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Feminist sayings with Ryan Gosling pictures have
been flooding the internet. This is one of many. |
A popular New York Times
article floating around is about the possibly longest serving flight attendant in the U.S.- an 83 year old man who has been working as a flight attendant for 63 years now. The tone of the article can easily be described as light, heartwarming, or even inspiring. When I saw only the title of the article, I assumed the subject of the article would me a woman because of occupational crowding- men or women being grouped in a certain job because it is the right "fit" for their gender. I do not think it was presumptive of me to jump to the conclusion that the flight attendant would be a male for a reason stated in the article. The qualifications for a flight attendant used to be: "
single (widows and divorcees with no children considered), 20 years of age (girls 19 1/2 may apply for future consideration). 5’2” but no more than 5’9,” weight 105 to 135 in proportion to height and have at least 20/40 vision without glasses". I suppose it goes without saying that they must we women. Oh and also they were required to retire by 32. These requirements to be a flight attendant are quite appalling. The gall of the executives of this company to put this add out there in 1966, not that long ago, is remarkable. In the next paragraph, the article mentions his personal life: "
He married a fellow flight attendant... He continued to fly. She promptly quit". This should give an idea of just how regulated these things were; these rules of being single and such were played by the book.
Despite this article acknowledging the unfair treatment of women in the work force, it does not mention women's role in the field until the very bottom of the first page and spilling on a tiny bit onto the second. It makes me wonder: how far have we really come? In an article about the unfair treatment of women, why are women only a small portion of the article, and why do they come at the point when most people would stop reading?
I wonder why...No, I don't. You yourself said that the piece was a "light, heartwarming" article. Talking about the oppression of women would just be a wet blanket, wouldn't it?
ReplyDeleteNice catch on this piece. You are clearly seeing the world in a different way.
Why the Gosling photo? Not sure I see the connection.
I thought it was really interesting to hear this because usually, I find that articles like to focus on minorities and women and groups that often get ignored. Makes for better reading I guess. The fact that they didn't talk so much about this stuff could probably be attributed though to the fact that the flight attendant himself is male... I also thought that it was interesting that we always assume that flight attendants are female. I wonder if there were rules based on appearance for male flight attendants too?
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