Vivek Patil was traveling on an Emirates flight a few days ago and sketched a portrait of a flight attendant while she was working. At the end of the flight, he presented the drawing to her. She reacted with a smile, surprise and thanks. He says she was “serving smiles at 35,000 feet… So I returned one on paper” and he tagged Emirates in hopes the art “finds its way to her.”
Online reaction to this is that it’s wholesome, kind and uplifting. It’s viewed almost universally as amazing and cute, and as a nice gesture for a hardworking flight attendant. So am I strange to think this is a little bit creepy and inappropriate? And he’s even trying to get the airline to put him in touch with her afterward? He didn’t sketch a male cabin crew member.
If you’re trying to ask out the flight attendant, this Delta crewmember has tips though I suppose they didn’t think of ‘draw a caricature of them’ and maybe put your phone number on it? Here’s another flight attendant discussing passenger filming becoming creepy. And of course it’s creepy when passengers film each other sleeping (in this case, it was an Instagram model being filmed…).
If he had drawn a male crewmember, that would have been creepy.
“So am I strange to think this is a little bit creepy and inappropriate?”
Yes.
In 2026 AD, everything is either “creepy” or “cringe.”