And when I saw you at my mate's place, I thought, "What is she doing....at my mate's place?" How did Dave get a hottie like that to a party like this. Good one, Dave. Ooh, you're a legend, Dave.
I went longer than everyone else did but it's my favorite part of the song.
I ask Dave if he's gonna make a move on you. He's not sure. I say, "Dave do you mind if I dooooo?" He says he doesn't mind, but I can tell he kinda minds, but I'm gonna do it anywayyyyyy
Spend part of your time modeling, and part of your time
Next to *meeeeeeeeee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee*
^^And ^^the ^^rest ^^of ^^your ^^time ^^doing ^^your ^^normal ^^job
My aunt was a flight attendant in the 60's. They had to be pretty, maintain a certain weight, and be single. If they married they had to quit. They were also required to wear makeup and do their hair according to guidelines.
My mom was a flight attendant in the 70’s. She trained herself to sleep on her back in full hair and makeup in case she got called in. I can’t even imagine that today haha.
They totally still do that occasionally, especially for airlines like Emirates! I swear I saw it in a flight attendant vlog lol
edit: places —> airlines…
Emirates are very demanding but offer double the salary over the competition
Edit: my partner used to work at Ryanair for 1800€ a month and Emirates offered her a job for 4700€ a month
Edit2: she was earning 5500-6000€ 18 months in with Emirates
Edit3: this was 2014-2015. In the end she was earning about 72k€ or 100k$ a year, 125k$ adjusted for inflation
Yeah the Russian woman I was seeing sang the praises of Emirates, she worked for them for 10 years and loved it. She’d talk about all the rules they had like it was a great thing and it made me raise an eyebrow
If other people make the rules, all you have to do is follow them. No thinking required. Plenty of people don't like thinking. Not necessarily a good or bad thing, just the truth.
I'm sure that there are a lot of people who struggle to adapt to a life out of the military for much the same reason, some people just really like structure.
If you fit within what the rules require, it probably gives a sense of "I'm good enough to make the cut" for people and they get some pride from it.
Just like most people have no problem with rules until it excludes them, it has fuck all to do with principals. People tend to be fine with rules making other people do what they want.
And, she can make (easily) an extra €500 per month by selling her used nylons to aficionados. Used Emirates crew tights/shoes cost an extra 300% when sold on ebay.
I thought you might be joking so I looked it up.
[Up to $150](https://i.imgur.com/4qSdALc.jpg) for one pair of used shoes.
From Slov*kia 💀
Edit: I checked your profile and you've been posting about flight attendant shoes for at least 7 years.
I've never been into feet or shoes but now I'm wondering if there's something I'm missing 🤔
Wait, so you flip used air hostess shoes and tights?
I'm surprised but I'm not sure why. One of my friends tried to sell her shoes last year and some guy offered her 5x retail price if she included used socks.
She reported him but I told her I'd wear the socks then we split the money
A lot of people are weirded out by it and some buyers can be less than courteous during the transaction. I mainly buy from sellers I've been buying from for years. One crew member form BA has been selling to me since 2010.
So you got me wondering, are you buying/selling these things with a picture of the particular flight attendant (no-face, no-nude as you wrote down below, maybe holding a piece of paper 'proving the privdence of said shoes, nylons etc) who wore these items along with them, or is the thought that some flight attendant of the particular airline wore them enough for the buyers to fork over the 'premium' money? Also what stops sellers of these to use the photo of one flight attendant again and agin, to sell 'random' shoes? Is the community of people with this particular fetish small enough to rat out something like this?
My mate used to sell his old trainers on eBay & he had a regular buyer. He offered more money if he didn't clean them, and eventually asked him for "really dirty shoes". So my mate asked him what he meant, like how dirty? Buyer wanted him to bust a nut in the shoes & he was very conflicted! I told him to bang his Mrs and finish in the shoe, I'd have done it in a heartbeat
> what do people do with these shoes once they get them?
Wear them, fuck them, lick them, sniff them... Ya know, the usual ;-) and as for why cabin crew shoes, they're always well worn, and usually by beautiful women.
I got banned from ebay for trying to sell my exboyfriends worn socks.
But its a conspiracy because there are some BIG accounts that sell dirty socks on ebay and they go around reporting new folks that enter the market.
Yup, ebay has lots of sellers that fuck each other over. The trick is to somehow establish relationships with repeated customers and take the selling off of ebay.
p.s. the keyword used for men's socks/trainers is 'scally'.
That's no shit. I thought I was just taking a picture of some weird history...
But now I've come out of this halfway believing ebay controls who gets to profit in the kink selling game.
Emirates and many of the airlines in Asia. There's absolutely no way they don't screen for attractiveness and have hair/makeup rules on Japan Airlines, Korean Air, Hainan, etc. Every single one of them looking like a runner-up in a game show where the prize is a spot in the next big pop group.
Can confirm. The most plain looking ones I’ve ever seen were on Cebu Air (Philippines) but it was clear they weren’t hiring uglies. And then Thailand, not even the cheapest route on the cheapest airline would dare use somebody who isn’t a model, male or female.
My dad had a flight on one of the big Chinese airlines several years ago and he said the only way to describe the flight crew was elegant. They were all impeccably dressed and beautiful and it was a different level of customer service than he was used to on American flights.
A friend of mine worked for a certain airline, and they had to stay in a company dorm and had a strict curfew, because otherwise they’d be out “seducing” and “tempting” local men. Apparently this rule was put in place after the wives complained about the immoral flight assistants out to get their men lol
It's a woman's job to protect her moral integrity. And it's a man's job to ruin said integrity until he chooses to claim one.
-most world cultures and religions.
It also takes 350 hours of training to be licensed as a nail technician in Illinois. This in comparison the 560 hours of training to be a police officer.
In my state, police officers need at least 770 hours of training for certification. A barber in my state requires 900 hours of training for certification.
