Taliban Airlines

As we continue our travelogue on the country's journey to intolerance and fascism, I offer this little tidbit.

Apparently being young and hot is against airline policy at Southwest Airlines. Miss Kyla Ebbert, wearing attire more conservative than I see on the UT campus every day, was asked to change clothes or leave the aircraft because someone thought she was dressed inappropriately for a plane flight. (I suppose "appropriate" would have been wearing a leather cap, goggles, and an aviator jacket?)

You can see the "scandalous" outfit on this CNN video or the San Diego Union-Tribune story that originally broke the news. (I like the CNN video, which juxtaposes the original Southwest Airlines flight attendant hot pants outfits with the more conservative white skirt worn by Kyla Ebbert).

Here are the facts as stated in the newspaper article:

She arrived at Lindbergh Field wearing a white denim miniskirt, high-heel sandals, and a turquoise summer sweater over a tank top over a bra.

After the plane filled, and the flight attendants began their safety spiel, Ebbert was asked to step off the plane by a customer service supervisor, identified by the airline only as “Keith.”

They walked out onto the jet bridge, where Keith 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.' ”

Keith asked her to go home, change and take a later flight. She refused, citing her appointment. The plane was ready to leave, so Keith relented. He had her pull up her tank top a bit, pull down her skirt a bit, and return to her seat.

This sort of sexist, hypocritical bullshit has always bothered me. I've noticed that it is always the attractive young women who get targeted for being called out for "dressing inappropriately." This happens a lot in office environments, but I've also seen it in restaurants, cultural events, and other locales.

My guess here...some bitter old bitch who's husband just dumped her for his new stripper girlfriend saw Kyla and decided that she was going to get back at everyone who had ever done her harm (which would be the entire category of women who are younger, cuter, and more tolerant than Taliban Bitch). She complained, and Keith, who apparently isn't very bright (or who could never get the hot girls in school to talk to him) decided he would pull an authority power trip over poor Miss Ebbert.

(These are usually the same people who say of rape victims, "well, she had it coming, dressing like that...")

This attitude, which appears to be common in the U.S., even shows in the article and CNN piece, in which somehow the fact that Miss Ebbert is a waitress at Hooters is relevant to the fact that she was arbitrarily bullied on an aircraft.

And those of you out there who think I'm wrong, who actually think you're the arbiter of appropriate, you fashion police of teh interweb...go look in a mirror, and ask yourself for the real reason you hate Kyla Ebbert.