Friday, September 7, 2007

Is she too sexy to fly?

This morning on the Today Show, Matt Lauer interviewed a young woman who said she was told her outfit was too sexy and that she was being kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight. I saw the Today Show segment, I read the story on Today's website, read an opinion from MSNBC, and purused a couple pages of discussion on MSNBC. Seems everyone thinks the airline was out of line. Ok, almost everyone. But if you saw the segment and read the commentary thoroughly, I think people are missing the main point.

When she is seated, you can see.

Everything.

NBC even blurred the shot on the Today segment. Personally, I think her skirt is too short, but the top seemed ok. I've seen more cleavage flashing at the local brew pub on a nipply Friday night. No pun intended. ;)

But that's still missing the point. Southwest proclaims they're a family airline. Did it occur to anyone - and I believe one of the online stories even mentions - that someone on the flight had complained about her outfit? If I'm a parent and have kids on the flight and can see up her skirt, I'd complain too. How many seats are on a flight? As an airline, you're there to make everyone happy, which I think is the idea that the Southwest employee was trying to convey.

Problem is, this "Keith", the flight attendent, went about it all wrong. He shouldn't have chastised her in the front of the plane. He should have discussed the situation with her quietly, instead of broadcasting her business in front of the entire plane.

Oh wait. SHE was broadcasting her business when she sat down and you could see up her skirt.

The young lady proclaims that she was sitting with her legs crossed. If you saw the Today Show, then you also had to notice that she's fairly tall. And the seats on Southwest are fairly close. One of my daughters is 5'10" and she can't cross her legs in front of her when seated on a Southwest flight.

This isn't an issue of an airline abusing customers. I fly Southwest and will continue to do business with them. I've never had trouble on any flight with this airline, and I've never seen a problem that flight attendents haven't been able to handle.

This is an issue of decency, and it's as old as the beginning of time. What one person deems appropriate, another views as scandalous. And someone on the flight obviously thought the young lady was a bit, um, risque. Yup, it's hard to believe that someone would think that in this day and age when younger celebs show up in the skimpiest outfits available and nothing is left to the imagination. But someone on the flight WAS offended. And since every U.S. citizen has the right to voice his or her opinion, this "someone" did.

She complied with the directive given by the airline. She showed her whitey-tighties (or thong) to a national viewing audience. If she sues, will she win? I believe when she flashed America, she lost any chance she had of winning in a court of law. And one more thing: she lost her credibility.

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