Too fat to fly.

Beauty image obsessions are just going WAY too far. Indian Airlines has been suspending their female flight attendants for being overweight. Their justification is that they need to save the company image. One company exec actually said, why would you fly with us, if other airlines have better looking staff. I don’t know about you, but I am usually looking for the cheapest ticket and couldn’t care fuck-all what the flight attendants look like. But I guess creepy businessmen flying around Asia may feel differently.

Eleven employees, recently grounded for putting on too much weight, claim that the airline has changed its vision of the Indian feminine ideal – abandoning the more buxom prototype in favour of a more westernised, skinny model, which staff see as ‘unattainable’.
Indian Airlines will argue that this is a case of selecting the ‘best ambassadors’ to represent the national airline, and the country as a whole, and will also claim that thinner employees are more agile and better equipped to tackle terrorist incidents and other emergencies.
‘They want to discard the heavier women and bring in newer, thinner models,’ said Sheela Joshi, an air hostess who was grounded after a spot weigh-in found she was 1.9kg over the prescribed limit for her height.
Distressed at the prospect of losing her job after 25 years with the company, she went on a crash diet, and now eats only one meal a day to try to keep within the limit. She has been allowed to fly again, but describes the process as demeaning. ‘This is our national carrier and should represent the dignity of Indian culture. These new policies are humiliating to women.’

I am sorry. That is just wrong. What the hell does thinness have to do with agility? Hopefully, the Indian Supreme Court will know what’s up and Indian Airlines will LOSE.
via UK Guardian.