Virgin Atlantic job applications double after end to gendered uniforms

November 7, 2022 1:00 PM

Virgin Atlantic has seen a 100 per cent rise in crew applications following its decision to launch gender-free uniform options, the airline’s CEO has said.
posted by folklore724 (46 comments total)

Thanks for this post! It’s so great to read something like this, I just feel starved for even modest good news. I hope the management of other hospitality and travel companies will take this to heart.
posted by Bella Donna at 1:11 PM on November 7, 2022 [12 favorites]

I gotta say I always felt way more psychologically comfortable on Southwest when the staff was wearing slacks & sneakers than when they're in those skintight dresses & pantyhose & heels. Why would I want someone whose job is to save me to have to do it while dressed for a completely different activity.
posted by bleep at 1:53 PM on November 7, 2022 [26 favorites]

(chanting) skants skants skants SKANTS SKANTS SKANTS!!

(I am all for this, to be clear)
posted by branca at 1:59 PM on November 7, 2022 [9 favorites]

Wait, is this "everyone gets to wear pants and sneakers" or "we still have very gendered uniforms but employees get to choose which one they wear"?
posted by straight at 2:03 PM on November 7, 2022 [14 favorites]

I have the same question ^^^ as straight but am too lazy to register to read the rest of TFA.
posted by armoir from antproof case at 2:09 PM on November 7, 2022 [3 favorites]

It looks like the airline is taking the stance of "wear the skirt if you want to, I guess" rather than the more progressive "our uniform is no longer going to be explicitly designed for men or women" which is what the headline sounds like it was saying.
posted by caution live frogs at 2:09 PM on November 7, 2022 [12 favorites]

It appears to be the latter:

The change means that male employees may wear skirt suits to work, if they so wish, while women and gender-nonconforming staff may opt for trouser suits without being asked to wear the traditional female uniform.

Giant eye roll at the framing in the news reporting. “Employees of all gender identities can choose freely between a skirt suit or trouser suit” would be simpler and more clear.
posted by jedicus at 2:11 PM on November 7, 2022 [39 favorites]

can you mix and match the burly black suit + ruby red high heels?
posted by kaibutsu at 2:12 PM on November 7, 2022 [17 favorites]

I'm sorry but exactly what is not-gendered about a tight skirt?
posted by Dashy at 2:22 PM on November 7, 2022 [4 favorites]

I'd love this to be great news. But the picture at the top of the story, which is apparently of the new uniform's launch, depicts three women in tight skirts and heels, and two men in trousers and flat shoes. This feels more like spin than genuine change.

In my job we get a given certain amount of outdoor/sports kit from sponsors, which we're supposed to wear to events. A lot of it claims to be 'unisex', but it's just men's stuff. I have a coat that claims to be unisex but is unwearable because, while it's massive and boxy across my shoulders, I can't even get the two sides of the zip together because the bottom of the coat goes around my hips and it's designed for people who are pretty much straight from torso to knee, not people with curved hips.

I suppose it's possible that Virgin are providing trousers in women's fit, but I wonder hard whether they're providing skirts that will be shaped to fit men.
posted by penguin pie at 2:26 PM on November 7, 2022 [10 favorites]

(Btw - don't mean this to be a pile on, folklore724, thanks for sharing - interesting to read, even if it turns out to be not quite what it seems!)
posted by penguin pie at 2:31 PM on November 7, 2022

Why not? It'll be fun at company parties, even if nobody wears it on the plane.
posted by jeffburdges at 2:32 PM on November 7, 2022

I do not think all three people wearing skirts are cis women.
posted by cooker girl at 2:33 PM on November 7, 2022 [25 favorites]

But the picture at the top of the story, which is apparently of the new uniform's launch, depicts three women in tight skirts and heels, and two men in trousers and flat shoes

I don't believe this is correct. There are more photos at the earlier Telegraph article.
posted by wreckingball at 2:34 PM on November 7, 2022 [6 favorites]

Here's an article announcing the official launch.
posted by cooker girl at 2:36 PM on November 7, 2022 [3 favorites]

Whatever this new uniform policy actually is, it is definitely an improvement on this.
posted by TedW at 2:38 PM on November 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

They were previously forcing people to wear makeup? Jesus Christ.
posted by HotToddy at 2:45 PM on November 7, 2022 [7 favorites]

I do not think all three people wearing skirts are cis women.

