NationStates Jolt Archive


Airlines dictate how YOU dress

Tarlachia
06-09-2007, 18:00
I don't know if this has already been posted, but I don't think it has.


September 5, 2007


CRISSY PASCUAL / Union-Tribune
A Southwest employee asked Kyla Ebbert, wearing this outfit, to change or leave the plane.
As the mercury climbed over 100 on Labor Day, I called Southwest Airlines with a not entirely hypothetical question:

Could a young woman board a flight to Tucson today wearing a bikini top?

Angelique, the agent who took my call, assured me that a young woman could.

“We don't have a problem with it if she's covered up in all the right spots,” she said. “We don't have a dress code.”

Tell that to Kyla Ebbert, who was escorted off a Southwest Airlines flight two months ago for wearing an outfit far less revealing than a bikini top.

Ebbert, a Mesa College student and Hooters waitress, was allowed to stay on the plane, but only after she put up a fight and, she says, was lectured on how to dress properly.

I don't know about you, but one of my big gripes with the airlines is that they just don't take the time to dispense fashion advice any more.

Southwest explained its treatment of Ebbert in a letter to her mother, saying it could remove any passenger “whose clothing is lewd, obscene or patently offensive” to ensure the comfort of children and “adults with heightened sensitivities.”

Ebbert, 23, says she was judged unfairly by the airline and humiliated by the experience. Who wouldn't be?

She had a doctor's appointment that afternoon in Tucson, where temperatures had topped 106 all week. 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.

Ebbert says several flight attendants overheard the conversation and, after an embarrassing walk down the aisle, she took her seat and spread a blanket over her lap. She kept her composure until the plane landed, when she called her mother and broke down.

She took a photo of herself with her cell phone so her mother could see her clothes. That's when mom became livid.

“My daughter is young, tall, blond and beautiful,” Michele Ebbert told me, “and she is both envied and complimented on her appearance. She dresses provocatively, as do 99 percent of 23-year-old girls who can. But they were out of line.”

Who knows where the lines are drawn these days, particularly when it comes to dress? If you watch television, or visit the mall, or take in a game at Petco Park, you'll see women dressed in ways that, 50 years ago, were pornographic. Today they are stylish.

A Supreme Court justice famously could not define “obscene,” and declaring a thing “lewd” imputes motive. Did Kyla Ebbert intend to excite sexual desire on that flight to Tucson? I doubt it, just as I doubt that flight attendants are proper judges of such matters.

But neither am I. So when I arranged to see Ebbert in the notorious outfit, I brought along my fashion advisers, writer Nina Garin and photojournalist Crissy Pascual, who for years collaborated on a feature in this newspaper called “Seen on the Street.”

The three of us met Ebbert and her mother for lunch at Nordstrom Cafe. Ebbert, who is 5-foot-5 and has green eyes, is pretty enough to be a model.

Yet even wearing the clothes that scandalized Southwest, she did not attract attention beyond some lingering glances.

My fashion advisers were baffled, saying they saw nothing you don't see on a college campus or in Pacific Beach.

“I was expecting to be shocked, and I was shocked the other way,” Pascual told me.

“It wasn't a big deal,” Garin said. “Her skirt was a bit short, which was only accented by her heels. If she had been wearing flip-flops it wouldn't have mattered.”

Garin wondered if a jealous woman may have complained about Ebbert's outfit. I asked her what she would have said had she been on the plane.

“ 'I hope she's not sitting next to my husband,' ” Garin replied. “She's pretty. She wears her clothes well. But I wouldn't complain about it.”

Pascual detected sexism in the way Ebbert was treated, wondering if a man would have been asked to change clothes. Do men dress inappropriately? “I see butt cracks, a lot of butt cracks,” she said.

In its letter, Southwest said “there were concerns about the revealing nature of her outfit.”

I called Hollye Chacón, the Southwest customer relations representative who wrote the letter, to see if we were talking about the same outfit.

“What exactly was being revealed?” I asked.

She said yesterday she'd call back, but never did. That's pretty revealing in itself.

Seriously, look at the picture. I've seen worse on airlines. It makes me wonder how bad things are getting these days.

"No knives! No toothpicks! No children! No skirts! No fliers! We are an elite airline, and we don't take your trash!"

