Meet the ... Fashion Police
By now you've probably read or heard the story about Southwest Airlines booting a female passenger from a flight for wearing a "Meet the Fuckers" T-shirt lampooning Bush, Cheney and Condi Rice. That's right, Washington native Lorrie Heasley was bounced off the flight after refusing to turn her T-shirt inside out.
It's worth pointing out that Heasley's refusal came hours into the flight, and only after she had already agreed to wad up a sweatshirt and place it over the offending word. But the sweatshirt fell to the floor once she fell asleep. That's when the Southwest Airlines crew put the screws to the woman to turn the T-shirt inside out ... or else.
The part that most amazes me, however, is that the T-shirt only became an issue, according to a Southwest spokeswoman, after "several passengers complained."
Several complained? This is the sort of keep-your-nose-outta-my-business foolishness that makes me wonder sometimes if I am a latent libertarian or just fed up to here with people. Why would a passenger, and several passengers, at that, be offended enough to complain to a flight attendant?
What business is it of theirs? The only way I could begin to understand such busy-bodied B.S. is if the offended passenger was with a young child who could read the slogan. But even then I don't think it would occur to me that the T-shirted nimrod had forfeited his or her right to travel. I would either 1) Try to avert the kid's eyes, or 2) Point out to my child that the clod wearing the obscenity-laced shirt is exactly the sort of numb-nut that my kid should not aspire to be.
In the course of a day, we are offended constantly. A salesperson is rude or flippant. Someone blows cigarette smoke your way. The person at the next table at lunch drops an F-bomb. Someone elbows you on the subway. You smell a fart in the elevator. Life is made up of a gazillion slights, both real and imagined. Are people so frigging brittle that they would be complicit in having a fellow passenger be bounced from a flight because her T-shirt had a bad word on it?
It sounds to me as if Lorrie Heasley's T-shirt proved prescient, indeed. To be sure, she met the fuckers. They were aboard a Southwest Airlines flight.
posted by Chase McInerney @ 11:19 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
I can see it both ways, Chase.
On the one hand, with a kid myself, I don't appreciate it when someone drops an f-bomb in public (like at a theater or restaurant; it seems to happen increasingly) without a thought to civility or decorum. If they do, I'm going to say something about it (and have).
Whatever happened to the expectation that our public places would require decorum?
On the other hand, there's that little free speech thing.
Still, hopefully the cause of latent libertarianism doesn't call for me to simply sit there and take it if I disapprove, nor that I'm required to remove myself from a public place if I think the T-shirt or language represents a deterioration in our culture.
Shouldn't it be the other way around?
I can't see using a T-shirt with the f-word on it as an object lesson for my four-year-old: "Hey look kiddo, see that word. Say it with me, 'FU*K' That's a bad word, honey. Say it again so you can remember that's a bad word. Okay?"
No. Sorry. Can't see it.
And I don't like the idea that I'd have to shield her eyes constantly. Is it too much to ask people to act like adults and not walk around with filthy words emblazoned on their clothes?
We know that, however misguided it was, Prohibition was a reaction to rampant public drunkneness, alcoholism and liquor-soaked violence in late 19th century America.
Could the same be said for anti-obscenity laws that are still on the books in many states?
Red Dirt, I don't disagree that there should be an onus on people to be respectful and considerate -- I sure don't mean to defend wearing an obscene T-shirt in public (I did when I was in college, on a few occasions, but I'd like to blame that on the vagaries of youth ... and gin). What I find amazing is going to the degree of playing a part in someone being bounced from a $200+ airline ticket. Asking someone at the next table to keep it down is one thing ... asking someone to turn off their cell phone in a movie is one thing ... but it just seems to me that asking someone to change their clothing or be left in Reno -- RENO! -- is something else.
Yeah, Reno. That was pretty harsh.
From cut-rate airlines to casino gambling hell.
Admit it, you're a closet libertarian, you're just not ready to come out yet.
I don't wear obscene shirts (anymore), and although I don't care if--and am sometimes amused when--people choose to "express" themselves this way, I can understand people being upset. Those people need to remember, though, that their rights to express displeasure at this shirt are the same rights that allow this person to wear it. I would actually rather see the most offensive shirt in the world than hear parent/child bathroom talk...
Ok, granted, I missed the story, but from the recap it sounds like she agreed to cover the word and the sweatshirt fell off 'once she fell asleep' so... she was in compliance for a little while...did any one stop to investigate the possibility that perhaps several passengers ripped the sweatshirt from her to have her booted? Well? Did they? Probably not, but it sounds more interesting to me.
Much as I can appreciate the sentiment, I think it's perfectly reasonable for the airline to ask her to turn her t-shirt inside out, especially if other passangers with children were complaining. This wasn't a rock concert or your brother's house party. This was someone's place of business. A business that caters to everyone including families. Most people wouldn't want their kids to see it any more than their grandmother. Would she have worn that shirt to Disneyland? Probably. But then I wouldn't blame Disneyland for refunding her money and asking her to leave.
There is a difference between expressing ideas and plain obscenity. Of course, when anyone wears their ideology on their shirt, they better expect the consequences. I have a t-shirt that reads "Christianity Is Stupid." I wore it exactly once as I ended up in an argument everywhere I went from the 7-11 to Pearl's Oyster Bar. While the shirt was not "obscene," it taught me a lesson about wearing such slogans in public. As someone who really doesn't like confrontations, I should have known better.
Then there is the classicly offensive "Silly Faggot, Dicks Are For Chicks!" shirt that was popular a while back and actually made me, a proud faggot myself, laugh the first time I saw it. Still, when I caught a teenage girl wearing one in the movie theater I was managing at the time, I asked her and her friends to leave and not return until she had changed her attire, citing, not the disgusting hate speech, but the two words that are still banned from prime time.
It may seem like a convenient way to remove messages we don't like from the public forum, but unless you have sense enough to express those ideas with some modicum of decorum and taste, you better expect to be challenged at the restaurant, on the plane or at the mall. The point is, this woman knew perfectly well what she was doing. Being asked to turn your shirt inside out isn't the same thing as being asked to sit at the back of the bus.
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