“Southwest Airlines hates pretty people”
Two young women who reportedly caused a disruption on a Southwest Airlines flight from Tampa to Los Angeles are accusing the airline of discrimination - because they’re pretty.
“I think they were just discriminating against because we were young decent-looking girls. I mean, nobody else on the plane looked like us except us,” commented Sarah Williams, who was questioned by police officers after having a profanity-filled argument with another passenger. “[The flight attendants] were like older ladies. We were younger. Who knows, they could have been just jealous of us because we were younger.” (view the video here)
That’s right - we all have chips on our shoulders because we’re uglier than them.
The other woman involved, Nisreen Swedberg, claims that she asked for a bottle of water and was told that she would be served when the other passengers were. Then, she claims, they “skipped her” during beverage service (how you get skipped when the flight attendants can only move forward or backward is beyond me - mistakes happen, but you don’t get “skipped”).
As a writer who is also a card-carrying member of a sometimes-hated minority (go us!), I’m the first person to protest when I smell discrimination. But “beauty discrimination?” Come on. The suggestion that these 18-year-old women were the youngest, prettiest people the flight crew had ever seen is ridiculous.
People are discriminated against because of the way they look all the time, but it’s usually the other way around. Customers who look poor, unkempt or different from cultural standards are perceived as having less stature or influence, and the way they’re treated is thus perceived as having less of an effect because they fall outside of social norms and therefore “don’t matter.” But pay attention to pop culture for half a second and you’ll see that pretty blonde 18-year-olds aren’t a part of this group.
What’s more likely is that these two girls were given absolutely every chance in life because they’re light-skinned, attractive and middle class… and they feel a sense of entitlement because of it.
Discrimination? These girls should try holding each other’s hands in their home state of Florida and see what sort of reaction they get. Then they can lecture us on discrimination.