Ha - yes, you're quite right, I'm extraordinarily unobservant today. Apologies, and I take it all back!
posted by penguin pie at 3:10 PM on November 7, 2022 [3 favorites]

I'm for a more relatable uniform as well, but I'll take less gendered requirements as a start. Flight attendants should stand out as the officials administrating the flight, but no reason they should be wearing weird throwback costumes to a bygone era of misogyny and xenophobia.

I'll take this as step 1, with step 2 probably writhing its way through the corporate system but getting a big boost from the success of step 1, which the brass probably thought was a bad idea.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 3:15 PM on November 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

I gotta say I always felt way more psychologically comfortable on Southwest when the staff was wearing slacks & sneakers than when they're in those skintight dresses & pantyhose & heels.

Back in the day, Southwest flight attendants used to wear hot-pants (although it must be said that his employee retention rate was impressive, a large percentage of his workforce was unionized, and he really did seem to believe and live his "Employees first, customers second" motto).

Herb Kelleher was an eccentric guy.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 3:21 PM on November 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

Wait, is this "everyone gets to wear pants and sneakers" or "we still have very gendered uniforms but employees get to choose which one they wear"?

Making everyone wear pants is not msgically less gendered than giving them more choices. Why do you suppose we tend to treat feminine coded clothing as gendered and masculine coded as genderless?
posted by jacquilynne at 3:47 PM on November 7, 2022 [16 favorites]

Underwhelmed by the gender-free-ness of "Now everyone can choose between a black, baggy suit and necktie - or bright red, tight trousers and a ruffled blouse!"

Thanks! It (still doesn't have) pockets!

I say shiny retro-future spacesuits (bubble helmet optional) for all, or GTFO.

[Also acceptable for Virgin Airlines' color scheme: whatever that thing they wore on Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons is called, with the big red tunic and the cap. On takeoff, they can play the International Rescue theme music and count down to 3! 2! 1! Thunderbirds are Go!!]
posted by bartleby at 3:51 PM on November 7, 2022 [6 favorites]

Gender schmender, I just want an explanation of the phrase "comfortable trouser suits".
posted by darksasami at 4:12 PM on November 7, 2022 [4 favorites]

I do not think all three people wearing skirts are cis women.

They're not, and I noticed. But the dominant effect is that they're all performing the very narrow, hollywood, sexy-flight-attendant costume version of womanhood.

That's the gendering to which I object.
posted by Dashy at 4:36 PM on November 7, 2022 [8 favorites]

I basically never fly so I don't have any dollary-doos to vote with about this, but I'd much rather see flight attendants, pilots and all related staff wearing fire retardant flight jumpsuits, functional boots and maybe even equipped with utility belts full of safety gear including maybe a cattle prod and hand cuffs for drunk and stupid and otherwise unruly passengers.

Because - for fuck's sake - they're spending a major portion of their lives in a paper thin pressurized metal tube full of jet fuel hurtling through the air at 500-600 MPH and most of their passengers are morons. The glamour days of the jet age are long gone, and people today barely wear suits to white collar jobs at all any more unless they're C-suite (and even then) or working in a court.

Forcing flight crews and staff to wear dress shoes and flammable synthetic clothes and especially - holy shit - heels and hose of any kind has always been totally insane to me. I don't want to see a pilot in a naval or admiralty suit like Pan-American and Clipper Ships are still a thing, give them a flight suit or jump suit or something functionally related to aerospace that isn't from nearly a hundred years.

