Anger over 'sexist' Virgin airline advertisement
Women must not look attractive!
"Virgin Atlantic has been accused of sexism over a steamy advertising campaign featuring crowds lusting over sexy female cabin crew. A string of complaints have been made to Britain's advertising watchdog arguing that the ad is insulting to women.
The 90-second television ad shows red-suited cabin crew walking through an airport for Virgin Atlantic's first flight in 1984. Onlookers turn their heads and men ogle the sexy hostesses with dreamy looks on their faces, enthralled with the progression. One man drops his mobile phone and another squirts sauce from his hamburger down his shirt.
The ending of the ad shows a scantily-dressed woman painted on the side of the Virgin plane winking as the plane takes off, with the line "still red hot".
Source
Video of the ad at the link.
18 comments:
Ah for the good old days, when stewardesses (not flight attendants) were fun to look at. Not any more - the harridans on my last few flights could have passed for Janet Reno clones.
Talk about flying the friendly skies! If that ad even slightly resembled their stewardesses (excuse me, flight attendants), Virgin Airlines would own business class forever.
It is this kind of PC thinking that did away with all the hot stewardesses and replaced them with old, fat, frumpy, unfriendly 'flight attendants'. All in the name of 'progress' and 'equal rights'. I understand that treating women like second class citizens is wrong, but when was that extended to the enjoyment one receives from just looking at a pretty girl. Thank God this concept has not invaded the NFL. Yet.
Sarcasm On
I can't believe all the Neanderthals taking the time out of their knuckle dragging and stone banging to post in favor of objectifying women! In these enlightened times, we do NOT "ogle" women who fit some patriarchal mold of sexual attractiveness - nor do we debase them by using the tendency of the unenlightened to do so by using them in advertising.
I'm aghast, I tell you - aghast!
Sarcasm Off
Back in the early 70's National Airlines luanched their "Fly Me' Ad campaign and the feminazi's had a huge hissey fit. This is pretty much "same old-same old".
Show me a pretty a female stewardess any day. It used to make flying much more interesting. Has anyone actually flown Hooters Airline? Just curious if they're in T-shirts and hot pants :)
I bet the whiners are all Pelosi look-alikes.
Stan B, good one. Normal men still look at beautiful women. That's just the way it is. If the rest of society would get that through their collective heads, the world would be a better place. Are women just sex objects? No, but why are men always portrayed as wimps in commercials now? If the prudes would have their way, the species would cease to exist.
Hello Good Gentles All!
Freud was truly onto something when he asked, "What do women want?"
As a man who has a mother and three older sisters I have gained a little bit of insight into women's minds. (BTW, as a kid the hand-me-downs were awful.)
First:
All women want to be thought pretty. However, many women want to be told they are pretty only if they have an interest in the man telling them. A beautiful woman who is told she is pretty by George Clooney will not be offended. That same woman who is told she is pretty by Mr. Whipple will file a complaint.
We used to have a saying in HR, "If you do it and get married it's courtship, if you do the exact same thing and get fired it's harrassment. Good luck."
Second:
Many women are perpetually offended for usually no good reason.
Once when boarding an aircraft there was a young woman (25-ish) ahead of me attempting to place a bag in a first class overhead bin. She was about 5ft tall, skinny and the bag was half her size. I asked her if she would like some help. She turned on me and in a semi-vicious tone growled in a raised voice, "I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself!" She had with her a traveling companion of simliar age and tonnage who looked at me with a face that silently said, "I am not a jerk like she is." I resolved to stand in the aisleway and wait until she was done, no matter how long that might take. I would not help her and neither would anyone else after her outburst to me. I would not allow anyone to go past me. I just stood there blocking traffic mute and aloof. Eventually her traveling companion realised that no one was going to help so she got up and helped Miss Rude put her bag in the bin. After they had both sat down and as I was walking past where this girl was seated I looked at her and said, "Chivalry isn't dead, it's out of a job."
Third:
Women have no one but themselves to blame for the lousy state of male-female relations. The simple fact is that they destroyed the civilized rules of behavior between the sexes deliberately and are now bemoaning the fact that men no longer play by the rules they themselves rejected.
I once explained this error by describing to a female friend of mine what the new deal created by women now is:
We get to date you.
We get to bed you.
We do not have to call you.
We do not have to make any commitments.
And now you get to pay half the bill.
Way to negotiate!
Fourth:
Although women want to cancel the long established rules of behavior between the sexes they really only intended to cancel their half of the arrangement.
To wit:
I was once walking down a long, narrow hallway at the office at the end of which was a large heavy wooden door. Ahead of me at the door was one of the radical office feminists who was carrying an armfull of books and also clutching a pencil between her fingers. While attempting to open the door she dropped the pencil. We both stood there looking down at the pencil and then at each other, she with her armful of books. I looked her squarely in the eye and said, "You've come a long way baby," and I walked through the door leaving the pencil on the floor and allowing the door to close behind me with her still on the wrong side of it. It was particularly satisfying because this person took great pains to always criticise the unequal or 'oppressive' treatment of women by men, particularly such things as opening doors and rising on a woman's approach to the table. (Things I still do, btw.)
What these women want is to be treated as men when it suits them and to be treated as women when that is preferable.