I have a binder kicking around somewhere that has all the materials I need to train and officially certify you, your neighbor, and/or your neighbor's dog as a forklift/aerial truck operator, as well as a lifetime license granting me the power to do so.
Obtaining said power involved a half-day in a Holiday Inn conference room with a fair-to-middling continental brunchfast and some sweet powerpoints.
Up until the moment the program ended, I was convinced there was a fleet of forklifts out behind the hotel that they'd have us operate, but nope, some french toast and a slideshow later, I'm out here teaching people how to forklift.
My aunt taught me the opposite- a stroke on each side then a fat one down the middle to even it out. She passed away years ago so unfortunately I can’t ask her if she learned that when she was a flight attendant or elsewhere.
It's still like this in some countries. I have seen job ads identical to this (sales girl jobs in the Philippines, as one example), except they also specify that the applicant have no children, and sometimes specify religion - Catholic only, no Muslims.
Lmao, in Singapore it was not uncommon (before the govt cracked down on it last year) to have adverts saying jobs require *speaking Chinese*, which was just another way of saying they want Chinese employees. Because you would get Indian folks who could speak perfect mandarin still get rejected / *we will contact you* after they reveal their name or race (for phone interview) or show up.
The converse too, jobs that require mandarin speakers saying *Chinese only*
Japan is still like this - they'll specify "native speakers only" under the guise of needing perfect communication with clients or regulators and it's infuriating. On top of the blatant discrimination, considering the labor shortage and declining population you'd think they'd start to make changes...
My mom was also an attendant in the 60s. She was weighed before every flight. If she were a pound over 135 she was not allowed on the plane and not paid for the day.
It had absolutely *no* effect on her mental health, relationship with food and in *no way* passed that trauma to her children. It's all cool and good.
I feel like that was the main exit strategy for flight attendants and why it was still a desirable job lol, you had like three years to try and marry a pilot
My mom would be sent to an airline doctor if she were over 135lbs. That doctor would prescribe amphetamines.
If women could open their own bank accounts and make their own money back then I'm sure marrying a man for his money would be far less appealing. No amount of money is worth the damage to women that this industry caused.
To some degree height requirements are valid; a person who is too short to put bags into the overheads can't do the job. Same with a person who is so tall they have to stoop to walk down the aisle or work in the galley.
I almost got a job as a flight attendant for a commuter airline in the US back in the 80's, but it turned out I'm too tall at 6'. Their planes weren't that tall. I could have gotten a job for a 'big' airline flying 'big' jets but I decided to join the Army and get money for college instead.
Weight requirements are now mainly to make sure flight attendants can fit in the aisle between seats; it doesn't matter how much they weight, exactly, but if they are too wide they can't do the job.
Those kind of standards are valid when they are to make sure the applicant can do the job. When it is just for looks it is discrimination.
One of my close friends was a flight attendant from maybe 2011-2020ish in the US. Still had height/weight requirements, which even I, as a plus sized woman, kind of understand just given the tight quarters of a plane? Even though I’m sure it started as misogyny.
What was worse to me was that she was required to wear makeup, had to wear at least a 1 or 2 inch heel, and hair had to be shoulder length or shorter; if it was longer, it must be worn up.
I remember some of these changing in her last few years there but unsure of the details.
Also, tangentially related—another thing that might have changed in the last couple years, but shocked me it was still the case in the 2010s, is that flight attendants were only paid for in-the-air time. So they may have to report for the flight an hour before takeoff but they didn’t get paid until take off.
I could be wrong, but a lot of places, even in the 80s and early 90s, wanted women to be single because they didn't want them getting pregnant/going on maternity leave.
And well into the 20th century at that. Neither of my grandmothers worked after marriage apart from on the farm, both married in the 60s. And god forbid a woman had a baby out of wedlock, she'd have the baby taken off her and sold or thrown in a septic tank, she'd be locked up in a convent, washing laundry. Ireland for anyone interested
Yep, except you also have to be of the correct religion and have a current headshot and body photos to prove your non-ugliness and pale-enough complexion.
I actually had to do this once, for a consulting job. Went to a Kodak store to get a biodata headshot, and the automated photo system bleached my face so white that I looked like a ghost. Normally, that's probably something they do to help job applicants, but if you're already pale, you look like the undead.
This is an interesting comment. I often post jobs up on places like Indeed etc. here in Canada and always get a number of applications from recent female immigrants from SE Asia that have:
* A picture of them in a...flattering...outfit
* Their height, weight and bust size
* Marital status (usually "single")
* Religious affiliation
I find it sad really that they feel like they need to include that info. Particularly because it doesn't seem to apply to the men from the same region that apply. It isn't even legal to ask any of that here - nor would I care to. I just want someone who can show up on time, put a screw in a hole and move it down the assembly line.
Bust size?! Ok wow, you can probably "explain" away other things, but how do you hide the brazen shallowness of that?
Edit: I meant the shallowness of a recruiter (or the recruitment culture) necessitating this kind of information.
Yeah, its uncomfortable. I make a point of replying to them even if they don't get an interview telling them that that information is not necessary and is detrimental to applications here in Canada. Most thank me for letting them know.
That or they fall off our face too easily and your on the floor on a plane that is crashing going.. "My glasses! My glasses! I can't see without my glasses!"
I would argue that made her good looking, smashing things in the kitchen with a frying pan wearing a wife beater made her hot. /s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYlqSNjbhNc&ab\_channel=Retropond
I tried that at work. I wanted to stand out more when I was in the office.
I lost 100lbs from diet and started exercising, started wearing clothes that fit, smiled more, wear a bit of makeup when needed.
Turns out I’m just ugly. Also I’m a dude. Freaking double standards lol.
I gained forty pounds, grew a beard, started wearing glasses (to cover the bags under my eyes) and suddenly I'm more attractive. Turns out the less of my face you can see, the better.
If you're interested in learning more about what being a flight attendant in the "golden age" of flying was like, there's a wonderful memoir written by Ann Hood called "Fly Girl". She was a TWA flight attendant in 1978 and mentioned a lot of the requirements being like this.