And for some odd reason, I've got a mental image of LG showing up in skirt and tank top, just to prank them. O_o

EDIT:
The link: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/braun/20070905-9999-1m5braun.html
Nadkor
06-09-2007, 18:03
Seriously, look at the picture.

Difficult without a link.
Tarlachia
06-09-2007, 18:04
Difficult without a link.

Leave it to me to forget that...fixed now.
Call to power
06-09-2007, 18:06
I personally wouldn't want my skin touching those seats for hours and hours on a sweaty flight especially if some other guy was doing it before me

"No knives! No toothpicks! No children! No skirts! No fliers! We are an elite airline, and we don't take your trash!"

if only...

edit: does the woman only have 4 toes on each foot?
JuNii
06-09-2007, 18:09
I don't know if this has already been posted, but I don't think it has.



Seriously, look at the picture. I've seen worse on airlines. It makes me wonder how bad things are getting these days.

"No knives! No toothpicks! No children! No skirts! No fliers! We are an elite airline, and we don't take your trash!"

And for some odd reason, I've got a mental image of LG showing up in skirt and tank top, just to prank them. O_o

EDIT:
The link: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/braun/20070905-9999-1m5braun.html

Businesses have the right to dictate those kinds of things.
"No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service"
"Jacket and Tie required"

the only thing to do is not give them your business.

oh and how's this for a mind bender. A Friend of mine's wife used to work for United.
they mentioned the dangers of wearing Nylon stockings, a flash fire could melt the nylon and bond it to the skin, causing irripairable damage.

yet the female flight attendants are required to wear nylon stockings...
Tarlachia
06-09-2007, 18:13
Businesses have the right to dictate those kinds of things.
"No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service"
"Jacket and Tie required"

the only thing to do is not give them your business.

oh and how's this for a mind bender. A Friend of mine's wife used to work for United.
they mentioned the dangers of wearing Nylon stockings, a flash fire could melt the nylon and bond it to the skin, causing irripairable damage.

yet the female flight attendants are required to wear nylon stockings...

That's the thing though. She was dressed. And without a "Southwest Airlines rules and guidelines for passengers" book in front of me, I'd wager that there isn't specific statements in regards to dress choice.

As for the nylon...yikes!
Kryozerkia
06-09-2007, 18:14
Exactly what is the problem? Sure the skirt is short but not as short as other skirts I've seen and her top isn't even that low cut. Methinks someone was having a bad day.
Khadgar
06-09-2007, 18:23
Exactly what is the problem? Sure the skirt is short but not as short as other skirts I've seen and her top isn't even that low cut. Methinks someone was having a bad day.

The problem is she's wearing entirely too many clothes.
Poliwanacraca
06-09-2007, 18:24
That's...odd. It definitely sounds more like a decision made by a single employee with an axe to grind than some sort of Southwest policy.
JuNii
06-09-2007, 18:25
That's the thing though. She was dressed. And without a "Southwest Airlines rules and guidelines for passengers" book in front of me, I'd wager that there isn't specific statements in regards to dress choice.

As for the nylon...yikes!

and as I said, then take your business to other airlines.

The problem is she's wearing entirely too many clothes. hear hear!
Maraque
06-09-2007, 18:32
If I described to you the woman who sat next to me on an airplane once... you wouldn't believe me. She was damn near naked and wasn't asked to get off the plane.

This woman has clothes in all the right places.
Sumamba Buwhan
06-09-2007, 19:06
I don't think I've been on a flight where there havent' been hot girls dressed in less than that. Keith was just being an idiot.
Nodinia
06-09-2007, 19:19
I'd say 'Keith' was entirely too close to his mother, who warned him about "dirty slut-whores", when he was a lad.......
Vandal-Unknown
06-09-2007, 19:32
Well, that woman on that link is hot, cabin pressure and humidity is set slightly above Death Valley, NV, which in turn will help with the air conditioning, which is set at nipply.

I wish I could really those that in action.
Lex Llewdor
06-09-2007, 19:42
This makes me want to fly Southwest in my Utilikilt to see what they'd do.
New Genoa
06-09-2007, 20:01
and as I said, then take your business to other airlines.

that doesn't change what they did to her then. plus how was she supposed to know that the airline would have a prudish policy beforehand? I mean, there really was nothing particularly offensive with that outfit.
Oneiro
06-09-2007, 20:16
I thought this would be another one of those incidents where someone was asked to leave the plain because of a political slogan on their sirt...
Chumblywumbly
06-09-2007, 20:20
Sounds like 'Keith' needs to get out more.
Zilam
06-09-2007, 20:25
Well in Soviet Russia, You dictate how the airlines dress!:confused:
Neo Art
06-09-2007, 20:45
and as I said, then take your business to other airlines.

