We may have flight attendants instead of stewardesses these days, but the call button on this Greyhound bus (on its way from Sioux Falls to Omaha) reminds us that the serving class is figuratively, if not literally, female:
Also see this post on sexism in aviation (then and now) and this contemporary Continental ad with sexual innuendo.
Thanks to Stephen W. for the picture!
Britt Karp, Occidental College student and all-around great person, saw this public service notice on a subway in Manhattan:
Britt remarks:
Why is the message not – don’t sexually assault people?! Instead of reprimanding perpetrators of sexual assault (most frequently men), this poster places the responsibility on the person who is being assaulted (usually a woman). By doing this, it completely normalizes sexual harassment. The poster alludes to the argument touted by evolutionary psychologists – that it is in men’s nature to sexually assault women and so trying to control this behavior is futile. In this way, they make it seem that the only way to deal with this issue is for women to be braver. It’s no wonder women so frequently blame themselves when they are sexually assaulted.
NEW! Rachel McC. J., from Deeply Problematic, sent us another example of a poster asking women to stop men from behaving badly. This one targets young girls, telling them to turn away older men:
My friend Steve sells Cessnas (single engine propeller planes, usually with between two and four seats). A four-seater basic single-engine Cessna will cost you about $200,000, plus insurance, hanger fees, regular maintenance, and check-ups. They aren’t particularly fast (not jets): the $200,000 one will get you somewhere about twice as fast as a car. The gas will cost you about twice as much. And there’s a much bigger carbon footprint.
Last summer, Steve sold a six-seater single-engine Cessna to France. Since someone had to fly it (and the trip was paid for), we decided to take it there ourselves. (Okay, Steve decided to take it there himself; I decided to sit in the passenger seat.) Among other things, the adventure was a fascinating look at how the other half, eh em, top one percent lives. In this post, I’m going to talk about the terminals serving private planes (also posted about here). If you fly by private plane, you don’t go to the main terminal. There is a separate private terminal. We went through a lot of those terminals as we flew from Omaha, Nebraska; to Bangor, Maine; to Goose Bay-Happy Valley, Canada (Newfoundland-Labrador border); to Narsarsuaq, Greenland; to Reykjavik, Iceland; to Aarhus, Denmark; and, finally, to Nice, France.
Because I have my priorities straight, the first thing I noticed about these terminals is that they all have free treats: muffins, candy, or cookies:
There was also always free coffee and soda and bottled water. (This, I gotta tell you, was torture because I was off caffeine for the trip and, on top of that, couldn’t drink anything before taking off because of the whole no-bathroom-on-the-plane-thing and living below the poverty line until you’re 32 really instills a desire to pilfer anything that’s not nailed down.)
Private plane travel is figuratively as well as literally delicious. There is no “long-term parking.” You park your car right up front in the complimentary parking lot. Honestly, going to the grocery store is more challenging. In the private terminal, you can wander about as you please; your things will not be confiscated if you leave them unattended. There are no announcements. You will not wait in line. There is no security, except that which is designed to make your life more comfortable. You will not be asked to walk through an x-ray machine or show anyone any paperwork. There are computers available if you would like to use them and free wireless if you brought your own. You will leave whenever you like and stay as long as you please. And how nice, since the facilities are incredibly comfortable.
Steve let me borrow these photos from the Houston Million Air. The main desk:
A lovely place to sit and watch TV comfortably:
And if that isn’t good enough for you, a free, private cinema:
There were also free magazines about things like investments, yachts, and other expensive things:
This is where I got the ads and articles aimed at exeedingly rich people that I have been posting recently (see here, here and here).
When we decide to leave, we just waltz out to our plane, jump in and taxi to the runway. We would call ground control, say “we’re ready,” and they’d say “go ahead.” We never waited more than three or four minutes to get clearance to take off.
When we landed, we’d taxi over to the terminal, jump out of the plane and wander in. The interaction would go something like this:
THEM: Welcome Sir and Miss. Can we get your bags?
STEVE: Please.
[They go out and start unloading the plane.]
THEM: Can we arrange for a hotel?
STEVE: Why yes.
THEM: Will do. Would you prefer downtown or on the water?
STEVE: The water will be lovely.
THEM: One moment, please. [The hotel is called.] Your room is booked. Would you like us to arrange a rental car for you or would you like a ride to the hotel?
STEVE: We will take a rental car, please.
THEM: It will be just a few minutes. Please enjoy our complimentary beverages, delightful morsels, overstuffed chairs, and free wireless while you wait.
STEVE: We certainly will.
I am totally not kidding.
You could also call ahead and request a rental car. In this case, they would drive it right up to your plane, unload your bags for you, and you’d just scoot across the tarmac and be off!
One final tidbit:
Steve and I left the U.S. and entered five different countries over the course of our trip. We got through Canada and Greenland without being asked for our passports. Iceland would be both the first and the last place we were required to show I.D. Denmark and France welcomed us with wide arms and trust. We were the special people.
UPDATE: Several commenters pointed out that once Steve and I were through Iceland, the law grants us entry to Denmark and France without I.D. Thanks for the correction!
I found these three ads for a private jet service in those magazines for excrutiatingly excruciatingly rich people that I’ve been posting from lately. Each ad–one for Marquis Jet and two for Delta AirElite–are pitching their service by suggesting that having a membership in their private jet service will help them be a good Dad because they can get home–for dinner, the game, or some quality time–from anywhere fast. Comments below.
