Sexual Objectification of Air Hostesses.

Women flight attendants commonly referred to as Air Hostesses. But unfortunately, so is their objectification. So, how did this sexual objectification of air Hostesses begin? 

In early 1900s, only men were employed as flight attendants. It was only in 1930 that the world's first woman flight attendant,  Ellen Church was hired by United Airlines. Right from the start, women had to meet two main provisions to get the job. The first one was that air travel was relatively new, so they had to be registered nurses to deal with passengers who got air sickness or got scared from flying. And second was they had to meet rigid physical appearance requirements. So, the first provision was quickly done away with. But sexist physical requirements remained and were publically advertised!!  

But what really entrenched the sexualisation of the air hostess in popular culture was, no surprises there – the advertising!! Especially from the 60’s onwards American ads objectified flight attendants in a variety of infuriating ways and airline advertisers the world over followed suit.

But how were things at home, here in India? Women flight attendants were employed with government run Air India from the 1940’s itself. And here, too, ads always focused on the beauty of the air hostess as a means of selling the airline. 

The Air Hostesses were required to dress like their Western counterparts, till the uniform changed to Saree and other traditional Indian Attire in the 1960’s. 

Ad campaigns accordingly changed to emphasize the exotic appeal of an Indian air hostess, and hence the Indian flying experience. With globalization and more foreign airlines, there seemed to be a shift to a Western aesthetic of beauty. But the prettiness of the air hostesses remain central to airline’s marketing. But this sexual objectification isn’t just perpetuated by the airlines right? Most of the passengers who want to travel in these airlines need their air hostesses to look a certain way. 

You can check online the questions people ask related to the Air hostesses. But these sexist standards haven’t been silently obeyed. There is a history of protest by flight attendants which took of in the west. Women flight attendants won the right to keep their jobs. If they wore glasses get married or pregnant or exceeded company age guidelines through successive lawsuits. 

As ridiculous as these rules even sound sometimes it took women more than 20 years to gain these simple, seemingly commonsensical rights. In India too in the late 70’s and 80’s, Air India flight attendants fought similar battle in courts. But the sexualisation and harassment of flight attendants continue to be pervasive today. 

They have to give quite difficult exams to master first aid training, emergency training and many more.