Today’s burning question: Could Brittney Spears have flown in her splashy, sequined VMA outfit? The unequivocal answer… not if she was flying Southwest. Air travel today is hard enough without adding the new dress code dimension. In today’s headlines, Setara Qassim was asked by a flight attendant to cover up her sexy outfit with a blanket while she was flying. This comes on the heals of last week’s news, about Kayla Ebbert who was denied boarding because her outfit was deemed to sexy for the skies by the gals at the gate. Mind you these are the same gals that are wearing silly ties and frumpy shirts. The new fashion police of the skys… puhlease. They’ve come a long way since their stewardesses wore hot pants and go-go boots and handed out “love bites”.
So here is the new routine I am proposing for those flying Southwest Airlines. Rush to the airport hours before your flight is scheduled to board and pray you make it through security in time to be there before they give your seat to someone flying standby. The aternative version of this routine: rush to your gate to find that the plane is going to be delayed two hours (The general excuse the airlines are giving these days is that they need to find a crew. Evidently they can take my money for my ticket now and they’ll worry about who is going to fly the plane later). But I digress…Frontier!
As I was saying, once you’ve arrived at your gate make sure you can actually get on the plane by bringing the following items: multiple headshots, preferably black and white 8×10’s, something for the swimsuit competition, and your eveningwear. When you approach the gate proceed down the new passenger cat walk that Southwest is installing and dressing up with some nice up-lighting and spotlights. Continue to the end of the catwalk whereupon you will be graded on poise, beauty, grace, and most importantly –  hem lines. Once you’ve received your grade and have been scored in all competitions and only if this process is completed before the plane starts rolling on the tarmac, you may board the plane.Â
Upon entering the plane wait for the flight attendants signal to take your seat next to baby stink diaper and his conversationally repugnant parent that smells like garlic bagel chips. Very different from the days when they gave away free bottles of alcohol to flyers and Southwest stewardesses appeared on the cover of Esquire Magazine.
11:23 am on September 13th, 2007 1
You know, I’m all for where whatever you want while you travel, but at the same time, why would you want to wear something that anyone could deem as provacative?
Okay, okay. I had a friend in high school who felt that girls shouldn’t wear tank tops because they were unnecessarily revealing. This stemmed from his religions beliefs (he was Mormon), and he didn’t go around yelling at girls to change clothes.
I’m not saying outlaw tank tops. Or skirts. Or dresses. Or anything, really. But the last flight I was on, from Dallas, Texas to St. Louis, I was next to two orange girls, probably in their mid-twenties, and subjected to one’s excess boobage spilling over the side of her strapless dress and the other one’s butt crack, not peaking, but completely showing, between the top of her too small dress pants and the bottom of her kid’s size tee shirt. They were friends and talking incessantly about something going on in Jenna Jameson’s recently published book, “How to Make Love Like a Porn Star.” Can’t say I wouldn’t have minded a blanket thrown over them.
Bottom line: Planes are kind of a public place. People should dress appropriately on their own, not expect a stewardess to tell you you’re lookin’ like a five dollar bang.
12:31 pm on September 13th, 2007 2
Planes are public places, however so are baseball games and movie theaters. If there isn’t a risk of getting a ticket for public indecency, people should have the right to choose what they are wearing. Plus, there are people who get on planes smelling like all kinds of stink and those people aren’t asked to deplane. If you are going to monitor one, you should monitor them all if these rules are based on improving the comfort of other passengers imho.
2:20 pm on September 13th, 2007 3
In my first comment, I guess I should’ve said, “People should dress appropriately on their own, not have to have a stewardess tell them they are looking like a five dollar bang.”
Where is modesty and decency? I wish there were pictures of what these two women on the Southwest flights had worn. Obviously I cannot judge if these two women should’ve been asked to cover up or not, as I do not know what they were wearing, but the idea that grown women can’t dress themselves in a public place without being asked to cover up is sad. And really, who says I get to judge at all. If I don’t like what I see, then I won’t look there. (I’m not advocating a ban on strapless dresses or anything here.)
But, be it a plane, baseball game, whatever, it would be really nice for people to not dress like they are marketing themselves to the opposite (or same, whatever) sex.
2:29 pm on September 13th, 2007 4
Dum, dum, dum, duh!!!
Meet Kayla
and
Meet Setara
Those outfits really aren’t that bad are they?
2:41 pm on September 13th, 2007 5
Wow.
No.
I mean, obviously they are not dressed for church, but I’m surprised they were asked to cover up for those outfits!
Still, I have seen MUCH worse (i.e. my last flight from Dallas) and wish I had photographs of them. While I wouldn’t choose to wear that on a plane, I don’t think the average person would find that offensive and in need of a cover up.
8:27 am on September 26th, 2007 6
I feel kind of bad for the girl. Maybe she had to work right away when she got off the plane so she wore her work clothes. Some people wear business suits because they have meetings. Exotic dancers should be allowed the same respect DANG-IT! I’m really just kidding. I haven’t even seen what the girl was wearing. Either way, if someone is wearing a top, bottom and shoes they should be allowed to get on the plane. But that brings up a question…What if you were stranded on an island and tigers ate your shoes and hyenas (laughing) picked at you until you were naked. Then a plane flew by (at 10,000 feet or below) and saw your big help sign in the sand…but then…they saw how you were dressed. That would suck if they wouldn’t pick you up cause you were naked and then you died. What a Bummer!!! Moral of the story: If you get stranded on an island and end up naked, you better make some clothes and shoes fast and they should cover 2/3 of you body. Make sure it’s the right 2/3 too, don’t be tricky!
7:32 am on October 20th, 2007 7
Even if the plane went on, surely the Navy ship would stop, right? In spite of the hyenas!!! The entire ‘air industry’ is hanging on for dear life – have they never heard of diplomacy? Move the snoot thats complaining – duhhhh. I live in a huge college town – these ladies are both over dressed – compared to many I pass in the grocery store. It’s not my style… but only because that cute skirt wouldn’t make anything more than a garter on me. (Scary picture huh?) I wouldn’t recommend they walk down a dark alley alone at 3 a.m. in their ensembs, but I think the airlines should be penalized for their ignorance. Maybe they would finally get their priorities straight… like paying pilots to fly the planes.
11:49 am on November 14th, 2007 8
I used to get seriously pissed when someone got on a plane stinky. Until I flew from Bangkok to Tokyo to LA to San Francisco over the course of more than 24 hours, with only a short layover between each flight. Then suddenly it made SO MUCH SENSE. Now I try to give them the benefit of the doubt. Which is exactly what I hope people on the LA to San Francisco flight did. (“Um, usually I bathe, I swear.”)
As for the sexy stuff … neither of those outfits would have been more than a blip on my skankdar, where I briefly marveled that anyone actually WANTS to be seen wearing a skirt that short before I moved on to whatever next thought popped into my brain. I certainly wouldn’t expect anyone to get thrown off a flight for it. Amazing how you can get thrown off a flight for that, but not for playing a Dora DVD on your laptop at top volume so EVERYONE in the cabin gets to listen to it the entire time. (WTF? Who does that to people? Get a headphone splitter if you have two kids. I shouldn’t have to ask you to stop forcing Dora down my poor ear canals.) I’ve seen a million versions of etiquette violations like that, and I consider them far more repugnant than a little racy thigh action.
I agree that unless someone is breaking a law, or unless you were VERY CLEAR about your dress code when the person purchased the ticket, it’s ridiculous to forbid someone to fly in a short skirt. This is the United States, not Afghanistan circa 1998.