Southwest Airlines’ Offensive Skies

By: Chris Johnson

Another company brazenly uses the tired and offensive ploy, the demeaning portrayal of women as nothing more than sexual objects, in a disgusting attempt to garner attention. As the article below states, Southwest Airlines, aligned with Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, has plastered a giant photo of a seductively-posed bikini model on the side of one of their 737 jets.

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Southwest is two-faced for sporting the SI One
By Michael Stetz – Union-Tribune Columnist

“… Southwest Airlines recently unveiled a jet featuring a giant photograph of a bikini-clad Sports Illustrated swimsuit model along the side. …

The perplexing thing is that this happens to be the same airline that nearly ordered a young San Diego woman off a flight in 2007 because she was wearing what one flight attendant considered too revealing …
…The airline has its own, fairly predictable reasoning for what I like to call The Babe Plane. “We were looking for a fresh marketing approach,” spokesman Chris Mainz told me.

The Boeing 737 jet is called “SI One” and features Bar Refaeli, the cover girl of this year’s Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. …

…Some women among Southwest’s 34,000 employees are grumbling, he said, but many applaud the company for its innovation.

Laurel Davis-Delano, a sociology professor at Springfield College in Massachusetts, isn’t surprised that some are offended.

Author of a book called “Swimsuit Issue and Sport: Hegemonic Masculinity and Sports Illustrated,” Davis-Delano thinks the plane “is linked to a troubling societal trend.”

That would be the increasing sexualization of women in popular culture. Magazines (even ones targeted to women), TV shows and movies all do it. Women are portrayed primarily as sex objects, and The Babe Plane merely fits that pattern.

If Southwest featured a female soccer player kicking a ball, Davis-Delano said, that would have broken the mold.

Instead, it’s same old, same old. …
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/feb/25/1m25stetz231054-southwest-two-faced-sporting-si-on/

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Magazines at checkout counters, mall window displays, and now airport runways? Parents who desire to shield their children from erotic images must now even be concerned when sitting in an airport terminal or waiting on a runway that the plane taxiing past the window might be plastered with pornographic images.

In this financial climate, one would think that Southwest would not risk offending travelers with such a pornographic display – degrading not only women, but also their own reputation.

Contact Southwest Airlines and let them know that because of this offensive gimmick, you will find family-friendlier skies to fly when choosing a carrier for your next flight.

Southwest Airlines Co.
Gary Kelly – Chairman, President, and CEO
2702 Love Field Dr.
Dallas, TX 75235
Phone: 214-792-4000
Toll-free: 1-800-435-9792
Fax: 214-792-5015

Also contact Southwest’s Public Relations office:
Ginger Hardage – Senior Vice President of Communications at 214-792-6924

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American Decency Association
Bill Johnson, President
P.O. Box 202
Fremont, MI 49412
ph: 231-924-4050
https://americandecency.org

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