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Female flight attendants on Cathay Pacific recently won the right to wear pants on the job. But where do the airlines of India stand in this regard?
As we celebrate the victory of the female flight attendants on Cathay Pacific, let’s take a moment to think about our own country’s situation.
In 2015, India’s most reputed government airline, Air India, introduced a change in their uniform to allow western formals for women and more contemporary designs for men. The women now had three different uniforms to choose from – traditional bright yellow sari with a red border, a long black jacket with trousers, and a yellow kurta with black trousers. At first glance, this may seem like a great move, after all, saris, like skirts are not comfortable for everyone (or safe – they are hard to move in, in the event of an emergency landing), and forcing female attendants to wear them is unfair.
Interestingly though, the female flight attendants themselves protested against the change saying that it was a waste of time and money. Especially because it came at a time when Air India didn’t have much money and the attendants’ jobs were under threat. What was the real reason for this change in their uniform? Air India simply wanted to increase its profits and changing its uniforms was a step in that direction, because western outfits are perceived as more ‘modern’ and having a wider appeal. As a result, the change was yet another way of using people as tools to promote a particular image and wasn’t empowering to women at all.
On the 6th of February, 2017, SpiceJet – another popular Indian airline – brought about a change in their staff’s uniforms to make them, “Redder, Hotter and Spicier.” They were thinking along the same lines as Air India did in 2015, i.e., they were trying to give themselves an image makeover. And the female staff were the ones who they concentrated on making ‘sexier’. Here is a description of the uniform of the female flight attendants:
“For instance, the summer wear for the female cabin crew will include a one-piece dress. They will be attired in a short shift dress, cut and sewn and detailed with accessory elements like a sling bag and box heels; for service, besides a pinafore inspired apron.”
SpiceJet’s idea was to sell their brand by selling women’s ‘sexiness’. You can see this in the image below, note the sharp contrast between the ‘sexiness’ of the male and female uniforms, which I sourced from the article cited immediately above.
These are not the only two cases of Indian airlines trying to use their female flight attendants (by giving them a particular dress code) as selling points. Fashion has often been given importance over function, especially when it comes to women. Whether a uniform is comfortable and safe for the female flight attendants is often overlooked in favour of making them look good for the passengers.
Advertising a woman’s sexuality in places where such an advertisement is not necessary, is not a new method. And it is used by airlines too, to attract potential passengers. But isn’t it high time we changed that?
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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