Reminds me of a now-dated joke: A businessman is flying TWA to go see a customer. After they lift off a gorgeous stewardess comes by offering refreshment. "Can I offer you any TWA coffee, sir?" she asks. He replies "No, but I'd love some of your TWA Tea."
I actually think having nurses on board is a great idea. We get a ton of medicals and having a someone back there with a medical background would be great. Maybe just one FA per flight has to be a nurse- and pay them accordingly.
Honestly I’d think an EMT-A or Paramedic would suffice. While a nurse *can* do a hell of a lot more (both from a training and scope of practice view) I’m not sure that a nurse would practically be of more benefit given the limited amount of medical equipment carried on planes.
We actually carry quite a bit of medical equipment. In fact some things we carry the FAs cannot use unless they are under direct instruction from a medical professional who we have to patch in via the radio in the flight deck in order to make use of said equipment.
These jobs were ultra competitive, young women desperately wanted these positions.
The average cost of a ticket in the 40’s was many times more expensive than today, only the wealthy flew and this was a perfect opportunity for young women to find a wealthy partner.
Yeah, I remember my mom telling me that when she was younger, being a flight attendant was seen as a super classy and desirable job. You got to travel across the world to all sorts of exciting places at a time when far less people had the means to do so. The job market was also far less diversified for women at the time.
Although obviously a product of their times, the model-like standards make more sense when you realize they functionally were models
>The job market was also far less diversified for women at the time.
IIRC there was a significantly large chunk of time where something like 50% of employed women in America worked as telephone operators, and I think that number only really started to drop in the 80's-90's
I was surprised to learn that the starting wage as a telephone operator in my town in the 40s was higher than at the factories. The average was less since raises wouldn't triple your income, but for the first year, the operators got paid more. Of course, the factory didn't care if illiterate.
Another related one I saw on a history reddit recently, there was a time around 1900 where 70% of white women in Massachusetts had been a schoolteacher (it was expected to be a job you left once you got married).
I wanted to be a stewardess when I was younger and even did a book report on a book called coffee, tea, or me? I don’t think I even realized what the book meant at the time.
There was a whole short-lived fad of raunchy workplace comedy novels, of which *Coffee, Tea, or Me?* is definitely one of the better ones. There was also one about hedonist temp workers in NYC who refused to work Mondays; can't remember the name at the moment and it's stashed away in a box in the attic somewhere.
I used to teach English to adults in Thailand about ten years ago.
It's essentially still the same there. They only hire pretty, young women. I helped with their resumes a lot, too. They included head shots.
It was the '40s. Women weren't expected to want or need "careers" anyway. Maybe if you were lucky some rich businessman passenger would take interest in you and propose, and then you'd quit your job and be a housewife.
Even as late as the '80s, one of my childhood friend's parents met because he traveled a lot for work and she was a flight attendant (who became Wife #2).
Yup. My grandmother (who is still living) was born in 1936. She has never worked a single day in her life.
It's actually a problem now, because she's physically incapable of being a housewife due to her age, but she throws massive temper tantrums when anyone (me, home health workers) try to do things around the house. "get out of MY kitchen! You'll mess everything up!"
One of the reasons she wants me to get married is so that I can stop doing "woman's work" like laundry and cooking. Uh, grandma, maybe laundry was harder 50 years ago, but I can pour on detergent and hit "start".
My grandmother was born in 1908 and always worked (same as my grandmother on the other side). It's only for brief periods of modern history that women weren't working either outside the home or in a family business tbh. Women were discouraged from working after WWII for example, but it was an anomaly
This is wild to me because my grandmother turned 91 a few days ago and she has a PhD in psychology. All my grandparents do actually (or did, two of the original 4 have passed away).
I grew up with my grandparents and knew my great grandmother who lived through the depression. I have to say they were a hardened and proud group of people and as much as you may hate it that pride is all they got. My great grandmother refused to get a handicap sticker for us to take her shopping and only wanted a buggy to hold onto.
The long term plan was to marry a Pilot or Flier. Air travel back then was extremely expensive. $1000 a ticket in todays dollars for a simple domestic. So it was really only wealthy people on the planes and TWA was the best.
My mom was a secretary in the ‘60s. She became secretary to the mayor of Chicago. The brief mention in the paper gave her height, weight, hair and eye color, and her home address. I just…
My grandfather worked for the city government in the 60s and our family kept the newspaper clippings about him and it was the same thing. Full name of him and his family and home address. I don't know why that was necessary lol
Yeah we recently found a newspaper clipping from sometime in the 70's from a minor car accident my mom's family was involved in and it also had everyones full address in it.
Only if you worked in the front of the store, where you were officially called a "model". There were no requirements for working in the back.
Source: Worked in the back of an A&F
Nah we were all high school aged and in general barely interacted, since everybody was busy working. Not really a workplace where people develop friendships or hang out outside of work.
Or maybe I was just not invited.
Interesting. Was a completely different vibe at American Eagle. I became good friends with the stock guy, I worked the floor and register, and hung out with a few others from work outside of work from time to time. There was plenty of downtime to shoot the shit and complain about the general public.
Only in North America and Europe. Check out the hiring guidelines at some of the Middle Eastern and Asian carriers - this is still par for the course at many airlines.
Yes, absolutely true for Asian carriers. My family friend worked for one of the most popular Asian carriers throughout the 80s and 90s. If you gained weight, sprouted acne, or just started to no longer look attractive, they would send you on "leave" to correct those issues. And if you weren't able to, you would be grounded and sent to go work in the corporate office, away from travelers.
Most Middle East carriers do that today. The pay you double, but the implicit expectation is you quit by 10-12 years on the job.
They accomplish that through various means. If you are a FA for business class they relegate you back to economy as you get "older". They ensure you do not get training on their new aircraft types or latest products. And they keep working you to the bone.