Text:
It’s not just a card.
It’s a choice.
A choice to escape from it all.
A choice to get closer to what’s important.
Text:
9:00AM. Meeting with group of investors.
1:30PM. Meeting with district managers.
7:00PM. The most important meeting of all.
Text:
Make 120 sales pitches on the road.
Listen to pitches in 25 different company offices.
Be there for the most important pitch.
It’s pretty unusual to see ads that highlight a Dad’s relationship with his children. And that’s pretty neat. But, second, the implication is that only men at the extremes of economic success can “afford” to be an ideal father. Hypothetically, I wonder how many people working for that Dad have the privilege of taking a private jet and getting home in time for dinner? My guess would be: Very few. In that sense, these ads uphold the idea that men’s primary role in their children’s lives involves bringing home the bacon and, if you’re really, really, really good at that (and really, really lucky and, likely, very privileged to begin with), you get to be a part of their lives too.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
I found this two page article in a travel magazine aimed at extremely, excessively, egregiously rich people. There is a long history of exploration tourism in which locals are positioned as subservient–see, for example, this colonial era travel poster–and this history immediately came to mind when I saw these two pages.
There is nothing overt here, but I did notice that the author tells us the name of the elephant, but not the guide. It may not seem like a big thing, but this erasure of the African guides as subjects is troubling to me given the history. Text below the images.
Text:
We were about 100 feet from a herd of Cape buffalo. They stood perfectly still, their curly horns giving them a comical George Washington-wig look. Even though they are one of the deadliest of the big six animals, from where we stood they looked almost cuddly. My elephant handler stayed just long enough for me to get several great photos before urging Lundi, the elephant we were riding, to move forward. My guide saw several giraffes up ahead and wanted to get there before they galloped away.
Update: The confusion in the comments brought to my attention that I embedded the wrong commercial. See! I’m not crazy! Just incompetent.
Enjoy the corrected post:
At least that’s the message I’m taking from this Utah Tourism advertisement featuring anthropomorphized snowflakes (found here):
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78RZ-UgIMrM[/youtube]
Before there were flight attendants, there were stewardesses. Below a vintage commercial for airlines (found here thanks to AdFreak, see also this print ad):
While pressure on airlines to be less sexist means that we don’t see ads like this anymore, Stephen W. alerted us to the ongoing sexism in “general aviation,” that is private planes and jets owned by individuals and companies.
Airports have FBOs (or “fixed based operators”) which are, essentially, glorified gas stations for planes. A private pilot can choose which airport and thus FBO, or which FBO at which airport, to patronize. So FBOs will compete for customers. Stephen pointed to one strategy: plying pilots, assumed to be men, with sex.
This website allows pilots to see what “FBO Girls” all over the country, the women working behind the counters at FBOs, look like. Another website, FBO Hotties, allows pilots to submit their favorite girls.
Flower Aviation promises that you will be guided into your parking spot by “girls in short ‘skorts’ and tank tops.”
Here are some of the images from the website, notice that when you spend money on fuel, they reward you with red meat (and fresh baked chocolate chip cookies):
So, there you have it. Private aviation, still very much a man’s world.
Other than the objectification, I think an interesting sociological question might be: Why have the airlines dropped overt sexist advertising, while general aviation has not? One possibility is that general aviation is, literally, less public and, thus, less vulnerable to public censor. Another may be that pilots are still overwhelmingly men, unlike the customers served by airlines, and so there may still be profit in sexism for general aviation, but not in commercial aviation. I’d welcome your thoughts as well.
This sign was posted in sight of the customer at the Days Inn (where I stayed when I failed to get out of Logan airport after the American Sociological Association meetings in August of 2008). I have incuded three observations after the image and text.
Text:
At Days Inns…
We Promise…
“Service with a smile, a cheerful greeting, a pleasant Hello.”We Mean It When We Say…
“It’s no trouble at all.”We Want To Know…
“If you enjoyed your stay.”Because At Days Inn…
“We look forward to seeing you again.”That’s our promise to you from every member of the Days Inn family.
(1) It is a nice example of the kind of emotional work that employees are required to do. It’s not just about getting customers into rooms efficiently and politely, it’s about a putting on a shit-eating grin and kissing their asses. Or else you’re fired.
(2) It’s also an example of a for-profit company calling itself a “family.” You are supposed to do things selflessly for your family, but you work at a job for money. Comparing a company to a family, I suspect, is one way to get employees to give to the company out of kinship-like duty instead of on contractual terms for money. This, of course, and ironically, lines the pockets of executives quite nicely.
(3) The logic behind their use of quotation marks eludes me.
NEW: I took these picture in a Kaiser Permanente hospital in Hollywood in October 2008. Close-ups and remarks below.
Like in the Days Inn example, employees at Kaiser are to do more than simply do their job effectively, they must do it “pleasant[ly]” and with “care.” It is one thing to be instructed to “gather information with consideration for confidentiality,” and quite another to be asked to “convey trust and confidence.” Scholars of emotion work note that the emotional part of jobs is (1) rarely seen as a skill or (2) a toll that makes your job trying and is, therefore, (3) undercompensated. Yet, the ability to “convey trust and confidence” in strangers is certainly a special one and the health insurance employee that can do that is certainly valuable. Unfortunately, like with other type of care work (i.e., nursing, teaching), that “value” is mostly lipservice and rarely translates into anything with exchange value (i.e., CASH).
For another example of emotion work, this one a sneak look behind the counter, click here.
