Sung To The Tune Of The Boxer, by Simon & Garfunkel
He was there in mourning
Now his story’s just been told
Went and offered up resistance
To the cops who went to hitch his slacks up to his waist.
He paid his price
Bought a ticket and in doing so
Bought only arrogance
He was asked quite nicely at the gate
Just to rearrange his duds
All around him were the strangers
In the chaos of the entry gate they huddled there
Pants were low, showing off his hinder quarters
He thought it was quite a show
Hung along his shankbones his pants just can’t go
He won’t fly, fly fly fly fly, fly fly fly, he won’t fly.
Asked politely to adjust them
Deshon angered all the mob
And the flight stayed well and grounded
As his claim of ticket ownership was not enough
He’s nearly bare, and the captain busted Deshon out
Before they took to air
He won’t fly, fly fly fly fly, he won’t fly.
Then the escalation happened there
Near seat B-seventeen
He was gone
To the jetway to shake hands with his new destiny
Destiny, he ain’t goin’ home
In the jetway hung the boxers
Their departure never made
Disrespecting all the fliers
Who’d just wanted to leave the town
And shoved him, to the aisle
In his anger and his shame
" I am leaving, I am leaving
But my boxers still remain
While my flight’s leaving my boxers still remain.
He won’t fly, fly fly fly fly fly fly fly, he won’t fly
Up into the sky, despite his pal who dieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed.
In fairness, this isn’t an uncommon style of dress these days, and I think the airline and the officers were way out of line. I suspect a court will, too.
Except that an article I read implied that they don’t actually have a dress code, so making up rules on the spot because you don’t like certain clothing isn’t acceptable, is it?
As someone interested in air safety, though, I think passengers should wear clothing that wouldn’t impede their movements in the event of an evacuation. It seems that most people wearing baggy/sagging pants wouldn’t be able to run or climb over airplane seats/debris or out through overwing exits very well, thereby putting their own safety - and worse, that of other passengers behind them - at risk. The same might be said for short or tight skirts, though hiking *up *a skirt in order to run is more likely to have it stay up than baggy pants. Heels/flip flops etc. aren’t forbidden on planes either, but are considered unsafe and can lead to injuries on evacuation (more likely to twist an ankle coming off a slide, for example). I had a conversation with an air accident investigator who told me that it was one of his hangups - poor shoe choices, as well as passengers removing shoes for the duration of the flight. Loose shoes become projectiles in turbulence, and passengers end up with cut or burnt feet due to the lack of protection from having removed them.
So if his pants were around his ankles with his dick swinging in the wind, you would have no problems with it?
I say good for the airline. I’m tired of having to look at the upper half of both ass cheeks of everyone from age 16 to 24 in this country. Pull up your fucking pants. And get off of my lawn!
Yes, I’d have a problem with that. I’d also have a problem with him shooting an automatic rifle at random strangers, garroting a flight attendant, trying to steal a first class upgrade, molesting children travelling alone, or a number of other activities that are…wait for it…actually criminal.
This was just some idiot wearing a lame but common teenager outfit, which did not, incidentally, have any butt cheeks showing. The airline had no right to ask him to change his dress style beyond perhaps verifying that the pants could be pulled up in the case of an emergency. These are the same sort of uptight morons that twenty years ago wouldn’t let you fly with a tattoo, and twenty years before that wouldn’t let you fly if you were black.
And twenty years from now, they won’t let you fly wearing a dirty diaper, swim fins, and a beard of bees. Will this relentless oppression of passenger fashion never cease?
I’d be more distressed seeing a fat chick with the word JUICY emblazoned across her sweatpants-clad butt than if I saw a glimpse of some guy’s tighty whities.
On the other hand, I’m kinda sick of hearing about folks getting kicked off planes for something that could be easily recitified. Pick your battles, people.
I claim that’s still another strawman, like the example of the person exposing their genitals. However, if twenty years from now something like 40% of the population wears that as a standard day-to-day outfit, yes, I’ll call it oppression then, too.
I think you’re overstating your statistics more than a little–40% of the population as a whole would be something ridiculous like every single male under the age of 65.
But still, they are very commonplace, and it’s that very commonplaceness that makes me think he had to be showing abnormal amounts of ass for multiple airline employees to say something to him. I mean, it’s not like these people had never seen baggy britches on a passenger before, and there’s no evidence so far that any of them have ever made an issue of it in the past. The options are a) three separate people all three suddenly decided to make a fuss about something common and innocuous on the exact same day or b) someone who has behaved inappropriately in other ways was also inappropriate in his dress. Which seems likelier to you?