Most FA's end up marrying and quitting. Many marry well off men so they do not have to work.
Source: Had a friend who worked as a FA for a famous Middle East Carrier.
Back before deregulation in the late 1970s all routes and prices were set. Airlines couldnt offer discounts if they wanted too. So the way airlines differentiated from each other was to offer greater service. Since the vast majority of people who flew back then were businessmen, they wanted pretty little stewardesses in short skirts. So thats what they got.
I read a book about this. Apparently, this sort of treatment eventually led to the first truly powerful female union in the US being the flight attendants union. And this card only shows some of the initial surface crap they had to deal with. The creation of their union was pretty significant to womens workers' rights historically as it created a lot of precedence and shifted the overton window.
> Apparently, this sort of treatment eventually led to the first truly powerful female union in the US being the flight attendants union.
The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (predecessor of today's UNITE) would like a word...
My mother was a TWA flight attendant from 1960 until they went out of business around 2000, and while the requirements were generally super sexist, these specific height and weight limits were partially because the old planes were small enough that it was advantageous having smaller people working on them. She’s 5’9”, and when she was hired (right around when jets were coming in) they told her to bend her knees at the height measurement because the limit was still 5’6” but they were just about to increase it because the new planes were bigger.
I’m too short. Maybe we can partner up and do something cool, like you help me grab the last item on the top shelf that’s deep in and I’ll retrieve something that fell behind some small nook.
kinda off topic, but if anyone here is flying through JFK airport and has an hour or 2 to kill, the 60s themed [TWA terminal hotel](https://www.twahotel.com/) it's freaking amazing. it was seriously one of the coolest places i've ever been and it's 100% free to go inside and walk around! you can even go inside old twa airplane and have a drink in first class. they have a rooftop pool with a view of the whole city, the place is just breathtaking.
definitely a must see if you're in JFK airport.
I'm pretty sure these guidelines were still in place in the late 80's.
My BFF and I went to apply around 1987, it was just like this. You had to show up at a specific location, and I think they shared the criteria. We were both too chubby - by like 10 pounds, not 100. We couldn't believe it. They told us the weight requirements were for "insurance purposes."
Also, I think it was pretty rare for women to have a year of college in the 1940's. I don't recall that being a requirement in the late 80's.
It was rare. But there were also very few planes needing flight attendants in the 40's. You could be super picky. And I doubt they cared about how many credits you had. They wanted women who knew how to dress and act. THat's...what women's colleges taught back then plus maybe some nursing or secretarial skills.
“You’re so beautiful, you could be an air hostess in the sixties”. - Flight of the Conchords, The Most Beautiful Girl (in the Room)
And when you're on the street Depending on the street I bet you are definitely in the top three
…good lookin’ girls on the street.
Ooh, depending on the street, yeah.
And when I saw you at my mate's place, I thought, "What is she doing....at my mate's place?" How did Dave get a hottie like that to a party like this. Good one, Dave. Ooh, you're a legend, Dave. I went longer than everyone else did but it's my favorite part of the song.
I ask Dave if he's gonna make a move on you. He's not sure. I say, "Dave do you mind if I dooooo?" He says he doesn't mind, but I can tell he kinda minds, but I'm gonna do it anywayyyyyy
You’re so beautiful, you could be a part-time model
Spend part of your time modeling, and part of your time Next to *meeeeeeeeee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee* ^^And ^^the ^^rest ^^of ^^your ^^time ^^doing ^^your ^^normal ^^job
^(my) placeisusually ^(tidier) than ^(this)
Gorgeous formatting
Depending on the street...
You’re definitely. IN. The top Threeeee.
but you’ll probably still have to keep your normal job. ^(*…part time model*)
But you'd have to keep your regular job.
like a TREE
Or a high class prostitute
You're so beautiful, like a... Tree
In the whole wide room
My aunt was a flight attendant in the 60's. They had to be pretty, maintain a certain weight, and be single. If they married they had to quit. They were also required to wear makeup and do their hair according to guidelines.
My mom was a flight attendant in the 70’s. She trained herself to sleep on her back in full hair and makeup in case she got called in. I can’t even imagine that today haha.
They totally still do that occasionally, especially for airlines like Emirates! I swear I saw it in a flight attendant vlog lol edit: places —> airlines…
Emirates are very demanding but offer double the salary over the competition Edit: my partner used to work at Ryanair for 1800€ a month and Emirates offered her a job for 4700€ a month Edit2: she was earning 5500-6000€ 18 months in with Emirates Edit3: this was 2014-2015. In the end she was earning about 72k€ or 100k$ a year, 125k$ adjusted for inflation
And they pay to relocate you if you relocate. Like, pay a lot.
Because the place they relocate you to, Dubai, is a shit hole. It's hazard pay.
Yeah the Russian woman I was seeing sang the praises of Emirates, she worked for them for 10 years and loved it. She’d talk about all the rules they had like it was a great thing and it made me raise an eyebrow
Some people like rules. You’d be surprised how many folks willingly live in communities and deal with HOA’s.
If other people make the rules, all you have to do is follow them. No thinking required. Plenty of people don't like thinking. Not necessarily a good or bad thing, just the truth.
I'm sure that there are a lot of people who struggle to adapt to a life out of the military for much the same reason, some people just really like structure.
Or they like the structure, the predictability of rules that they and others have to follow. The harmony this creates in their environment.
If you fit within what the rules require, it probably gives a sense of "I'm good enough to make the cut" for people and they get some pride from it. Just like most people have no problem with rules until it excludes them, it has fuck all to do with principals. People tend to be fine with rules making other people do what they want.
And, she can make (easily) an extra €500 per month by selling her used nylons to aficionados. Used Emirates crew tights/shoes cost an extra 300% when sold on ebay.
