too small and that her weight would bear too much of a burden on the tires. He recommended she order a larger vehicle.
“I can fit in this car,” she is heard saying in the video.
“Believe me, you can’t,” the driver said, before saying he would cancel and refund the ride.
“I’ve been in cars smaller than that,” Blanding told a local Fox affiliate. “I just want them to know that it hurt my feelings.”
Blanding, who calls herself “PAID PHAT QUEEN” on her Instagram page, posts frequently about her weight.
“It’s like my mind don’t know that I’m this big,” she says in one clip posted earlier this week. “[S]o I’ve been feeling like I can do everything.”
As outlined in my new book on the body positivity movement, Fat and Unhappy, activists frequently promoted by corporate partners often co-opt the victimized language to characterize obesity on the hierarchy of marginalized groups under the lexicon of social justice. Several states and cities have begun to consider laws similar to one passed in New York City in 2023 to declare obesity a legally protected class, opening the door to more lawsuits similar to Blanding’s. According to the Daily Mail, Michigan was the first state to “ban workplace weight discrimination” in 1969.
In December, Jae’lynn Chaney, a “fat liberation activist” whose corporate partners include Walmart and McDonald’s, went viral for demanding airplanes be redesigned to include larger seats because “airlines make their product smaller every year.”
Chaney launched an online petition demanding the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) mandate changes “to protect plus-size travelers” which has gathered nearly 40,000 signatures. In 2021, the FAA required airlines to recalibrate safety guidelines for aircraft weight to adapt for larger passengers and heavier luggage in the 21st century.
The prevalence of global obesity has more than doubled between 1990 and 2022, according to the World Health Organization, with 2.5 billion adults 18 and older considered obese in 2022. Obesity is a major risk factor for nearly every chronic disease and at least 13 different cancers.
Tristan Justice is a national correspondent for The Federalist and the co-author of "Fat and Unhappy: How 'Body Positivity' Is Killing Us (and How to Save Yourself)." He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com. Sign up for Tristan's email newsletter here. Buy "Fat and Unhappy" here.