In essence, women wanted to create not a new standard but a double standard.
Fifth and last:
A longtime lady friend of mine was once complaining of her dating experiences and love life generally. She was disappointed at how commitments from men are so unforthcomming and how men simply want to goof off and never get serious. She also commented about how all her friends were having similar problems and had the same complaints.
I explained to her what the problem was and I offer it to all women who read this.
From a man's perspective there are two kinds of women, those you marry and those you date. The old expression was, "Is she the kind of you girl you can take home to mother?"
The mistake that my friend was making was that she was being one of the girls men date.
The sexual revolution allowed women the opportunity to be hounds just like men. It allowed women the opportunity to have lots of sex with men whom they would never marry or have children. The miscalculation by women is that men can not tell the difference between a promiscuous floozy and a promiscuous nice girl. They are both naked and easy.
I advised my friend that if she wanted her situation to improve that A, she should elevate her standards in men by about 10 notches, B, only date men who are actually decent and marriagable, C, explain to any man she dates that she is not an amusement park ride and if he is just looking for 'fun' he should look elsewhere. She is now much happier.
The simple truth, far too long ignored, is that the old social order worked well at producing stable families and successful marriages.
In closing, I can answer Freud's question.
What do women want?
They want what they want, when they want it, the way they want it, and in whatever way gives to them all the advantages and none of the disadvantages of the situation.
Pax,
InFides
I'll bet Richard Branson's shaking in his shoes.
Infides,
I would like to re-post your post and also pass this along to a couple of "women" that I know. Do you mind?
Hello McNasty!
As the dogface 'volunteered' to clear a minefield might ask his sergeant, "OK. But are you sure this is for my own good?"
I have other experiences as well.
I remember after I had moved to the deep South and had lived there for about 2 years I went back to California for a Christmas holiday. I was at a party hosted by an old, old friend of many years. As is usual during a party among well acquainted people, the group ultimately congregated in the kitchen, truly the heart of the home. (I would rather break bread among friends than share gold with strangers.) After some time chatting of this and that my host asked me what was the biggest difference between living down South and living in California. I replied that in my job, though I meet many women, it was not until I moved down South that I started to meet ladies.
The interesting thing about this was that every man in the room knew exactly what I meant but not one of the women. One woman even asked me, "Do you mean they are stupid?" To which I replied, "Oh no. That is not what I said." When pressed to explain my remark I realised that there was no way I was going to be able to explain myself without thoroughly insulting this woman. I let the matter drop.
There is not a lady born for whom I would not sacrifice my life if needs required it. The feminists are on their own.
Use my post as you see fit.
I bid you all peace.
Pax,
InFides
"What do women want?
They want what they want, when they want it, the way they want it, and in whatever way gives to them all the advantages and none of the disadvantages of the situation."
Well stated InFides. Women are always complaining about being the "victims" of someone or something. The truth is, they are usually victims of their own actions.
"What do women want?
"They want what they want, when they want it, the way they want it, and in whatever way gives to them all the advantages and none of the disadvantages of the situation."
Good analogy InFides.
Now take the above and substitute Liberal for women!
Hell, I'd be happy with ANY female flight attendant, regardless of how she looks. Lately, all I ever see are prissy gay men "happy to serve". Eeeeewwwww!
Hello McNasty!
It occurred to me to ask if you would please give us a follow-up of what the people to whom you showed the post had to say. It will be quite illuminating I am sure.
Pax,
InFides
An old adage sums it up - women want their cake and eat it too!
Infides,
Being from the Deep South, I do appreciate & very much understand your meaning in the latter post.
As far as reactions, so far, I have shown this to just one woman that for 30 yrs was a friend of mine but eventually turned into a man-hater. Her only comment was "asshole". I'm not sure if she meant you, me or both:)
AS a side note, one thing that truly confounds me is how you can get two opposing opinions on the same subject from one woman and then she thinks you stupid because you don't understand. If not stupid then you're "just benig difficult". Go figure.
Hello McNasty!
"... turned into a man-hater."
What do you suppose caused this to occur?
"AS a side note, one thing that truly confounds me is how you can get two opposing opinions on the same subject from one woman ..."
I have always harbored the belief that women do not like men to understand them. The supposed confusion and illogic is merely an attempt to keep the waters muddied and thus, maintain the upper hand. Much as when they start to cry when the argument has gotten out of their control.
I was once in the office of a feminist who had on the shelf of a bookcase a small sign that said women are smarter than men because women know what men think while men do not know what women think. I asked her if she believed this was true, to which question I received a firm 'yes.' I then asked if it ever even occurred to her that men do know what women think but we simply do not care enough to argue about it or get upset?
The look on her face was, as the advertisement says, priceless.
"... Her only comment was "asshole". I'm not sure if she meant you, me or both:)"
I will accept full possession of her comment. After all, it was my post and stand by all of it. Curious how she had no counterargument but only profanity and personal invective.
If I may stoop to the level of the feminine and be a bit catty ...
I am willing to be called an a.....e but, regrettably, I can not return the compliment. After all, unlike her, an a.....e serves a useful function. Meow!
All kidding aside, I would be happy to hear from her a more articulate expression of her opinion of what I said.
I bid you all peace.
Pax,
InFides
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