A photo of a man standing up on a plane in order to let his wife sleep has provoked some seriously strong reactions online.
The photo, shared on Twitter by life coach Courtney Lee Johnson, appears to show a man standing in the aisle of a plane so his wife can lie across all three seats and sleep.
According to Johnson, the husband stood for six hours, as he captioned the photo: ‘This guy stood up the whole 6 hours so his wife could sleep. Now THAT is love.’
While some people questioned the validity of the photo – can you ever trust social media?! – others called the woman out for being ‘selfish’, while others called the man ‘whipped’.
More than 1,000 people weighed in on the debate, while a further 3,000 people retweeted the image and more than 13,000 ‘liked’ it, at time of writing.
Comments such as ‘she could have still rested her head on his lap’, ‘if that is love then I’d rather be lonely’, and ‘remember this social media, if you are actually going to believe shit like this, then you are on your own,’ struck the three common points of debate in the replies.
Another said:
That’s not love. Also which airline allows anyone to stand for 6 hours during a flight?
While someone else chimed in:
That not love. That’s selfishness on the woman’s part. Can’t she just place her head on his shoulders and sleep. Love doesn’t work like that lol
Another said:
Not love but exploitation. She could have just rested her head on his lap. Very inconsiderate.
Come on people, chivalry’s not dead is it?
Seems like it may be on Twitter at least, if it was ever alive in the first place…
As one person wrote:
Wtf….. why she ain’t just lay on his lap why would she have him stand ON A PLANE for 6 HOURS!!! That’s not love that’s selfish af
Another said it was the ‘ultimate love’, but noted they were probably inexperienced travellers who hadn’t worked out the ‘formula’ yet.
They said:
That is the ultimate love, but with a little travel experience…you know to just lay in his lap and then he can lay his head on your hips. There’s a formula lol.
If someone could share that formula with the rest of us that’d be great, thanks.
Safe travels!
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.