Friday, December 02, 2005

Political correctness gone mad at 50,000ft

Maybe it's the thin air up that high or something but Air New Zealand have come out with a delightfully predudiced policy:

Air New Zealand and Qantas have banned men from sitting next to unaccompanied children on flights, sparking accusations of discrimination.

The airlines have come under fire for the policy that critics say is political correctness gone mad after a man revealed he was ordered to change seats during a Qantas flight because he was sitting next to a young boy travelling alone.

Yeah, the demonisation of men continues and now we're all pedophiles without trial. Imagine being that man, asked in front of other passengers minding their own buisness "could you please move so as not to sit next to that child". I cannot even begin to picture how humiliated, degraded and pathetic I would be as I clumsily moved to the new seat. The implication
alone and what other passengers would be thinking (consciously or unconsciously) would just be
terrible. Of course, not that the airline seems to be aware that they are sending a very clear message with this kind of policy:

When the Herald asked her if the airline considered male passengers to be dangerous to children, Ms Paul replied: "That's not what I said."

When it was put to her that that was the implication of the policy, she repeated: "No, that's not what I said."

Oh of course it wasn't Ms. Paul. Please do tell us then what exactly was your thinking for doing this? Were you afraid that the excessive body odor produced by males would upset children on the flight? Perhaps the sight of hairy arms or chins would terrify the poor dears? If you're moving male passengers (forbidding in fact) them to sit next to children what DO you think the implication is? Perhaps Ms. Paul could use a little help from the audience here, I'm afraid that she isn't quite sure if a policy that prevents men from sitting next to children is assuming men are inherently more of a 'risk' to the child. I couldn't get that sort of impression from this policy though, how ridiculous it's obviously "not what she said".

You know, this is just getting to the point of utter ridiculousness. There is a point where you can say there are measures that can be taken reasonably, like suggestions for women to watch their drinks in a bar or take precautions when walking alone at night, but this sort of thing is going way too far. Of course, it's just a continuing of the demonisation of fathers and men in general by various whacko groups and it's unfortunately just going to continue.