Michelle Fonville, a salon patron seen in the video and preview still, here describes how she felt when was charged $5 extra at a nail salon due to her weight. Reportedly the salon’s pedicure chairs should not hold more than 200 pounds.
If that's true, what is the salon’s policy on male customers, who are often quite thin if under 200 lbs? And if this ill-equipped chair is the norm, how do male-friendly salons stay in business? Perhaps the salon might be faulted for buying incompetent chairs to rightfully conduct a full business.
Fonville was refunded her $5, but then told to take her business elsewhere. Is that justice, we ask?
The manager is seen in the video trying, in struggling English, to defend the business's “policy”, a policy that is not posted for customers to read before choosing whether or not to patronize the establishment (fact taken from video).
What gives us the most outrage, which thank goodness as bloggers we can show, is the reporter's lack of care regarding a quote he had to deliver.
"The manager tells me ... if she had been here when Fonville first arrived, she would have taken one look at her, and told her that she could not be serviced here."
I respect that journalists must be impartial, however as you can hear in the video, the way this one pronounced, "taken one look at her" implied approval of the salon manager's despicable comment, as if it were not simply an extra insult. Perhaps that was just a momentary accident, but we argue the sentence begged another take.
What do you think of this issue in general, or of any specific here?
As Michelle Fonville requested, “the word has to get out there”. We hope we’re helping that!
Ella M.
This is an issue that should be splashed across the front pages (or the living and styles pages, at least) of the New York Times and local media. No one should be treated unfairly, especially when they're simply trying to look better and get their nails done. We at manhattanmakeovers.com vote for this woman, and all like her.