Thoughts about the woman pulled off the South West Airlines Flight?

Question

I'm curious to hear opinions of the young lady who was pulled off the SouthWest Airlines flight because her outfit was too revealing. The pictures of her, wearing her skirt and top were I thought not out of the norm, she was tall, blonde and a bit busty but nothing at all revearling about her top and her skirt was low to mid thigh. They actually showed some of the older SW Airline flight attendents from the 70's wearing hot pants on CNN today. Curious to hear opinions, because this woman was dressed nicely and I have seen some pretty poorly dressed people not get a second look. Think that jealously had anything to do with it?

I only saw the picture of her that was shown on the media. She looks fine in it and didn't have a tank top on, she had a top and sweater. My understanding was that it was a female passenger who complained after the boarded the plane and that she was given a blanket to cover herself after getting back on.

Answer 1

I offer 2 opinions on the topic of personal appearance in public places -

1. Airlines (Buses, Cruise ships, Railroads, etc) have the right to demand certain standards of conduct (or appearance)of passengers, and sometimes enforce that right when passengers or the airline would be harmed. In this case, however, I have heard that another passenger complained to the airline, and caused this situation to arise.
I have no idea what gives one passenger the right to judge the lady's clothing, this seems to be hypocritical and surely could have been resolved by moving the complaining passenger to a seat out of view of the young lady, and offering a blindfold to the complaining passenger.
Since the airline crew now had to intervene quickly, in order to let the flight take off on time, and keep the peace, perhaps it was easiest at the moment to do what SW did, right or wrong. On the other hand (with my perfect hindsight), if I were the air crew, I would have told BOTH passengers to get off and let them battle it out in court for being involved in a dispute of a nature unable to be resolved in a timely manner.

Opinion #2: On personal pride of appearance AND tolerance (or lack of tolerance), what ever happened to these things?
It used to be that far fewer people (slobs, etc) went out in public place dressed badly. I am not talking about dressing in a unique, trendy way, but plain out wearing ragged, dirty smelly clothing, etc. I once sat (in first class cabin, Dallas to London) way too close to a young couple and baby, dressed in worn-out jeans, tattered plain white-T shirts, cheap shower shoes, etc and the toddler wearing only a diaper and some kind of sleeping clothes, barely enough to keep it from catching cold. Granted that your clothing choices can be limited by your income and budget, but if you have the means to fly in first-class cabin to London, surely you could afford to dress better than that? On tolerance, YES, I thought to myself that if I had the power, I would tell that couple to dress more appropriately for the occasion, but of course I realized that I do NOT have that power, so I just kept my mouth shut, put on my headset, listened to the music, and enjoyed the flight.


Ok, open for debate, I would like to read your comments, anyone?

Answer 2

Those pictures you saw could have be taken after she had pulled her top up and her skirt down (southwest did let her back on after she did that) I dont think you and the other people that answered your question saw what the southwest employees and the other passengers on the plane saw. I know that the latest pictures of her outfit looks alright now, but that might not be the case when the southwest employee asked her to get off.

I wonder if the people that assumed that southwest gone a little to far on this ever considered the possibility of another passenger (or passengers) complaining about her outfit and complaining to the employee and other squence of events that would eventually lead to a delay.

Answer 3

I haven't heard about this particular incident, but I have noticed that flight attendents seem to be abusing their power. I heard about a toddler getting kicked off the flight for saying, "bye bye airplane" too many times. I mean, come on, the kid was being a kid what are you supposed to do.
And in this case, since when do airlines have a dress code? I've seen tacky, ugly, and all other sorts of clothing in the air. Technically, as long as you're covered up some what, I think you are ok. Hopefully people would dress appropriately, but hey if you want to wear a swimsuit on a flight, I don't care!
I really think that flight attendents have gotten too much power and don't know what to do with it other than mess up people's lives. We pay good money for those seats, I think we deserve to set in them.

Answer 4

I saw the pics of her too and she had the skirt down as low as she could get it even covering up some of her tummy by pulling her shirt over it and she had pulled her tank top way up to cover her breasts. This is likely how she looked *after* they asked her to fix her clothes. From the looks of that skirt I think she was showing the goods all over the place and people complained.

Answer 5

I asked a similar question yesterday. I think Southwest routinely goes too far. If I had the option between Southwest and another airlines I would take the other airlines even if it meant paying a little more. I know that place have the right to refuse service, but the woman wasn't nude. To see up her skirt you would have to do some maneuvering yourself. I think that prudish conservatism has won another round.

Answer 6

Such unacceptable dresses should be spelled out in a code of conduct or passenger acceptance document. I read somewhere that such documents do exist but apparently are not complete as far as their definition on what is out of bounds. I am not sure on what the document from SWA said. But did the airlines ask the lady to read such document when she bought her ticket? I have flown many airlines and I do not remember anyone mentioning such documents at the time of me booking my ticket.

Answer 7

The outfit looked ok when she was standing, but when she sat down, it was way too short. Still, I don't understand why they were "offended." She looked normal. They must have seen hundreds of females wearing tight pants, or tops with revealing cleavage. I don't see why this particular woman was pulled off.

Answer 8

THey should just have given her a blanket. But I sure have seen much worst.

Answer 9

spoiled lil well you know

A company has a policy she was dressed rather tacky and when she crossed her legs well lets just say glad she at least wore underwear