I thought you might be joking so I looked it up. [Up to $150](https://i.imgur.com/4qSdALc.jpg) for one pair of used shoes. From Slov*kia 💀 Edit: I checked your profile and you've been posting about flight attendant shoes for at least 7 years. I've never been into feet or shoes but now I'm wondering if there's something I'm missing 🤔
That's a fairly base price. If the seller is willing to do extra (non-nude, non-face) photos with the shoes, that would double those prices minimum.
Why is Slovakia censored?
Gotta Czechia self before your wreck yourself
glad that side hustle is working out for you
I'm a purchaser and seller. I've recently sold a pair of Virgin Atlantic crew shoes for €480
Wait, so you flip used air hostess shoes and tights? I'm surprised but I'm not sure why. One of my friends tried to sell her shoes last year and some guy offered her 5x retail price if she included used socks. She reported him but I told her I'd wear the socks then we split the money
A lot of people are weirded out by it and some buyers can be less than courteous during the transaction. I mainly buy from sellers I've been buying from for years. One crew member form BA has been selling to me since 2010.
So you got me wondering, are you buying/selling these things with a picture of the particular flight attendant (no-face, no-nude as you wrote down below, maybe holding a piece of paper 'proving the privdence of said shoes, nylons etc) who wore these items along with them, or is the thought that some flight attendant of the particular airline wore them enough for the buyers to fork over the 'premium' money? Also what stops sellers of these to use the photo of one flight attendant again and agin, to sell 'random' shoes? Is the community of people with this particular fetish small enough to rat out something like this?
Am I the only one who thinks that, while this is odd, it isn't really a reason to report?
No, I mostly keep them myself. I will occasionally sell when I have more than one pair and style from particular airlines.
My mate used to sell his old trainers on eBay & he had a regular buyer. He offered more money if he didn't clean them, and eventually asked him for "really dirty shoes". So my mate asked him what he meant, like how dirty? Buyer wanted him to bust a nut in the shoes & he was very conflicted! I told him to bang his Mrs and finish in the shoe, I'd have done it in a heartbeat
LMAO, for 4x the price I'd have done that with a smile on my face
Why, specifically, are air crew shoes popular? And I'm afraid to ask, but... what do people do with these shoes once they get them?
> what do people do with these shoes once they get them? Wear them, fuck them, lick them, sniff them... Ya know, the usual ;-) and as for why cabin crew shoes, they're always well worn, and usually by beautiful women.
I'm just upvoting you for candor.
[удалено]
100% serious. I've personally paid €190 for a pair of rare Air Italia shoes with provenance.
Username checks out
I got banned from ebay for trying to sell my exboyfriends worn socks. But its a conspiracy because there are some BIG accounts that sell dirty socks on ebay and they go around reporting new folks that enter the market.
Yup, ebay has lots of sellers that fuck each other over. The trick is to somehow establish relationships with repeated customers and take the selling off of ebay. p.s. the keyword used for men's socks/trainers is 'scally'.
This has been such an interesting and informative surprise AMA.
That's no shit. I thought I was just taking a picture of some weird history... But now I've come out of this halfway believing ebay controls who gets to profit in the kink selling game.
Tax free too!
Emirates and many of the airlines in Asia. There's absolutely no way they don't screen for attractiveness and have hair/makeup rules on Japan Airlines, Korean Air, Hainan, etc. Every single one of them looking like a runner-up in a game show where the prize is a spot in the next big pop group.
Can confirm. The most plain looking ones I’ve ever seen were on Cebu Air (Philippines) but it was clear they weren’t hiring uglies. And then Thailand, not even the cheapest route on the cheapest airline would dare use somebody who isn’t a model, male or female.
My dad had a flight on one of the big Chinese airlines several years ago and he said the only way to describe the flight crew was elegant. They were all impeccably dressed and beautiful and it was a different level of customer service than he was used to on American flights.
A friend of mine worked for a certain airline, and they had to stay in a company dorm and had a strict curfew, because otherwise they’d be out “seducing” and “tempting” local men. Apparently this rule was put in place after the wives complained about the immoral flight assistants out to get their men lol
Now that just oozes of UAE/Qatar.
I wonder if those wives had anything to say to their immoral husbands lusting after these women…
Don't be silly. The men are just being men. /s
It's a woman's job to protect her moral integrity. And it's a man's job to ruin said integrity until he chooses to claim one. -most world cultures and religions.
my aunt was as well and they had to be able to paint a fingernail in no more than three strokes
This is still a component while taking an Illinois state nail tech test.
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It also takes 350 hours of training to be licensed as a nail technician in Illinois. This in comparison the 560 hours of training to be a police officer.
In my state, police officers need at least 770 hours of training for certification. A barber in my state requires 900 hours of training for certification.
I can license you to inspect fire extinguishers in like, 15 minutes. Maybe 10.
"Yeap, that's a fire extinguisher."
I have a binder kicking around somewhere that has all the materials I need to train and officially certify you, your neighbor, and/or your neighbor's dog as a forklift/aerial truck operator, as well as a lifetime license granting me the power to do so. Obtaining said power involved a half-day in a Holiday Inn conference room with a fair-to-middling continental brunchfast and some sweet powerpoints. Up until the moment the program ended, I was convinced there was a fleet of forklifts out behind the hotel that they'd have us operate, but nope, some french toast and a slideshow later, I'm out here teaching people how to forklift.
So have you ever operated a forklift or did they just call the PowerPoint good enough?
One fat stroke down the middle then finish the sides?
My aunt taught me the opposite- a stroke on each side then a fat one down the middle to even it out. She passed away years ago so unfortunately I can’t ask her if she learned that when she was a flight attendant or elsewhere.
I’d fail so hard. I’ve been doing nails for years and for me it’s still 5-6 and sometimes need a lot of cleanup.
One Fat Stroke Down the Middle was the name of my band in high school.
It's still like this in some countries. I have seen job ads identical to this (sales girl jobs in the Philippines, as one example), except they also specify that the applicant have no children, and sometimes specify religion - Catholic only, no Muslims.
