Flight Attendants or Models?

Reading the first reading assignment for The Beauty Myth reminded me of mom’s close friends who worked as a flight attendant at a Japanese airline a few years ago until they were fired for being ‘too old’ at the age of 30.

During their job interview, they were not only judged based on their quality of work, but also their physical appearance: beauty. One of them thought they were competing in some beauty competition because they were told to walk in a single line, as a model would do in a fashion show, and they even had to do their entire makeup in front of the judges.  One thing I found surprising was how the uniforms only came in certain sizes; extra small and small. And then I wondered what happened to those applicants who couldn’t get the job because of their weight, even though they were very much capable of doing an excellent job.

I thought this tied in to what Naomi Wolf pointed out on page 33, ‘a woman can be fired for not looking right, but looking right remains open to interpretation’. Why did the airline care so much more about beauty than their performance? Shouldn’t the airline hire employees who can perform their tasks well and not people who are beautiful and skinny? I’m pretty confident to say that passengers would rather have flight attendants who can perform their jobs at the very best than those who could be a model in a fashion show.

Some of my mom’s friends were accepted and worked as flight attendants until they were fired at the age of 30, but a few of them were rejected. After spending months of training and studying and all the effort they put into for their dream job, was crushed, all because they were either too fat or weren’t as pretty as the other applicants. They lost their self esteem and hope, and one of them even got depression and had to see a therapist! I mean don’t you think this is just ridiculous? Jobs like these as well as the fashion industry and show business encourages women to lose weight and get plastic surgery. Naomi Wolf reveals on page 52 that ‘urban professional women are devoting up to a third of their income to ‘beauty maintenance,’ and considering it a necessary investment’. Why can’t women just feel happy the way they are? I think it’s such a shame for women to have to undergo plastic surgery for society to accept them.

Although society has been making it hard on women to be comfortable for who they are, I know that if women were able to fight for their equality, they can also fight for society’s acceptance.