September 09, 2007
Flying the prudish skies: score another one for the busybodies
We need to take a break from the usual fare of foreign policy and economics here at EdwardTrimnell.com in order to discuss something really important:
“Kyla Ebbert says she wants an apology from Southwest Airlines after being told to get off a plane and change her clothes because what she was wearing was too revealing…
An airline employee asked her to come up to the front of the plane just before the crew closed the plane's doors.
"He told me, 'I'm sorry but you're going to have to catch a later flight because you are dressed inappropriately, this is a family airline and you are too provocative to fly on this flight'," Ebbert said. "I said, 'What part is it? The shirt? The skirt? Which part?' He said, 'the whole thing.'"
"Southwest Airlines was responding to a concern about Ms. Ebbert's revealing attire on the flight that day. As a compromise, we asked her to adjust her clothing to be less revealing, she complied, and she traveled as scheduled. When a concern is brought to our employees' attention, we address that situation directly with the customer(s) involved in a discreet and professional matter.
---MSNBC.com
In case you missed it, this brouhaha came about because another passenger complained about Ebbert’s attire. Ms. Ebbert is a waitress at Hooter’s, and she was no doubt turning heads aboard the airplane. But another passenger claimed to be offended, and so the Southwest Airlines employee felt compelled to make an issue of her outfit.
There are two trends at work here: First of all, the words “I am offended” have become a magical incantation in our politically correct times. All you have to do is claim that you are offended, and someone---awyers, pressure groups (or in this case, an airline employee)--- will come scurrying to the rescue, ready to slap a lawsuit or a public complaint against the offending party.
Secondly, we have become a nation of prudish busybodies. (Well, some of us have, anyway.) This malady mostly afflicts the conservative camp, but there are cases on the Left as well.
Rather than concerning themselves with the issues that truly threaten the long-term good of our society, a certain faction of conservatives have decided to become the national morality police instead. (In my hometown of Cincinnati, we have one such group called Citizens for Community Values.) These folks habitually make mountains out of molehills in their quest to take us back to a puritan past that never really existed.
During World War II, in fact, my grandfather owned pin-ups of starlets that were no more revealing than the attire that Ms. Ebbert wore on the Southwest flight. Forcing an attractive Hooter’s waitress to cover up aboard an airplane is not only trivial and trite----it’s just plain un-American.