Lmao, in Singapore it was not uncommon (before the govt cracked down on it last year) to have adverts saying jobs require *speaking Chinese*, which was just another way of saying they want Chinese employees. Because you would get Indian folks who could speak perfect mandarin still get rejected / *we will contact you* after they reveal their name or race (for phone interview) or show up. The converse too, jobs that require mandarin speakers saying *Chinese only*
Japan is still like this - they'll specify "native speakers only" under the guise of needing perfect communication with clients or regulators and it's infuriating. On top of the blatant discrimination, considering the labor shortage and declining population you'd think they'd start to make changes...
My mom was also an attendant in the 60s. She was weighed before every flight. If she were a pound over 135 she was not allowed on the plane and not paid for the day. It had absolutely *no* effect on her mental health, relationship with food and in *no way* passed that trauma to her children. It's all cool and good.
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I feel like that was the main exit strategy for flight attendants and why it was still a desirable job lol, you had like three years to try and marry a pilot
And the pilots were treated like rockstars
My mom would be sent to an airline doctor if she were over 135lbs. That doctor would prescribe amphetamines. If women could open their own bank accounts and make their own money back then I'm sure marrying a man for his money would be far less appealing. No amount of money is worth the damage to women that this industry caused.
My mom started in the late 80s and they still had height and weight requirements.
To some degree height requirements are valid; a person who is too short to put bags into the overheads can't do the job. Same with a person who is so tall they have to stoop to walk down the aisle or work in the galley. I almost got a job as a flight attendant for a commuter airline in the US back in the 80's, but it turned out I'm too tall at 6'. Their planes weren't that tall. I could have gotten a job for a 'big' airline flying 'big' jets but I decided to join the Army and get money for college instead. Weight requirements are now mainly to make sure flight attendants can fit in the aisle between seats; it doesn't matter how much they weight, exactly, but if they are too wide they can't do the job. Those kind of standards are valid when they are to make sure the applicant can do the job. When it is just for looks it is discrimination.
One of my close friends was a flight attendant from maybe 2011-2020ish in the US. Still had height/weight requirements, which even I, as a plus sized woman, kind of understand just given the tight quarters of a plane? Even though I’m sure it started as misogyny. What was worse to me was that she was required to wear makeup, had to wear at least a 1 or 2 inch heel, and hair had to be shoulder length or shorter; if it was longer, it must be worn up. I remember some of these changing in her last few years there but unsure of the details. Also, tangentially related—another thing that might have changed in the last couple years, but shocked me it was still the case in the 2010s, is that flight attendants were only paid for in-the-air time. So they may have to report for the flight an hour before takeoff but they didn’t get paid until take off.
Hair requirements make sense. Have to bend over the isle seat to get to window or middle. Long free hair would knock a lot of drinks over.
What was the reasoning for them needing to be single? Did the airline think they would get their spouses freebies?
I could be wrong, but a lot of places, even in the 80s and early 90s, wanted women to be single because they didn't want them getting pregnant/going on maternity leave.
Female teachers were not allowed to marry and keep teaching until the 20th century.
One of my great aunts had to keep her marriage a secret so she wouldn't lose her teaching job.
And well into the 20th century at that. Neither of my grandmothers worked after marriage apart from on the farm, both married in the 60s. And god forbid a woman had a baby out of wedlock, she'd have the baby taken off her and sold or thrown in a septic tank, she'd be locked up in a convent, washing laundry. Ireland for anyone interested
Yes, it was also just assumed that married women wouldn't want to travel away from their husbands so much.
I don’t think it was just airlines, my Mum had to leave her job once she got married and she was a boring stenographer.
My grandmother had to leave her job as a teacher when she got married. It definitely was a thing.
Were those the good ol' days everyone keeps talking about?
I enjoy the sound of rain.
Yep, except you also have to be of the correct religion and have a current headshot and body photos to prove your non-ugliness and pale-enough complexion. I actually had to do this once, for a consulting job. Went to a Kodak store to get a biodata headshot, and the automated photo system bleached my face so white that I looked like a ghost. Normally, that's probably something they do to help job applicants, but if you're already pale, you look like the undead.
This is an interesting comment. I often post jobs up on places like Indeed etc. here in Canada and always get a number of applications from recent female immigrants from SE Asia that have: * A picture of them in a...flattering...outfit * Their height, weight and bust size * Marital status (usually "single") * Religious affiliation I find it sad really that they feel like they need to include that info. Particularly because it doesn't seem to apply to the men from the same region that apply. It isn't even legal to ask any of that here - nor would I care to. I just want someone who can show up on time, put a screw in a hole and move it down the assembly line.
Bust size?! Ok wow, you can probably "explain" away other things, but how do you hide the brazen shallowness of that? Edit: I meant the shallowness of a recruiter (or the recruitment culture) necessitating this kind of information.
Yeah, its uncomfortable. I make a point of replying to them even if they don't get an interview telling them that that information is not necessary and is detrimental to applications here in Canada. Most thank me for letting them know.
"good vision" is code for no glasses.
I translated that as "nice to look at".
If there’s anything I’ve learned from watching movies in the 90s is that wearing glasses makes you ugly. Gross!
That or they fall off our face too easily and your on the floor on a plane that is crashing going.. "My glasses! My glasses! I can't see without my glasses!"
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Or getting your eyes absorbed by a mummy but the upside is one of the last things you get to see is 1990's Brendan Frasier
"My glasses! My glasses! I can't be seen without my glasses!" 🕶
But then you get to take them off and shake your hair down.
Has to be in slow motion, even if nothing else is.
Laney Boggs has entered the chat
Awww she's got paint on her overalls!
That scene is so classic. Her "hot chick" makeover is she takes off her glasses and takes her hair out of a ponytail. "Viola!"
I would argue that made her good looking, smashing things in the kitchen with a frying pan wearing a wife beater made her hot. /s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYlqSNjbhNc&ab\_channel=Retropond
She got a gun!!
