Oops missed this one back in August from Crikey
Virgin Blue's sexist ways
Cherie Shoulderpads
Crikey's high flying female executive
15 August 2003
It's been open season on Qantas srevice standards recently but now it's time to square the ledger as a female executive has sent through this excellent piece demolishing the sexist alternative through Richard Branson's Virgin Blue. We entirely share these sentiments.
For 8 years, I was a business traveller flying either domestically or internationally with Qantas on average once a month, and like the other letter writers, experienced a huge range of service standards - from the sublime to the ridiculous. My main gripe was that there was simply no consistency to standards - you never knew what you were going to get, the flight from hell or the surprise-and-delight approach. At least this made it interesting.
But then I changed jobs and my new company flies Virgin Blue domestically. I have been intrigued by my experiences as a female professional travelling for business on this airline, and wonder whether mine is an isolated experience or not.
I find the Virgin brand and all that it stands for to be incredibly disempowering and demeaning to women. It is an absolute dinosaur; would have been right at home circa 1969; objectifies women as brainless sex objects and idolises leering old men (yes, that would be YOU, Richard Branson) as demi-gods.
We all know that setting expectations for a company's culture starts from the top. The gap between men and women permeates all the way through their structure and the way they do business.
First - where are their male flight attendants? Do they even have any? I've never seen one.
Second - where do they find the identikit women who are their Flight Attendants, with absolutely identical body-shapes. (And so very, very Aryan!) Diversity and the beauty within a range of different ages, body and racial types seems to be a completely alien concept to the Virgin recruiting officers. I call the Flight Attendants the Fem-Bots.
Third - the staff treat male passengers differently to women! I have exited a plane and seen a Fem-Bot smilingly farewell every single male passenger. When I filed past her, she took a rest. I was the invisible woman! Men always seem to be over-represented in the seats at the front of the plane. Women to the rear please, and shut up and don't bother the Fem-Bots. The attitude even extends to the check-in staff. Arriving quite early for a flight once, I asked if a forward seat was available. "We have zones," sniffed the woman on check-in. I meekly asked how I could get seated in a forward zone. "You don't understand," she responded, in a rather circular argument, I thought. Clearly she too had been hired on Aryan looks and idealised body-type rather than any sense of customer service! Sure enough, I filed on down to the second-last row of seats past the men in suits having a whale of a time with the lovely Fem-Bots up the front. I can see that the service is good - it's just that it's not good for women.
Fourthly - why do they insist on bombarding me with negative and demeaning images of women - ones that I would even classify as soft porn - when I am a captive audience on flights? By this, I mean their stupid in-flight magazine (Who was the genius who thought that Voyeur would be a good name for a magazine? Hello? Let's idealise deviant behaviour, shall we? Maybe their online newsletter could be called Cyber-Rape; that would be cutesie!) This month the front cover has a highly suggestive image of yet another identikit Aryan woman sucking a long red object. Mmmm, subtle! Then there's the illustration of the well-endowed woman in an Akubra and an inadequate bikini painted on the planes. Love seeing that as I board at 7:30am heading for a long day interstate at business meetings. Really sets me up and makes me feel good about being a woman.
I saw a senior Virgin marketing executive present at a conference once, and was amazed to hear her describe her brand as "empowering and inclusive". It's not. It revels in the worst aspects of exclusionism, is demeaning to women, is really moronic, and never fails to set my teeth on edge.
As my final proof point, remember that stupid promotion they did a while ago - leverage the fact that their flight attendants were named by Ralph magazine as the "sexiest women in Australia". What benefits did they hope to deliver by demeaning the work of their female employees in this way? (And did the union have anything to say about objectifying their workforce in this way? I mean, they're flight attendants, not sex workers. Since when was 'sexiness' one of their required core competencies?) Did Virgin management think more business women or women in general would fly the airline because the sexiest women in Australia were going to be working? I think the extent to which they promoted this 'title' makes it pretty clear who their target market is. With Virgin, women are barely tolerated, while men are lionised!"
CRIKEY: Here, here. This particular man completely agrees and always feels awkward on Virgin flights when bogan men feel it is their right to chat up Branson's blonde hosties. Maybe it's all about distracting customers from the lack of free food and minimal leg room.
Your feedback: this woman wholeheartedly agrees
I couldn't agree more with your female executive's critique of Virgin. I also travel quite frequently, usually with Qantas though often with Ansett when they were operating. Recently a couple of clients booked me on to Virgin. After 3 flights with the airline - 1 to northern Queensland and one Sydney/Melb return - I now have a new criteria for clients. If you want me to come to you, book Qantas.
Not only are Virgin very sexist, obviously favouring male over female patrons. I am sure there is an extra row of seats in their planes. The amount of leg room is minimal. There is not enough room to open a laptop, let alone do any work on it. Not very good when you're travelling on business.
And I find the friendliness and humour so forced and grating. The constant jokes over the intercom of the Benny Hill school of humour are not designed to put me in a good mood.
I would rather put up with delays and varied service from Qantas.
Kathleen
C'mon, loosen up a bit
Obviously I can't comment on the way Senior Female Executive feels, but I also travel frequently on Virgin Blue, and my experiences are a little different.
There are a number of male flight attendants. I have seen them. As early as the first flight I took with Virgin back in 2001, and as recently as my flight from Melbourne yesterday.They seem to me to be drawn from the same batch as the female attendants. As well as being by and large physically attractive (although there are folk out there better qualified to judge that bit), they appear to me to be as bright, interested, thoughtful and hard working as their female counterparts.
I have noticed (and I am definitely on firmer ground here, even though it could get me into trouble) a wide variety of "body types". Far from being identikit, they would seem to me to represent a very fair cross-section of physically attractive, bright, interested and thoughtful people.
But what I would also like to observe, from a strictly non-sexist point of view, is that Virgin Blue a) represents far better value for money, even given the less comfortable seats, b) in my experience has been consistently punctual, which from a business viewpoint is valuable in itself and c) seems to have trained its staff - ground and flight - in the simple courtesies of service that I haven't seen at Qantas for more than ten years.
But then, as a bloke, they are possibly making an extra effort for me. Incidentally, I also arrive early to flights and find myself "down the back", but I have yet to determine any conspiracy involved.
Happy Virgin