Photo: TikTok
Would you give up your seat?
By Isaac Serna-Diez — Written on Nov 09, 2022
A woman on TikTok named Maresa Friedman went viral after initially posting a video in which she claimed she wasn’t a “villain” for not moving from the seat that she paid for.
Wanting a little more context to the story, people asked her what exactly happened, and when she told the full story, people were divided on how to feel about the way Friedman acted.
The TikToker says she refused to give up her seat when a family asked to swap.
“I am not a villain for not moving from the seat in first class I paid full fare for,” read the caption on her initial video. “I’m also a mom so it’s called PLANNING AHEAD.”
Immediately, people defended her for not moving, saying things like “That takes a lot of nerve” or “Agreed” and didn’t even think twice about understanding the full story to reach that conclusion.
After all, if you paid for your specific seat, why should you move?
Especially in the first-class section where the seats are far more expensive than the economy seats, you can’t expect someone to just move because you want to sit with your family.
Friedman said as much with the “planning ahead” comment and in her next video where she explained the full story after some requests.
“To be clear, no hate to anybody,” she clarifies before getting into the “skinny” and sharing her thoughts.
A mother of three, who also had a first-class seat, was asking Friedman to switch seats with one of her children in first class so that the four of them could sit together, but she refused.
“The suggestion I gave was actually based on another creator’s video that I saw which was basically like: if all of you want to sit together in a row — because first-class is two seats and two seats — I’m sure you could ask the people in the bulkhead behind you.”
“I think they would be super pumped to sit up here so that the three of you could be together,” she explained.
Her suggestion is basically asking that they switch seats with people in economy seating so that they can sit together behind first class and those they asked to switch would move up.
The mother asking for the switch didn’t like that.
Friedman claims that the flight attendant gave her a look that said she liked the suggestion, but the mother gave her a glare and grew angry with her for not switching.
It seems like they wanted to have their cake and eat it too by moving people around in first-class to accommodate them, but Friedman wasn’t having it.
This is where some people in the comments grew confused and claimed that they still didn’t understand the full story, wondering what the big deal is if they were all moving around in first class.
Friedman argues that these people should have planned ahead and secured traveler’s insurance and then maybe they wouldn’t have been in this situation — but others disagreed.
“There are so many things that could mess up seats,” one person replied. “Tail swaps, flight schedule changes, [inoperable] seats, just to name a few… not totally preventable.”
But things really flew off the rails when she received a private message from a troll.
In a third video, she claims that she has been on TikTok for many years so she knew enough about the app to expect some backlash and mean comments.
However, she didn’t expect to receive a private message from a man named “Gary Fletcher-Parks” that hurled a lot of insults Friedman’s way.
He called her ugly several times, attacked her using derogatory terms and slurs, and even went after her friends and family.
“Some of you might say ‘that’s the cost of going viral,’” she said. “Well, if that’s the cost then I’m not interested.”
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Keep up with his rants about current events on his Twitter.