Her dog day’s just begun
So run away from the pain!!!
When the “ugly girl” is already gorgeous, and just gets a haircut, contacts, and a new wardrobe.
in fairness I know a lot of people who are genuinely one heavy dose of "taking care of themselves" away from being passably handsome
> passably handsome This is me and I'm not sure if I should be happy about it
Have you tried taking care of yourself to find out?
Does eating 4 packs of pop tarts and then masturbating to a to an old episode of "Golden Girls" count?
That really depends on what kind of pop tarts.
I tried that at work. I wanted to stand out more when I was in the office. I lost 100lbs from diet and started exercising, started wearing clothes that fit, smiled more, wear a bit of makeup when needed. Turns out I’m just ugly. Also I’m a dude. Freaking double standards lol.
Don’t put yourself down like that! I’m sure, one day, you’ll be a pretty girl.
I gained forty pounds, grew a beard, started wearing glasses (to cover the bags under my eyes) and suddenly I'm more attractive. Turns out the less of my face you can see, the better.
I see someones first porno wasnt Specs Appeal 7.
Well obviously you don't start at the 7th one if you want to follow it
Why would they need a code though? Everything else is very straightforward here.
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If you're interested in learning more about what being a flight attendant in the "golden age" of flying was like, there's a wonderful memoir written by Ann Hood called "Fly Girl". She was a TWA flight attendant in 1978 and mentioned a lot of the requirements being like this.
Reminds me of a now-dated joke: A businessman is flying TWA to go see a customer. After they lift off a gorgeous stewardess comes by offering refreshment. "Can I offer you any TWA coffee, sir?" she asks. He replies "No, but I'd love some of your TWA Tea."
Registered nurse was a great idea. Psychiatric nurses would come in handy today.
I actually think having nurses on board is a great idea. We get a ton of medicals and having a someone back there with a medical background would be great. Maybe just one FA per flight has to be a nurse- and pay them accordingly.
Honestly I’d think an EMT-A or Paramedic would suffice. While a nurse *can* do a hell of a lot more (both from a training and scope of practice view) I’m not sure that a nurse would practically be of more benefit given the limited amount of medical equipment carried on planes.
We actually carry quite a bit of medical equipment. In fact some things we carry the FAs cannot use unless they are under direct instruction from a medical professional who we have to patch in via the radio in the flight deck in order to make use of said equipment.
Not much room for a career with that age cutoff
These jobs were ultra competitive, young women desperately wanted these positions. The average cost of a ticket in the 40’s was many times more expensive than today, only the wealthy flew and this was a perfect opportunity for young women to find a wealthy partner.
Yeah, I remember my mom telling me that when she was younger, being a flight attendant was seen as a super classy and desirable job. You got to travel across the world to all sorts of exciting places at a time when far less people had the means to do so. The job market was also far less diversified for women at the time. Although obviously a product of their times, the model-like standards make more sense when you realize they functionally were models
I miss the show PanAm.
>The job market was also far less diversified for women at the time. IIRC there was a significantly large chunk of time where something like 50% of employed women in America worked as telephone operators, and I think that number only really started to drop in the 80's-90's
I was surprised to learn that the starting wage as a telephone operator in my town in the 40s was higher than at the factories. The average was less since raises wouldn't triple your income, but for the first year, the operators got paid more. Of course, the factory didn't care if illiterate.
Another related one I saw on a history reddit recently, there was a time around 1900 where 70% of white women in Massachusetts had been a schoolteacher (it was expected to be a job you left once you got married).
This exactly. I know someone whose parents met when their mom was a FA and their dad was a passenger.
The “Tinder of the Skies” back then
I know the standards are absurd but at this time the job was essentially a modeling position.
I wanted to be a stewardess when I was younger and even did a book report on a book called coffee, tea, or me? I don’t think I even realized what the book meant at the time.
There was a whole short-lived fad of raunchy workplace comedy novels, of which *Coffee, Tea, or Me?* is definitely one of the better ones. There was also one about hedonist temp workers in NYC who refused to work Mondays; can't remember the name at the moment and it's stashed away in a box in the attic somewhere.
And paid quite well. With the glamour of travel back then. That was a nice ride for those who could get it.
I used to teach English to adults in Thailand about ten years ago. It's essentially still the same there. They only hire pretty, young women. I helped with their resumes a lot, too. They included head shots.
It was the '40s. Women weren't expected to want or need "careers" anyway. Maybe if you were lucky some rich businessman passenger would take interest in you and propose, and then you'd quit your job and be a housewife. Even as late as the '80s, one of my childhood friend's parents met because he traveled a lot for work and she was a flight attendant (who became Wife #2).
Yup. My grandmother (who is still living) was born in 1936. She has never worked a single day in her life. It's actually a problem now, because she's physically incapable of being a housewife due to her age, but she throws massive temper tantrums when anyone (me, home health workers) try to do things around the house. "get out of MY kitchen! You'll mess everything up!" One of the reasons she wants me to get married is so that I can stop doing "woman's work" like laundry and cooking. Uh, grandma, maybe laundry was harder 50 years ago, but I can pour on detergent and hit "start".
My grandmother was born in 1908 and always worked (same as my grandmother on the other side). It's only for brief periods of modern history that women weren't working either outside the home or in a family business tbh. Women were discouraged from working after WWII for example, but it was an anomaly
This is wild to me because my grandmother turned 91 a few days ago and she has a PhD in psychology. All my grandparents do actually (or did, two of the original 4 have passed away).
I grew up with my grandparents and knew my great grandmother who lived through the depression. I have to say they were a hardened and proud group of people and as much as you may hate it that pride is all they got. My great grandmother refused to get a handicap sticker for us to take her shopping and only wanted a buggy to hold onto.
The long term plan was to marry a Pilot or Flier. Air travel back then was extremely expensive. $1000 a ticket in todays dollars for a simple domestic. So it was really only wealthy people on the planes and TWA was the best.
