Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Travel wear - Do's and Do not's.

So, Sadly, No! took a recent column by Dennis Prager of the National Review, and dismissed it thusly with one of their usual 'shorter' posts:
God says that men flying around on airplanes in women’s clothing, even if their penises are covered, might as well be flying around naked.
While this pretty much does capture the spirit of Prager's post, it's worth it to click on the original to see what exactly has got his panties in such a twist. Upon doing so we find this horrifying tale:

On June 9, a man boarded a U.S. Airways flight from Fort Lauderdale to Phoenix, dressed in women’s panties, a bra, and thigh-high stockings.

No U.S. Airways employee at the Fort Lauderdale airport asked him to cover himself. Nor did any flight attendant ask him to do so. And obviously, no one demanded that he get off the plane.

I have to say, I'm a little sympathetic to Prager's point here. I wouldn't want some middle-aged guy in panties and a tank-top sitting next to me on an airplane. Hell, I wouldn't want most middle-aged women seated next to me in bra and panties. Hell, I usually don't want Anyone sitting next to me on an airplane regardless of his or her personal fashion sense.

Now, I get that as a columnist you often take small events and use them to make a larger point about society, and it's using this common technique that Prager makes himself look like the small-minded ass-hole I have little doubt he is. He continues:

The decline of American civilization since the 1960s has been so fast and so dramatic that it takes one’s breath away.

That a woman speaking on behalf of a major airline can say with a straight face that her airline allows anyone dressed or undressed to fly on its airplanes, so long as they do not expose their genitals, perfectly encapsulates this decline.

The only question is: How did we get here?

For one thing, the concept of decency is dying. I suspect that if an adult were to say to a group of randomly chosen American college students that this man indecently exposed himself and should not have been allowed to fly, that adult would be (a) not understood (what does “indecent” mean?) or (b) roundly condemned for intolerance and bigotry.

Hippies! Damn dirty hippies. This is what is so funny to me about people like Prager. One person acts like a selfish prick and it all goes back to the 60s, when the dirty hippies totally ruined everything. First, the idea that decency is dying has been a theme since well before the 60s. It's called getting old, Prager, you prick. As you get older you have less fun (if you ever did) and everyone having fun seems indecent. Second, I love the blanket statement, that college students would approve of this. I personally suspect they would hand Airport Man a ping-pong ball and ask him to totally come party at the beer pong championship! And my opinion is just as valid, because, I, like Prager, didn't actually ASK any fucking college students what they might think if this guy was trying to waltz onto their flight.

But, the truly great thing about this story is that if you click the link to it on Prager's article, you find things go even deeper.

Six days before a college football player was arrested at San Francisco International Airport in a dispute that began when a US Airways employee asked him to pull up his sagging pants, a man who was wearing little but women's undergarments was allowed to fly the airline, a US Airways spokeswoman conceded Tuesday.

A photo of the scantily clad man was provided to The Chronicle by Jill Tarlow, a passenger on the June 9 flight from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to Phoenix. Tarlow said other passengers had complained to airline workers before the plane boarded, but that employees had ignored those complaints.

So, basically, a black kid with his underwear sticking out couldn't get on the plane, because one airline screener decided it was inappropriate. And one middle-aged white dude got on wearing women's underwear because another airline employee decided to not give a shit. Of course, Prager makes no mention of the guy who DID get sidelined from his flight due to questionable fashion sense, because it would totally get in the way of his wingnut narrative about the hippies who totally destroyed America.

But, given the situation, I believe we can come to only one conclusion, America is completely tolerant, except when we're busy being intolerant, and it all really depends on which asshole is on duty at the check-in desk.

Anyway...

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