And while I'm issuing edicts about flight safety there should be a minimum safe dress code for passengers, too. No sandals, no open toed shoes, no bunny slippers, no heels. Maybe wear something that isn't flammable plastic so you don't get shrink wrapped or end up with melted synthetic fabrics stuck to your burnt skin if things go wrong. Hell, let's just issue flight suits and sensible shoes to everyone.
posted by loquacious at 5:07 PM on November 7, 2022 [14 favorites]

I've been saying it for *checks clock* two years now - "labor shortage" is code for "management's failure to provide acceptable working conditions."
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:15 PM on November 7, 2022 [19 favorites]

In this case, I think that "labour shortage" is code for "oops we fired two-thirds of our staff and it didn't occur to us that they'd get new careers in the meantime and not just wait around for us to hire them back".
posted by heatherlogan at 5:31 PM on November 7, 2022 [13 favorites]

And while I'm issuing edicts about flight safety there should be a minimum safe dress code for passengers, too. No sandals, no open toed shoes, no bunny slippers, no heels. Maybe wear something that isn't flammable plastic so you don't get shrink wrapped or end up with melted synthetic fabrics stuck to your burnt skin if things go wrong. Hell, let's just issue flight suits and sensible shoes to everyone.

I think people wearing slip-on shoes on airplanes can be traced directly to the fact we still have to take our shoes off at security.

Also, not to be too grim, but not many stewards or passengers survive crashes, so what anyone is wearing may be moot. Airlines probably also think looking ready for a crash would make passengers nervous.
posted by emjaybee at 9:16 PM on November 7, 2022 [5 favorites]

It also mentions that staff will have the option of wearing pronoun badges to indicate how they are to be addressed. And that customers can request them as well.
posted by xigxag at 10:40 PM on November 7, 2022 [5 favorites]

Interesting how the big bearded guys in the photos are very much not the ones in the skirt suits.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 11:53 PM on November 7, 2022

Not yet, anyway. Let's give it some time. It's a start. Not a perfect start, but something.
posted by Bella Donna at 12:46 AM on November 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

Also: SKANTS???
posted by Bella Donna at 12:47 AM on November 8, 2022

Progress, but much more could happen.
I guess it's not like it's an industry which has done very well at this at all so far, given how much of it still adheres to a very, very outdated ideal of what women should wear and look like.
posted by mathw at 12:54 AM on November 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

When I worked at an airport, I came into contact with a lot of Virgin America & Australia flight crew.

They have to be in full uniform when they step into the airport. So the women wearing heels had to wear them for hours before and after the flight.
posted by Monday at 1:04 AM on November 8, 2022 [3 favorites]

Aviation has a long, long way to go when it comes to inclusion (over 90% of commercial pilots in the US are white dudes), so every little bit helps.

Formal uniforms probably come in handy in terms of getting passengers to see staff as authority figures, but I agree that it would make way more sense for flight attendants to be wearing practical clothing. Plane crashes aside, attendants have to do a lot of pushing, lifting, and balancing. They also end up providing aid to passengers who are unwell and are stuck dealing with unruly folks. I have a hard time walking in heels let alone doing any of that.

I'm hoping that, in general, we'll get to a point where we have a lot more options in terms of gender-neutral and practical office clothing. I've jokingly described my gender as "jeans and a hoodie," but that still doesn't fly in a lot of workplaces, which results in me going into work looking way femmier than I do in my spare time.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 1:06 AM on November 8, 2022 [3 favorites]

("Employees first, customers second" seems to have its limits at Southwest [tw: sexual misconduct]. I feel like I keep seeing their name in the press for not-great pilot behavior. That stuff would be shitty on its own, but on a plane it becomes a safety issue because it impacts the crew's effectiveness and ability to work as a team.)
posted by evidenceofabsence at 1:28 AM on November 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

Also, not to be too grim, but not many stewards or passengers survive crashes, so what anyone is wearing may be moot.

Sure. My comment is mostly in jest. But parts of it is not. Like wanting comfortable, functional work clothes for flight crew instead of uncomfortable and even unsafe clothes, particularly for women with heels, skirts and hose and dressing like they're going to an office job in the mid 1980s and required to dress for what is essentially very sexist and classist sex appeal thinly disguised as professionalism.

