There’s a long history of sexualizing flight attendants. It remains a part of the culture in the U.S. but isn’t nearly as overt as it once was. In part that’s because travel is no longer nearly as glamorous, and airlines in the U.S. rarely promote the glamour of most of their travel experience (and when they do it now focuses on product). U.S. culture would no longer be as welcoming of this as it once was either.

In the U.S. National Airlines flight attendants used to ask customers to “fly me.”

Meanwhile Braniff promoted how their flight attendants would ‘strip’ during each trip.

Since Southwest Airlines was based at Love Field in Dallas, they began promoting the ‘love’ theme. LUV is their ticker symbol. In the 1970s flight attendants wore hot pants and gogo boots in a uniform designed by Juanice Muse, the wife of the airline’s first President and CEO.

In fact a Southwest Airlines legal case is the basis for a fundamental precept of employment discrimination law. In the “Love Airlines” case Southwest claimed the right to hire only attractive young women as flight attendants in order to appeal to what was then mostly male business travelers. A federal court determined that the essence of the Southwest Airlines business was transportation not sexual allurement, so their employment policy was illegal sex discrimination. (On the other hand a business that was explicitly sexual in nature could discriminate in this way.)

That doesn’t mean ‘selling’ flight attendants isn’t alive and well in the rest of the world. India-based airline SpiceJet has age, height, weight and marital standards for new flight attendants. (HT: Katherine Fan)

The carrier also insists on “[p]leasing personality with an unblemished complexion and good body language.”

There are no such requirements for female pilots though, something the airline does seem to want.

Criteria like this is far from uncommon in Southeast Asia. Malaysian airline Malindo Air has required potential flight attendants to disrobe in their interviews.

Malindo aircraft takes off at Kota Kinabalu , Copyright: rumandawi / 123RF Stock Photo

According to the airline’s director of public relations, “It is the right of the employer to request potential flight attendants to expose their chests to interviewers.” He also thinks “most airlines do the same” because “cabin crew needed to be presentable.”

• They must remove their tops (but may leave their bra on) “to see if applicants had visible marks” and if they do, where those marks are on the body. The airline’s uniform is “partially see-throughs” however it includes “a corset inside and if it is covered by the corset, it is okay.”

• They also must “bare their legs thigh-high” because female uniforms have long slits so “[w]e need to know if there are scars or any marks as you can see their legs when they walk.” But don’t worry,

  “The slit is also tailored in such a manner where it will enable flight attendants to move around easily, especially during an emergency.”

While Islam is the state religion in Malaysia — Malindo Air is based in Petaling Jaya, just outside Kuala Lumpur (and home to some great restaurants) — Malaysia is just south of Vietnam, home to VietJet where the female founder argues flight attendants in bikinis empowers women.

AirAsia by the way tried to recruit women as flight attendants by promising not to make them take off their clothes.

While not nearly as sexualized the appearance of Singapore Airlines flight attendants remains a significant part of the carrier’s brand image. Today at Singapore Airlines each new flight attendant spends one and a half days of their training on hair and makeup. They receive a grooming card that doesn’t just outline the (limited) range of choices a Singapore flight attendant has, the card indicates which of those choices is acceptable for the individual flight attendant.

There are 5 approved hairstyles for women, but each woman is told which ones she is allowed to use. There are specific colors for their makeup, and they may be given only one or — if they’re ‘more advanced’ or experienced in making themselves up — two they are allowed to use personally.

After the first day of training some women will spend up to 4 hours getting ready for class, to ensure they look perfect. The standards are new to them and they’re obviously trying to impress during training. I’m told that on average a woman may take an hour doing her hair and makeup for a flight.

Explicit sexualization alone doesn’t drive airline success. Hooters Air went out of business. Something about hubbing in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Nonetheless a glamorous image can project quality and attention to detail, not something US airlines are known for though something Delta claims to strive for. There’s a line and a balance, I think, that I’m not qualified to draw beyond Potter Stewarts admonition that one knows it when they see it.