Men can't sit next to children on British Airways, Qantas, Air NZ

[Friday]

From the "Well, it could be WORSE department".... 

SHOULD MEN SIT AT THE BACK OF THE AIRPLANE?

Boris Johnson, a member of the British parliament, received a surprising request from his British Airways flight attendant. Following company
policy, she asked Johnson to move elsewhere because minors sat in the seats adjoining his.

"She retreated when he explained that the adjacent children were his own progeny," writes Independent Institute Research Fellow Wendy McElroy
in her latest op-ed. "Johnson memorialized the experience in an article entitled 'Come off it, folks: how many paedophiles can there be?'"

The segregation of men from children, the open policy of Air New Zealand and Qantas as well British Airways, "seems rooted in little more than a dangerous tendency to paint men per se as predators," writes McElroy. To see the unfairness of it all, McElroy asks readers to consider the justified outrage that would result if seating policy were set on the basis of another irrelevant trait, race: "If an airline restricted the seating of blacks because the 2004 Bureau of Justice data states 'blacks [are] disproportionately represented among homicide victims and offenders,' there would be a backlash of rage. It would make no difference that the parent or loved one of a white passenger had requested the 'safety' measure."

Concludes McElroy: "Seating men as though they were sexual predators is a vicious and discriminatory practice that has no basis in fact or logic. Indeed, if the illogic of the policy were consistently spun out, it would mean 'women and children only' flights and the restricted seating of men at theaters or concerts."

"Segregating Children From Men," by Wendy McElroy (11/21/06)
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1857

[Russell Kanning]

Can they walk on the same side of the street?

"Man Free" zones surrounding all government jail schools?

[Dreepa]

The next flight I take I will happily let my kids sit somewhere else.  Let the stewardess deal with them.

[Rochelle]

Can we ban men from sitting next to women, too?

How about fat people from sitting next to skinny people? If you're skinny, it's really quite opressive to have some obese person spilling over into your area and pinning you against the side of the airplane...

I'm going to contact my legislatures about this issue. I want them to know how we have to protect skinny people from the fatties.

[Dreepa]

Can we ban men from sitting next to women, too?

How about fat people from sitting next to skinny people? If you're skinny, it's really quite opressive to have some obese person spilling over into your area and pinning you against the side of the airplane...

I'm going to contact my legislatures about this issue. I want them to know how we have to protect skinny people from the fatties.

Step 1.  Ban Transfat  (check NH house is on board here).
Step 2.  ....

[Lloyd Danforth]

The next flight I take I will happily let my kids sit somewhere else.  Let the stewardess deal with them.

Better yet, you won't have to sit next to someone Else's kid

[Rochelle]

Step 1.  Ban Transfat  (check NH house is on board here).
Step 2.  ....

Step 3: Profit....right ?

If I were that guy, I'd sue British Airways for sexual harrassment. They're harrassing him because he's male.

[lordmetroid]

No, you got it all wrong!

Step 1. Ban transfat
Step 2. ...
Step 3. ???
Step 4. Profit!