I had to post this one. Apparently airlines now feel it’s okay to make moral judgements on customers’ outfits. A Southwest Airlines employee recently attempted to throw 23 year-old Kyla Ebbert off a flight to Tucson because she was “dressed inappropriately.”
Here’s what she was wearing:
Um, sure. Ebbert was asked to step off the plane by a customer service supervisor:
They walked out onto the jet bridge, where (the customer service supervisor) told Ebbert her clothing was inappropriate and asked her to change. She explained she was flying to Tucson for only a few hours and had brought no luggage.“I asked him what part of my outfit was offensive,” she said. “The shirt? The skirt? And he said, ‘The whole thing.’ ”
Ebbert had to put up a fight before she was allowed to get back on the plane. She was told to “pull up her tank top a bit, pull down her skirt a bit, and return to her seat.” Gross.
Do you think airlines have the right to impose dress codes like this on their passengers?
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11 comments
Sigh.
The thing that amazes me about this is how hypocritical this is. Airline travel is fuelled (haha, pun) by sex - and of course, when I say sex, I obviously mean objectified ladies, in the form of young sweet flight attendant thangs.
It wasn't long ago that if you didn't look like Ebbert, you couldn't get a job as a flight attendant. On some airlines I think that's still the case. My cousin was a flight attendant until she was in her mid-30s (I won't say with which airline), and then she was offered an extremely lucrative retirement package and basically ousted - she just wasn't nubile anymore.
A lot of flight attendants outfits are just as form-fitting and Fergilicious as Ebbert's - if not more so.
Yeesh, I hope this doesn't happen to me.
Posted by Thea
September 6, 2007, 4:45 PM
Sounds more like an isolated incident with a weird-o staff member that the company was obliged to defend for some obscure policy reason than a widespread problem.
What's more interesting to me is that it made the news. I read it like "This just in -- Hot Girl in Tight Clothes Actually Told to Cover Up."
99.9% of the time, the message I get from advertising and pop culture is "If You're Hot, Wear Tight Skimpy Clothes." So if we take this really far - perhaps because the 40 degree smog-air in my apartment is doing funny things to my brain - the story may exist because the incident goes against the mainstream message of "be hot and show skin."
Also, because the customer service agent, who had no right to say anything at all, actually voiced this opposite-to-the-mainstream message out loud and in public.
Yes? No? Maybe? Need I a popsicle?
Posted by Erin
September 6, 2007, 5:30 PM
Southwest has been in the news a lot in past years for discriminating against fat people, too. Those of us involved in the fat-rights/size-acceptance movement have agreed to boycott Southwest until they change their policy allowing employees to refuse service to fat people unless they pay for a second seat at the time of boarding.
Posted by Vidya
September 6, 2007, 8:56 PM
Hey Vidya, can you give us more deets about Southwest and fat people? This fat discrimination sounds bizarre, considering that Ebbert's case is almost the opposite - discrimination against someone for being TOO conventionally good looking.
Posted by Thea
September 7, 2007, 8:59 AM
southwest also does not allow people to read a Playboy magazine while flying.
Posted by john finder
September 7, 2007, 11:31 AM
Just wait a couple of days. She'll have an offer from Playboy and we'll see her in November's issue.
Posted by Tommy B.
September 7, 2007, 11:37 AM
I smell haters in the house (on the plane).
Don't hate it's not a good look for you,Southewest.
Kyla, you just do you. Don't worry about eveyone else.
Posted by Paul
September 7, 2007, 11:42 AM
Southwest is notorious for having lawsuits against them for discrimination against overweight passengers. (I found 4 when I went looking, there could be more...)
They're also famous for having "hostesses in hotpants" in the 70's. Just sayin'...
Posted by Stacey May
September 7, 2007, 12:45 PM
Not the first time an airline staff member has tried to impose their own morals on the passengers.
Posted by Wesley
September 7, 2007, 12:47 PM
The "flight attendant" is a dude...need I say more. He was probably jealous that he could'nt pull off wearing that out fit himself.
Kyla your HOT!! and yes, I'd love to see more of her (with less hehe!)
Posted by Jim
September 7, 2007, 1:55 PM
this, for me, is where this dialogue starts to break down. I actually noticed this in the first newspaper article that was linked in the original post.
the author of that article, and now some men on this blog, feel like they have been given permission to comment on this persons body; to judge and objectify and sexualize. this is often done in a way that claims to be coming from outrage at the airline for being authoritarian and conservative.
but i think these commentators are more similar to the airline than different.
Posted by tuval
September 7, 2007, 2:14 PM
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