And my unease with passenger clothing choices based in the fact that passengers are obligated to help other passengers during an evacuation or emergency, especially if you're on an emergency exit row.

If I'm surrounded by passengers wearing flip flops and effectively walking around barefoot it makes me feel concerned and nervous because if they have to evacuate through a wrecked cabin they're going to have a bad time and they will likely be slower to evacuate even if their flip flops or sandals stay on their feet, and they may hinder egress of other passengers.

Airlines probably also think looking ready for a crash would make passengers nervous.

Yeah, I know I'm different and weird, but I was thinking of making it fun. Like astronaut or Air Force flight suits.

Seeing people - especially flight crews - be prepared makes me less nervous and I probably don't see that the same way most other people do. You see being prepared in other areas, like boating, or motorcycles. With motorcycles you don't dress for the ride, you dress for the slide.

And maybe people would take flight safety more seriously if the flight crew was wearing flight suits and walking around with EPIRBs and flotation vests on for the whole flight.
posted by loquacious at 10:59 AM on November 8, 2022

Put everyone in JUMPSUIT.

(previously)
posted by ActingTheGoat at 11:19 AM on November 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

Put everyone in JUMPSUIT.

Is this a joke? It's honestly impossible to tell.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 11:42 AM on November 8, 2022

Put everyone in JUMPSUIT.

My dad (1925-1997) almost always wore a jumpsuit when not at work or church.
posted by neuron at 3:19 PM on November 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

Aviation has a long, long way to go when it comes to inclusion (over 90% of commercial pilots in the US are white dudes)

Small digression: I've learned from Twitter that to become a commercial pilot, you must have a significant amount of in-flight hours to be even considered for the position. Student pilots who haven't been flying for hundreds of hours aren't entrusted to fly a 100 million dollar plane, filled with a hundred people, over large cities.

There are only two practical ways to get these in-flight hours. The first, which is not conducive to diversity, is to be rich and pay your own way through flight school and accumulate those in-flight hours. The second, which is also not conducive to diversity, is to join the military as a pilot and get training and flight hours paid for by the government. The airlines do not have a lot of influence over either of these two pilot pipelines.

To add to the problem: hours in the military piloting an unmanned aerial vehicle (drones) don't count, and those are slowly replacing traditional aircraft flight. Expect the pilot shortage to get worse.
posted by meowzilla at 7:33 PM on November 8, 2022

Put everyone in JUMPSUIT.

Excuse me!?

This is a SPEEDSUIT. SPEEEEEEDSUUUUIT.
posted by loquacious at 2:06 AM on November 9, 2022 [2 favorites]

I don't know about y'all, but I'd totally go for an airline that had a different aesthetic on each plane, with uniforms to suit: "we have the 'Das Boot' leaving Pheonix at 9, or the 'Alien' at 1. The 'Hedwig' departs at 7 and 'Rocky Horror' at 11..."
posted by klanawa at 1:54 PM on November 9, 2022 [5 favorites]

the little blue caps of Poly Am
the go-go boots of Trans Girl Airlines
the Hawaiian shirts of Big Gay Al's Big Gay Plane Ride
posted by bartleby at 12:26 PM on November 10, 2022

Expect the pilot shortage to get worse.

A "shortage" that any airline could rectify practically immediately but just not outsourcing their training. Take applicants who already have private licenses and pay them to accumulate hours with an agreement to fly with them for a couple years or whatever once they get their commercial license.
posted by Mitheral at 6:23 PM on November 10, 2022 [2 favorites]

offering a range of Vivienne-Westwood-designed suits

I worked for Virgin America and when our In-flight Team Members (ITMs) got a uniform redesign our designer-of-choice was Banana Republic. We were the cheap Virgin airline for sure.
posted by bendy at 9:47 PM on November 12, 2022 [1 favorite]