TG crew ? Yes, Please !
Hi – I’m new here. Be gentle.
I have been lurking and reading PPRuNe for a while, off and on.
I’m not a pilot, or CC, or any of the other many airline industry roles that keep me, and the plane I happen to sitting in, flying.
I’m just a regular SLF parcel – regular as in ordinary and regular as in frequent. So I read PPRuNe now and then, just keeping in touch, like. And it can be interesting to see what is going on in the heads of people on the other side of my airline ticket.
I thought I had to register and throw in my two’pennorth on this one.
There are other threads on here right now, relating to the BA dispute, Spanish ATCO, and other matters with lots of healthy debate - and sometimes a little mud-slinging maybe.
I have read those with interest, but not felt sufficiently stirred to add comment on those – in each thread, my own views have already been put by some posters (on both sides of any particular thread) and anyway as mostly the arguments are going round in circles now (‘scuse pun !) I haven’t felt the need to post. And, as SLF, I don’t have any particular technical or company insight on which to argue the minutiae.
But on this one ?
I have flown many miles, on many airlines (including Thai Air, by the way), and it has never occurred to me to wonder or be bothered about the sexuality, or previous gender, of the CC that I have met – or pilots that I haven’t. OK, sometimes I might have (rightly or wrongly !) unconsciously made an assumption about a male CC who appeared a bit camp – and I guess I might do the same about a CC in a skirt who seemed a bit – how shall we say – "masculine ?" And I guess there have been many more occasions when somebody has seemed so completely natural in their own skin or uniform – be that male or female – that nothing at all has registered, consciously or unconsciously.
But – do you know what ? If there are any transgender, either before or after, CC (or Pilots, or whatever) up there flying, then not only would I be comfortable in my ignorance of their sexuality or previous gender on their airplane – if did know about it I would be happy to be on their airplane !
[OK – I know we can be pedantic about what actually constitutes sex, sexuality and gender, but you know what I mean, so please let’s not argue on that one].
It seems to me, that given the amount of hassle and cr*p that these people would have had to go through all their lives – and I guess will still get from some "colleagues" after any change – well… then those people must be real tough cookies. And thus likely to be able to cope with more or less anything and look after me no matter what happens up there. And, furthermore, they are up there in the air because they love their job, and wanted to continue in the job, just so much that they were prepared to go through all that hassle and any bitchiness and sniping just in order to carry on flying and look after people like me.
That’s good enough for me – I’ll take that anyday.
Happy to fly with you Ma’am, [or Sir].
So, thinking about it now – as this thread had forced me to do – if my next flight attendant wears a skirt, is 6’4", 200lbs, with a seven o’clock shadow, and a dark brown voice to go with a namebadge saying "Lola" – I will recline my seat, sip my drink and be happy.
I know that I’m being looked after by someone who really wants to be there, doing that job, and has probably fought like hell to get there and stay there.
Phil