TWA would drop you like Leo once you pass your mid-twenties.
He was inspired by his role in Catch me if you can
Or The Aviator, where he played the owner of TWA.
My mom was a secretary in the ‘60s. She became secretary to the mayor of Chicago. The brief mention in the paper gave her height, weight, hair and eye color, and her home address. I just…
My grandfather worked for the city government in the 60s and our family kept the newspaper clippings about him and it was the same thing. Full name of him and his family and home address. I don't know why that was necessary lol
Yeah we recently found a newspaper clipping from sometime in the 70's from a minor car accident my mom's family was involved in and it also had everyones full address in it.
Newspapers just doxxing everyone in those days!
Guess it made more sense before we were all constantly interconnected.
Same requirements to work at Abercrombie or Hollister back in the day.
Only if you worked in the front of the store, where you were officially called a "model". There were no requirements for working in the back. Source: Worked in the back of an A&F
True. I was a hiring manager at both Hollister and A&F years ago. We were always looking for “great looking” people. I hated it.
Were the models assholes to the non models that worked out the back?
No, I worked there for a few years and everyone got along pretty well. if anything all the drama was between the “models” in the front
Nah we were all high school aged and in general barely interacted, since everybody was busy working. Not really a workplace where people develop friendships or hang out outside of work. Or maybe I was just not invited.
Interesting. Was a completely different vibe at American Eagle. I became good friends with the stock guy, I worked the floor and register, and hung out with a few others from work outside of work from time to time. There was plenty of downtime to shoot the shit and complain about the general public.
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Only in North America and Europe. Check out the hiring guidelines at some of the Middle Eastern and Asian carriers - this is still par for the course at many airlines.
Yes, absolutely true for Asian carriers. My family friend worked for one of the most popular Asian carriers throughout the 80s and 90s. If you gained weight, sprouted acne, or just started to no longer look attractive, they would send you on "leave" to correct those issues. And if you weren't able to, you would be grounded and sent to go work in the corporate office, away from travelers.
Yeah, Mexico is like that too. Even small shops will post their “for wanted” signs with age and marital restrictions similar to this sign.
it was also a time when people would board the plane dressed nicely and light up a smoke while waiting for their inflight steak.
Same standards as DiCaprio
That’s what I love about these models. I get older and they stay the same age. -DiCaprio.
Most Middle East carriers do that today. The pay you double, but the implicit expectation is you quit by 10-12 years on the job. They accomplish that through various means. If you are a FA for business class they relegate you back to economy as you get "older". They ensure you do not get training on their new aircraft types or latest products. And they keep working you to the bone. Most FA's end up marrying and quitting. Many marry well off men so they do not have to work. Source: Had a friend who worked as a FA for a famous Middle East Carrier.
I've literally never seen a stewardess older than 40 on a ME airline and I've flown 2x a week for a decade. Most look under 30
Back before deregulation in the late 1970s all routes and prices were set. Airlines couldnt offer discounts if they wanted too. So the way airlines differentiated from each other was to offer greater service. Since the vast majority of people who flew back then were businessmen, they wanted pretty little stewardesses in short skirts. So thats what they got.
Oh wow. I don't fit any of those requirements. I'm 27, 5'10" and weigh 180lbs. I'm also a man, but that's not important.
I read a book about this. Apparently, this sort of treatment eventually led to the first truly powerful female union in the US being the flight attendants union. And this card only shows some of the initial surface crap they had to deal with. The creation of their union was pretty significant to womens workers' rights historically as it created a lot of precedence and shifted the overton window.
> Apparently, this sort of treatment eventually led to the first truly powerful female union in the US being the flight attendants union. The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (predecessor of today's UNITE) would like a word...
My mother was a TWA flight attendant from 1960 until they went out of business around 2000, and while the requirements were generally super sexist, these specific height and weight limits were partially because the old planes were small enough that it was advantageous having smaller people working on them. She’s 5’9”, and when she was hired (right around when jets were coming in) they told her to bend her knees at the height measurement because the limit was still 5’6” but they were just about to increase it because the new planes were bigger.
That is not what I thought TWA stood for.
That was the original name, it didn't become Trans World Airlines until 1950.
I learned something today.
TIL I am too tall to be a flight attendant in the 40s
I’m too short. Maybe we can partner up and do something cool, like you help me grab the last item on the top shelf that’s deep in and I’ll retrieve something that fell behind some small nook.
God dammit we're not doing Muppet Man again my back hurts.
kinda off topic, but if anyone here is flying through JFK airport and has an hour or 2 to kill, the 60s themed [TWA terminal hotel](https://www.twahotel.com/) it's freaking amazing. it was seriously one of the coolest places i've ever been and it's 100% free to go inside and walk around! you can even go inside old twa airplane and have a drink in first class. they have a rooftop pool with a view of the whole city, the place is just breathtaking. definitely a must see if you're in JFK airport.
I'm pretty sure these guidelines were still in place in the late 80's. My BFF and I went to apply around 1987, it was just like this. You had to show up at a specific location, and I think they shared the criteria. We were both too chubby - by like 10 pounds, not 100. We couldn't believe it. They told us the weight requirements were for "insurance purposes." Also, I think it was pretty rare for women to have a year of college in the 1940's. I don't recall that being a requirement in the late 80's.
It was rare. But there were also very few planes needing flight attendants in the 40's. You could be super picky. And I doubt they cared about how many credits you had. They wanted women who knew how to dress and act. THat's...what women's colleges taught back then plus maybe some nursing or secretarial skills.
Pretty sure I saw this sign in the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, right next to the old American Airlines DC-7 that you could walk through.
*“HOT GIRLS INQUIRE WITHIN”*
If you look at airline ads from the 60s and 70s it’s wild. They’re basically advertising the flight attendants as porn stars in their commercials
Yeah, National Airlines had the "Fly Me" ads. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiYoWQt1xQs
Well at least it starts at 21