Dear you,
I’m sure by this point you’ve heard about the United Airlines incident–it’s been all over the news and various social media outlets. This issue was first brought to my attention when I was on Twitter, scrolling through tweets, when I saw various celebrities and news outlets tweeting about a young woman wearing leggings, and how she wasn’t allowed to board her flight. My initial reaction to this issue was “What? Are we really that sexualized of a society, to not allow a girl on a flight for wearing leggings?” I think it would be uncomfortable not to fly in leggings. I was just on vacation in Hawaii, and would have been PISSED if I couldn’t go because I was wearing a certain style of clothing.
I was very disappointed in United Airlines–as someone who advocates for freedom of expression in clothing and lifestyle, I could feel myself getting angry. Various celebrities like Chrissy Teigen and Sarah Silverman were tweeting up a storm, stating how they refused to fly United from now on and were speaking against them. THEN–I decided to read the full story. United Airlines clearly states that when people are passholders, or fly for free (yes, free of charge), or are employees of the company, they are held to higher standards, meaning they need to comply to other significant rules and regulations, that may be extensive.
There is a specific rule that passengers who fly with a passholder ticket are not allowed to wear spandex shirts, pants, shorts, be barefoot, short shorts, etc. The employee at United was just doing their job by not allowing someone to fly–who was violating rules that they agreed to and signed. It is a little frustrating to see the outrage over this topic–people jump to conclusions and will believe anything they see on social media, especially Twitter or Facebook. Make sure to get information from a reliable news source. I, too fell into the trap of believing this was a case of sexism and body shaming, but then read the entire, full story that can be found here.
As society, as millenials, we need to learn to be media literate and read up on actual, credible news sources. Celebrities probably aren’t the most reliable source either–they use their following influence others. Your opinion is YOURS–but realize this was a case of failure to comply to rules and regulations, not sexism.
From,
A Feminist
An Anti-Rape Culture
Activist A Woman