Earlier Sunday morning, United Airlines started a Twitter war with Shannon Watts, founder of Mom's Demand Action. She observed an airline agent not allowing two girls, about ten years old, to board their 7:55 a.m. flight from Denver International Airport because they were wearing yoga pants.
United is allowed to enforce a dress code and it's left up to the gate agents to decide whether the current outfit is acceptable or not. However, there is no specific guideline to what is or what isn't acceptable. In their Contract of Carriage, Rule 21, it states that UA has "the right to refuse to transport or shall have the right to remove from the aircraft at any point" and under point H.5 of Rule 21, it only states, "Passengers who are barefoot or not properly clothed." Nowhere in Rule 21, does it clarify what constitutes as "not properly clothed."
United responded to Watts, explaining that the girls were United pass travelers, as they were flying under an employee ticket and are therefore representing United Airlines and there is a strict dress code for anyone who is traveling as a Pass traveler. Under the dress code it restricts, "revealing outfits that show midriff, underwear or see through, shorts 3 inches above the knee, skirts, spandex, tight dresses or pants, tears and holes, dirty, inappropriate graphics or phrases, flip flops or bare feet." It's clear the majority of the dress code is focused towards women's clothing options.
Why is it that there are so many dress codes out that focus on how women should dress? Is it really fair to call out women in dressing in an inappropriate way when the current fashion style is a certain way? For example, a lot of places say that women can only wear shorts if they're Bermuda style, settling between at the knee and two inches above, but how is that fair when the current style is short-shorts and women literally have to go search multiple stores before finding a decent pair? As it is at the moment, the fashion industry makes it difficult for women to comply with a lot of the dress codes that are put forth by a lot of companies. On the other hand, a lot of the dress codes are more sexist than anything.
I worked at a local restaurant for a little more than a year, and when I started, the current Manager told me that women were allowed to wear skirts and shorts, but not spandex pants. The specifications for the skirts and shorts were that they had to be an appropriate length, but they couldn't be maxi skirts. We had a balcony area that overlooked the kitchen, so obviously we were aware the cooks could look up our skirts if they were too short (to be honest, you couldn't see anything because there were tables next to the railing so the servers were too far over to have anything showing), and wearing maxis provided a risk when you walked up the stairs with plates of food. It was probably nine months into working there when the dress code changed because a cook "couldn't focus" because of how the women were dressed. So during a summer of 100-degree weather, all the women were dressed in jeans and dark t-shirts while the men were allowed to wear shorts. A little unfair to women.
So women get punished because men can't focus? How is that fair?
This happens everywhere not just in businesses. People still talk about Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction during the SuperBowl Halftime show in 2004. The flash last for less than a second and that's all people remember. A less than a second and that's it; it's all over. People will just find anything just to make a stink about something.
Women who are dressed according to their religion, like any of the women in the Middle East, get punished because that means they're hiding something. WHAT?! They're immediately targeted as potential terrorists in other countries because they can hide stuff under their clothes. Do you remember last August in Cannes when three women were fined for wearing burkinis ?
In 2015, the start of schools enforcing dress codes on women really started a controversy in the United States. Girls were getting sent home for having their bra straps showing, their shoulders showing, wearing a skirt or shorts that were two inches above the knee, or not covering themselves to how the school would like and all because it's too distracting for the boys. Why is that fair? Why should girls' education be jeopardized for clothing choices?
WOMEN SHOULD NOT BE SEXUALIZED AND THEN BE PUNISHED FOR IT.
To all the guys who read this, have you ever stopped and wondered how it affects women? You may consider yourself on the side of feminist and fight for women's rights because you respect women or maybe you don't care. But just stop and think, while how women dress doesn't affect you directly, would you be willing to stand up and fight a stupid rule like not allowing two ten-year-olds to board a plane because of yoga pants? Do you realize the psychological damage that gives someone? In this culture, it's a subtle jab at saying women are sluts because of how they dress, which leads to stupid men saying women "deserve" to be raped because of how they dressed.
Most women who work in skirts and high heels are the real MVPs. Stop and think about that for a minute. When dress codes require women to be in professional pencil skirts/dresses and heels and they're still doing as much or more than men and having maybe one wardrobe malfunction, that's impressive.
Stop body shaming. Stop the stupid rules on how women should dress. Just let women decide how they should dress. Let us be comfortable! Stop putting so much pressure on little girls to be perfect in how they dress. Women's bodies are not the property of men and the government shouldn't be involved.
