Sexist Virgin Australia Outrages Men

[diddly squat]

Sexist Virgin outrages men

Virgin Australia has promised a review after facing a firestorm of criticism from men outraged at its policy of barring males from sitting next to unaccompanied children.

A public backlash has prompted Virgin Australia to announce it will review its policy barring men from sitting beside unaccompanied children on flights.
The company was today widely criticised after a Sydney fireman reported his experience of being asked to swap seats because he was sat beside two unaccompanied boys.

http://images.smh.com.au/2012/08/10/3544330/branson3729-620x349.jpg

Read more: Virgin Australia | Man Asked To Move Due to Paedophile Fears (http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-incidents/seat-swap-outcry-moves-virgin-to-think-again-20120810-23y7q.html#ixzz23gyA2NYq)

[Cactusjack]

Forget children. Nobody should want to sit next to this scraggy haired parasite.

[Ollie Onion]

Is it just me or does this Fireman need to toughen the f**k up!! To be honest I wouldn't want my unaccompanied children sitting next to a Male passenger who is traveling by themselves, I don't care if that offends that passenger. This is a common policy over most big airlines.

[Lookleft]

Unfortunately its all part of the world we live in. None of us like security screening but its also a response to unpleasant events. How would the airline explain if a peodophile did get put next to an UM and the unfortunate happened?

[Aimpoint]

What, he sexually assaults the child in front of 150 passengers...this crap just increases the stigma of being a male around children.

[GAFA]

Qantas has the same policy and looks like they've upset someone.

Qantas | Airline | Unaccompanied child policy | Man 'humliated' (http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/travel/travel-incidents/nurse-humiliated-by-qantas-policy-20120813-243t4.html)

[2bigmellons]

Ollie,


Woman can be pedophiles too, it is a psychological condition.

It is a condition of most airlines that crew supervise the UM throughout the flight, how can you be certain that by swapping male pax with a female that you haven't just made the situation into something that it wasn't? Both men and women are capable of heinous acts.

Should we also separate the elderly from dodgy looking fella in case they flog their purse. Or maybe separate those with a different religion in case of some uprising...

It comes down to the parent willing to accept that these are the risks associated with sending your child off on their own. The best way to deal with it - don't send them on their own.

[adsyj]

Nothing wrong with the policy, it just should be out sorted by ground staff and check in staff prior to boarding so that nobody is the wiser. Can't be that hard.

[Shark Slayer]

That's it then......if stereotyping is allowed then which demographic are suicide bombers / terrorists made up from?

Of course that won't happen!

[Oakape]

I don't know about the rest of you, but with the way things are these days, if I was seated next to an unaccompanied child, I would ask to be moved. It's just safer that way.

I'm thinking that the man doth protest too much!

[drshmoo]

Shark slayer fair point.

This is sexism to the very core! We live in a world that has gone more than full circle. Imagine if there was a movie about a female stripper equivalent to magic mike. Look at the family law act! Rampant female favoritism. I don't mind inequalities being made a public issue.

But I'm not sure wether making a scene of this issue
a) helps the particular situation
b) takes society further down the PC bull**** path
c) actually aid solving inequalities for anyone.

What it does do is make the flight attendants day much harder when these martyrs want to make a scene and delay flights.

[squarebear]

[QUOTE]What it does do is make the flight attendants day much harder when these martyrs want to make a scene and delay flights./QUOTE]

Nothing I read showed that either of these two guys behaved as if they believed they were martyrs, nor was it ever indicated that they made a scene, delayed a flight or even made a flight attendant's day any harder.

All I read from the articles was that they felt extremely embarrassed to be asked to change seats because of whom they were seated next to, solely on a policy that is not supported by any regulation.

Really, if airlines WANT to implement this type of policy, AND except money from parents who WANT to send their children around the country by themselves, the airline should organise it in a way that that does not affect/embarrass any of the other fare paying customers.

[Torqueman]

What about male flight attendants?

Should they be allowed to supervise unaccompanied children?

:mad:

[Tableview]

When my son was about 7, I booked him on a CPT-LHR flight as a UM. Nearer the time, I booked myself on the same flight but forgot to tell the airline to cancel the UM request.

When we checked in, the check in agent told me I couldn't sit next to him because he was a UM and only the person who had made the UM booking could cancel it and had to do so by phoning the call centre. I explained that I was the person who had made the booking ....... it took the intervention of a supervisor to get this done. Seats were changed, and when we got on board I was told by a FA (who obviously hadn't had the updated information) that I had to move. It was all quite good-humoured but had the makings of a farce!

[virginexcess]

Fact: People do get sexually assaulted on aircraft.

What's worse? An embarrassed fireman or a sexually assaulted child.

Get over it, it is a good policy, just badly administered on the day.

[Capt Claret]

To be honest I wouldn't want my unaccompanied children sitting next to a Male passenger who is traveling by themselves,

Why?

Statistically women abuse kids at much the same rate as men do. And as someone said above, on an aeroplane with many, many witnesses! :ugh:

[chickendrummer]

2 Words: Nanny State

[noip]

During an annual Emergency Refresher day a few years ago, the Instructor gave an explanation for the policy. I can only assume it is true, and given some incidents that had occurred that caused it to be introduced, I'm inclined to agree.

The policy is not there to protect the children, but the male passenger (and consequently, the airline). I'll leave it at that.

The utterly uninformed and ignorant crap I've seen published over this ... well ... and I expect more here as well.


N

[VBA Engineer]

What about male flight attendants?

Should they be allowed to
supervise unaccompanied children?


I don't think that would be a problem, most of the ones that I see are half female anyway.

[Ollie Onion]

"Statistically women abuse kids at much the same rate as men do", really I would like to see the stats that back that up.

A study I just read from the UK says that 5 - 10% of child sexual abuse is carried out by male and females together and only 5% is carried out exclusively by female abusers. That is far from 50/50.

Clearly this policy is not trying to label ALL men as sexual predators but it is trying to reduce the risk of not only the child being abused but also it is protecting the male passenger from an unfounded accusation.

The ironic thing is that many posts above say that this is PC gone mad, infact it is the opposite, not allowing airlines to have these types of rules is PC gone mad.