We make choices in social situations every day regarding how we’re going to interact with others, and it’s not always clear when we’ve made the right decision.
A man recently encountered a dilemma on a flight : due to a woman’s religious beliefs, he was asked to change seats. He refused and stayed in his assigned seat.
Wondering later whether he was in the right or the wrong to not accommodate the woman, he shared his story online for Redditors to assess.
Here’s the story.
On a subreddit designed to parse whether people are being jerks or are in the right, he explains his side of the story: while on a flight to attend lacrosse camp, a woman seated next to him asked him to move.
“She explained that in her religion it was taboo to sit next to two males.”
This was due to possible “sexual issues,” she explained.
“I advised her that I was gay and did not have any sexual interest in women,” he wrote.
“The lady then went to the flight attendant and told them her religious convictions and my comment.”
The flight attendant said they couldn’t do anything, and eventually, a man elsewhere on the plane agreed to move.
Was he wrong?
Some commenters noted that they weren’t aware of any religion that would allow a woman to sit next to one man, but not two.
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If this is the case, it almost seems like the woman was looking for a way to avoid sitting in the middle seat.
Who should accommodate whom?
“As a religious person, I expect to accommodate myself to the world, not the other way around,” wrote one commenter. “No kosher food? I bring my own. Job requires Saturday work? I don’t apply. Can’t get into the club without bowing to a statue of Molech? I’ll go home and play Scrabble.”
No harm, no foul.
I found one comment in the thread that said that while OP wasn’t in the wrong, neither was the religious woman.
“It was fine of her to ask, it was fine of you to refuse,” they concluded .
Maybe he was being a jerk?
Two comments in the entire thread said that OP was in the wrong.
“[Switching seats] would’ve been the nice thing to do,” wrote one. “As far as we know, switching seats wouldn’t have made much of a difference for you, so you could’ve saved her and the flight attendant the few minutes of stress on the plane.”
The Reddit verdict is in.
Responses overwhelmingly agreed that OP did nothing wrong. That said, these little dilemmas are always open for interpretation, so we want to know what you think.
Check out the original thread — it isn’t that long — and let us know what you would have done in a similar situation.
