Do airlines need dress codes?

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/03/2017 (3292 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s been a turbulent couple days on social media for United Airlines.

On Sunday, a passenger named Shannon Watts tweeted about an incident. “A @united gate agent isn’t letting girls in leggings get on flight from Denver to Minneapolis because spandex is not allowed?” followed by “She’s forcing them to change or put dresses on over leggings or they can’t board. Since when does @united police women’s clothing?”

On its face, that sounds bad — and so, predictably, outrage flared up across social media. Even celebrities such as Chrissy Teigen tweeted about leggingsgate. “I have flown united before with literally no pants on. Just a top as a dress. Next time I will wear only jeans and a scarf.”

But those angrily tweeting were missing some key information. The girls were flying on company passes, United later confirmed. Most major airlines have programs that allow family members and friends to fly at a discount. And company passes come with strict company dress codes.

I know all about this because, as an Air Canada brat, I had to dress up when I flew on my dad’s passes. Even as a little girl. Dresses, stockings, patent shoes, the whole thing.

This rule occasionally created some low-level panic in our house — “WHERE ARE YOUR AIRPLANE SHOES? WE HAVE A PLANE TO CATCH!” — but, when I was small, dressing up to go on the airplane made me feel special, because going on an airplane was special. It was an incredible privilege to fly, especially at such a reduced rate.

That said, adherence to the company dress code ceased roughly around the same time my mom stopped dressing me. I started rebelling in small ways. A black skinny jean here. A tunic over leggings there. Only once, in Montreal en route to Paris, was I tsked and told to change by an agent for wearing black leggings. “I don’t think they’re going to let you on the plane wearing those,” he sniffed, as though I had rolled up to the gate straight from a long day of shovelling manure. It was humiliating, just as it was likely humiliating for the girls in Denver.

Air Canada’s rules have relaxed, somewhat, over the years. Jeans are OK now, but only if they are “basic.” They must not be “ripped, dyed, embellished, autographed (?), studded, neon-coloured, crumpled (?), ill-fitting, etc.” You can’t wear shorts. Yoga pants and leggings are definitely still a hard no. It doesn’t matter if your yoga pants are $100 yoga pants. Air Canada doesn’t care.

The criticism of United, and most other airlines that have similar policies in place, isn’t entirely unfounded. Dress codes tend to skew sexist. They often unfairly target girls and women, since what is considered “inappropriate” almost always has to do with sexualized body parts.

It is often girls’ and women’s bodies that are labelled “distracting.”

But unlike, say, a school dress code that is lopsidedly enforced, airline policies seem more concerned with class than gender.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that airlines would insist that its employees and whoever else is flying with their passes maintain a company image. This is an industry that literally divides its passengers up into classes. No wonder, then, that the subtext is this: if you didn’t pay full price for your ticket, you should at least look like you did.

I agree that policies outlawing sportswear are outdated in an era in which no one dresses up for anything and ‘atheleisure’ continues to be a dominant fashion trend. I agree no one should be humiliated by a gate agent, especially young girls.

And I agree that getting dressed up to sit and breathe recycled air at 35,000 feet seems counterintuitive, especially since the golden days of air travel are long behind us. I mean, why should I wear real pants if you people won’t even feed me dinner?

But I’d also suggest we’ve overcorrected a bit. Many people don’t think of an airplane as a public space.

I’ve seen more women in threadbare pajama pants and flip flops on airplanes than I can count. I once saw a grown man on a Chicago to Toronto flight wearing a T-shirt bearing what looked like the Mastercard logo. A closer inspection revealed that it actually said ‘Masterbate.’ Cool.

That’s more offensive than a pair of leggings, but then, he paid for his ticket. I guess wearing an inane T-shirt on an airplane is like enjoying warm cookies, extra leg room and real cutlery: you pay for the privilege.

jen.zoratti@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @JenZoratti