How would you handle an airplane seatmate who side sits (or Z-sits) with her barefoot pressed against you? This is not a purely hypothetical question.
When Your Airplane Seatmate Side Sits With Her Barefoot Just Inches From You…
Sports photographer Bri Lewerke posted the following photo on Twitter, asking, “This girl really kept her bare feet out right next to me on a flight. What would you do???” (she also used the vomit and sick emojis).
This girl really kept her bare feet out right next to me on a flight 🤢🥴
What would you do??? pic.twitter.com/Cp5V5cyK4u
— Bri Lewerke (@brilewerke) July 11, 2023
It’s a fair question. Even if we say that this woman did not have her feet pressed against Lewerke’s thigh, a slight movement by either person could easily have brought the bare feet into contact.
Let’s assume for purposes of our discussion that her feet were well-manicured and clean. Even so, placing them so close to another passenger strikes me as incredibly rude.
Side story. This story interests me because of the barefoot dynamics at my house. I don’t like going out without socks and shoes on. Period. I’ve always been that way. My wife, meanwhile, has a bit of a “free the foot” ideology. That’s fair enough and she certainly can forgo shoes as often as she wants (and she does…) but the issue is with my kids.
My kids love going barefoot, which is also fine, but they also have this horrible habit of running outside into our garden (which can be quite muddy) with their socks on…and no shoes. I am constantly reminding them to either take the socks off or put the shoes on…
But I digress…
Pretty antisocial behavior from the airplane seatmate, wouldn’t you say?
(H/T: Chris)
Tell her to put her feet where they belong, on the floor. If not, bother the Flight Attendant.
“How would you handle an airplane seatmate who side sits (or Z-sits) with her barefoot pressed against you?”
I would suck on her toes of course
Oy.
Ah Damien, the laugh of the morning. I just hope to stop laughing at some point…
Damien wins the internet today!
Just imagine the next post “Woman outraged by toe-sucking seatmate”
Me too (lol)
Contact of any kind would be gross.
I would hope you’d be equally disgusted by them doing the same thing with their shoes on.
And frankly, keeping your shoes on while in the house? Who know what you’ve traipsed through outdoors, but in your mind if that’s cleaner than your own bare feet which I’m assuming get washed when you shower on a daily basis, then you do you boo. (But I suppose if you keep a pair of shoes you only wear indoors then that’s a different situation).
Who votes “scratch the bottom of her soles with a sharp knife “?
B. Fingernail
C. Swat the foot
D. Get blanket to cover foot.
E. Suffer in silence like when homeless camp in front of your house, dump trash and feces on your driveway, and your stuff in the shed keeps getting stolen
Feather
Ask for a cup of ice. Hold cup next to your leg. Alternatively loudly ask other passengers if anyone has a foot fetish and if they want to switch seats.
This happened to me in February. All of a sudden a stockinged foot was slid between my arm rest and the cabin wall. I treated it like I had seen a rat and was disgusted. I turned around and told the woman, ” Don’t be a pig. Your feet make me sick”. That was the end of that.
I’ve had a cougar sit next to me, barefoot, and each foot mounted on the edge of the armrests in front, while she constantly pings the FA for a cup of ice so she can rub them on her legs.
This was on a flight to Vegas.
Also found out that day that my tolerance for weirdness is pretty high as long as there is no touching (2 of us in a 3-row)
I personally would lick her foot
You and Damien…
She is paying for her space. She is free to use it as she wishes. I am paying for my space. As long as her feet do not invade my space, I would not say anything.
@ Matthew. As for your kids running in the garden…….. It may be bothering you now……….. but in 20 years, it will be a happy memory that will bring a smile to your face and a chuckle. Enjoy the happy memories now, why wait 20 years?
Airplane seats are used over and over again without being cleaned. We should all behave like civilized, well mannered adults and keep our feet wither with or without shoes on the floor, not on the upholstery,
Imagine a man complaining about this very same thing instead of a woman; there would be multiple comments calling him misogynistic and a bully by women. Yea, that’s right.
Um, no, not really.
I would do everything in my power to not be in a middle seat in economy, which would have solved the problem in this specific instance.
I would order coke and by mistake it would spill. I don’t know how, but somehow she would get some sticky drinks on her.
Can’t stress it enough. IT’S DISGUSTING TO “TAKE OF” YOUR SHOES IN A FLIGHT ESPECIALLY IN ECONOMY ESPECIALLY WHITHOUT SOCKS.
Millennials. Next question.
I guess it’s not touching me so I don’t care?
The other question is- why would she put the feet part of the Z formation of her body nearest the other passenger instead of near the window? I am guessing to avoid having her shoulders or arms encroach on the middle seat passenger and to give that passenger more arm rest room by angling away from them…so yeah. Not happy about the feet thing but also looking at the up side of it.
Probably “accidentally” spill a drink. But if she was hot, I could potentially ignore. Potentially.
While lacking in good taste she’s not touching the other passenger and not really doing anything wrong.
Age and attractiveness determine my answer.
It depends on how young she is, what she looks like, and if she were married or were ever married. A married/divorced woman should definitely not be putting her body parts on my own and the same with old ladies. I prefer no woman whether my wife or any woman put her feet on my body but especially not one of the above categories. This is one reason why most orthodox Juden men are against sitting next to random women on planes. If we lived in a just world they would have their own orthodox airline but we don’t live in a just world.
Oh I have one. Picture this. Your on a 15 hour flight to South Africa on a packed 787. All the sudden you awake from your sleep with someones foot on your armrest. Not just the armrest, your arm, your side…
So now my fashion sense of wearing socks and sandals pays off! I love the ventilation that the sandals provide but I need the cushioning. There are some folks who mock us shoes-sandals wearers for bad fashion sense, but in terms of hygene, it’s the best of both worlds. My feet are not sweaty and I don’t have dirty feet from transferred gunk on the floor.
We have a no-shoes rule in the home and everyone has slippers. We even BRING our slippers with us when we visit peoples’ homes and they are most appreciative. Come to think of it, I should just pack our spare slippers in the car trunk so they’re always available and I don’t have to think about it.
Now onto the business at hand: (For ME!) It’s ok to put your feet up on your seat if the shoes are off, but I also prefer socks even so because of foot gunk. If they were covered in clean socks and not touching me, no harm or foul in this case. In some ways, it’s less obtrusive since most of her body is now sitting away from me.
Why is everyone so concerned about her feet? If someone’s hand brushed your side of your armrest or seat you may not think twice about it, but a foot we become more sensitive about it. Why????? Feet are usually separated from the dirty floor by shoes, flip flops, or sandals. There may be a bit of an odor if the feet are in an enclosed space without any ventilation. But they have not touched anything like the hands may have. People pick their teeth with their hands, itch themselves in some very private areas with their hands, and in the bathroom, after doing their “business”, wipe the remaining, clinging particles (?) from the area, with their hands. Yes, they use toilet paper, but the airports and airlines use the thin, cheap, rough, bulk purchased toilet paper that sometimes feels like sand paper. And it is soooo thin, if you don’t triple or quadruple layer it, you suffer “break through”. Let’s not go there…… And even if your clean, your hands have touched all of the rails, bathroom faucet handles, and door handles that hundreds of other peoples hands have touched …..
After writing this, I’m thinking ….. It may be safer not to shake hands, but to shake feet?
I would put my back to her, bend over and fart. Better out than in!! Hopefully it’s a loud one and stinks!!
Please don’t get a flight attendant, they are busy enough and her feet are on her seat. Unless they cross over to your seat there’s nothing you can do and her feet look really clean so OG is trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.