Put on your red dress, and slip on your high heels…*

I feel as though I need to begin with a disclaimer of sorts. I am not perfect. Sometimes I hold opposing ideas and views in my mind at the same time, perhaps prompting some to call me a hypocrite. I prefer to quote Walt Whitman, “Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.” Whatever you call it, it’s what makes me condemn misogyny & violence yet sweat it out to raunchy hip hop music. It’s what makes me speak of feminism and support positive images of women while thinking I like my flight attendants svelte and pretty. Huh? Yeah…

In 2005, Delta Airlines decided to go upscale and hire designer Richard Tyler to create a signature piece to add to their flight attendant [FA] uniform choices. Now, in addition to the slacks, blouses, skirts and blue dresses, female FAs can don a fierce red dress that almost looks too fab for the aisles of a 747. The dress makes a bit more sense when you hear the inspiration behind the design was a time when air travel was a classy affair, not a tiring inconvenience that we show up for in our pajama pants & hoodies (I see yall).

Not everyone was pleased with the new, attention-grabbing red dresses. Recently, the Association of Flight Attendants at Northwest (which includes Delta employees after the merger) filed a compkaint requesting that the red dress be made available in sizes larger than the current max, which is 18, up to a size 28. According to Patricia Reller, vice chairwoman of the grievance committee, “Red is a color that attracts attention and someone, somewhere has made a decision that they don’t want to attract attention to someone in a dress that’s larger than a size 18 … I’m very offended by it.” Reller and crew also have beef with the requirement that FAs who want to wear orthopedic shoes aren’t allowed to wear the skirt or dress uniform of any kind but must wear pants.

Here’s where my opposing thoughts come in. In defense of Reller and the union, the airline is improperly making a judgment call on what’s attractive and/or appropriate without regard to what it actually takes to perform the job. Under the law, there’s the term “bonafide occupational qualification” or BFOQ. A BFOQ basically refers to an employer’s right to discriminate if the criteria upon which the discrimination is based is directly related to the performance of the job. For instance, airlines may institute height requirements for the comfort and safety of the cabin crew and passengers. FAs must be able to reach certain above-head compartments or function appropriately in a small, low-clearance cabin. A size 28 woman in a red dress, however, is no different from a size 28 woman in a blue dress when it comes to pouring Sprite and demonstrating how a seatbelt works.

Could this be another message from society that only “beautiful” women should be seen (and by beautiful we mean size 18 or less)? Is Delta saying that women in skirts/dresses belong in heels because we want to see those shapely calves? God forbid that they’d rather be comfortable on a 6 hour flight and skip the pu

so long as you die happy?

I used to have this cat named Tiggah (womp womp, yeah I know). Anyway, I got Tig when I was a junior in college and had this lil off campus apartment. At first my roommates were all like “that’s your cat so no one else is responsible for taking care of him”. I could understand that. However, after a little while, Tig began to grow on everyone who came around. He was so cute and I watched him grow from the little kitten I got from the shelter into a nice lil young adult cat. LOL. Then I eventually graduated from college and had plans on going away to Louisiana for law school (obvy I didn’t go there, but it’s a long story) and in the meantime I was moving around. I couldn’t really take Tig with me all around so I brought him to my Auntie’s crib and basically gave him to her. It worked out because she freakin loves Tig. LOVES him. Spoils him like nothing else. The one thing that bothers me though is that Tiggah is a fat cat.

Not fat cat like Garfield who is a comic/cartoon cat that talks to a dog and eats lasagna. Garfield is funny. Tiggah is a real cat who can develop diseases and die from obesity-related conditions. Tiggah is not funny. Ever watch Maury and see those parents whose 4 year old children are obese? The parents usually say that they have trouble telling their kids no or they want to provide their kids with everything they want. If those wants happen to be food, so be it. My aunt is like that. There are cat treats all over the place.

Sorry Tig

She and my uncle feed him all day long, wet food too. When I had Tig, I tried to balance his wet and dry food intake. Why? Well he loved the wet food and would gobble it all up. He’d eat it if it was there, even if he wasn’t hungry. but the dry food, he liked okay but you knew it wasn’t his fave. He’d only eat that when he had to eat SOMEthing. Here, in addition to the dry food being out all the time, new cans of wet food are popped open all day and treats are given out. It irks me so much.

You’d think I’d be upset because Tiggah used to be my cat and now he’s this fat hairball who can barely jump up on the window sill. No. I’m upset because I see the treatment of the cat as an extension of how my aunt and uncle view food themselves. Both of them are overweight. I should probably note that they’re brother and sister, not husband/wife. Anyway, my aunt suffers from a ton of problems with her back and joints that she could likely relieve should she lose some weight. My uncle has been diagnosed as a diabetic but still eats like food is going extinct. I probably wrote about this before, but I am prejudiced against overweight people. I can’t help it. It doesn’t make sense to me to KNOW you’re ill because of your size and continue to do nothing about it. Now granted, I understand that there are a lot of psychological issues and some biological issues behind overeating. I know because I can identify some of those psych issues in my aunt pretty easily. I’m just saying.