No. When I make a business arrangement with a company I do so under the understanding of their policy.

To change, alter, or amend their policy after I have paid them is a breach of our contract.

I would like to see where their dress code policy is. Frankly, I hope she sues the little prick.
Myrmidonisia
06-09-2007, 20:52
Sure rather have her in the seat next to me than the fat guy that needs two seats and insists on wearing a tank top.

Southwest is too good an airline to have stupid stuff like this happen...
New new nebraska
06-09-2007, 21:01
kieth is up his own you know what.JUst more cases of "over-sensitive adults" and people obsessed with protecting children from a perfectly acceptable outfit.
Krahe
06-09-2007, 21:09
This makes me want to fly Southwest in my Utilikilt to see what they'd do.

I've done it. I got compliments. I was asked (with a wink and a twinkle in the eye of the flight attendant) what I was wearing under it.

Got some strange looks in the airport in Birmingham, AL though...
Kbrookistan
06-09-2007, 21:57
This makes me want to fly Southwest in my Utilikilt to see what they'd do.

Men Without Pants FTW!!! Seriously, I don't think it would bother anyone. Certainly wouldn't bother me, but I'm strange. I like men in kilts. Hell, I like women in kilts!
Dakini
06-09-2007, 22:43
Why does her mother describe her as tall if the article describes her as being 5'5". 5'5" isn't tall.

Oh, but I routinely walk around in outfits that cover less than that to school... especially when it's hot like it has been lately.
Trotskylvania
06-09-2007, 22:46
Why does her mother describe her as tall if the article describes her as being 5'5". 5'5" isn't tall.

Oh, but I routinely walk around in outfits that cover less than that to school... especially when it's hot like it has been lately.

:D

(>o_o)> (and a kirby for good measure)
Dakini
06-09-2007, 22:49
:D

(>o_o)> (and a kirby for good measure)
haha

Oh, but I think that she's got more in the way of boobs than I do, maybe this makes the difference...
Trotskylvania
06-09-2007, 22:53
haha

Oh, but I think that she's got more in the way of boobs than I do, maybe this makes the difference...

The way I see it, you shouldn't compare beauty, but just recognize it and revel in it.
Dakini
06-09-2007, 23:01
The way I see it, you shouldn't compare beauty, but just recognize it and revel in it.
I'm not really comparing so much... but I can see where there would be a difference between her wearing a tank top and me wearing one.
Trotskylvania
06-09-2007, 23:15
I'm not really comparing so much... but I can see where there would be a difference between her wearing a tank top and me wearing one.

Still, the point is that you are wearing a tank top. And when girls wear tank tops, that is always cause for men to celebrate.
Dakini
06-09-2007, 23:20
Still, the point is that you are wearing a tank top. And when girls wear tank tops, that is always cause for men to celebrate.
Hell, when it's hot outside it's cause for me to celebrate.
Johnny B Goode
06-09-2007, 23:36
I don't know if this has already been posted, but I don't think it has.



Seriously, look at the picture. I've seen worse on airlines. It makes me wonder how bad things are getting these days.

"No knives! No toothpicks! No children! No skirts! No fliers! We are an elite airline, and we don't take your trash!"

And for some odd reason, I've got a mental image of LG showing up in skirt and tank top, just to prank them. O_o

EDIT:
The link: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/braun/20070905-9999-1m5braun.html

Fuck the ingenues who whine about this stuff.
Tarlachia
06-09-2007, 23:41
Sure rather have her in the seat next to me than the fat guy that needs two seats and insists on wearing a tank top.

word.

Still, the point is that you are wearing a tank top. And when girls wear tank tops, that is always cause for men to celebrate.

Haha!

Hell, when it's hot outside it's cause for me to celebrate.

Can I celebrate with you? ;)
Sumamba Buwhan
06-09-2007, 23:42
This thread is worthless without pics of Dakini dressed skimpily. </perverted old man>