WestJet Captain receives passenger's sexist note

[altiplano]

March 8th is Free to all Girls, Ladies, Women at the Alberta Aviation Museum

I'm feeling a little disadvantaged and sensitive about this. When is the free day for guys?

[Tom H]

March 8th is Free to all Girls, Ladies, Women at the Alberta Aviation Museum

I'm feeling a little disadvantaged and sensitive about this. When is the free day for guys?

Patience, patience...we have those too and they will be coming up

Tom Hinderks
Alberta Aviation Museum

[altiplano]

March 8th is Free to all Girls, Ladies, Women at the Alberta Aviation Museum

I'm feeling a little disadvantaged and sensitive about this. When is the free day for guys?

Patience, patience...we have those too and they will be coming up

Tom Hinderks
Alberta Aviation Museum

Good as long as we're keeping everything equal. In this day and age we can tolerate no less, everything has to be down the middle or there is sure to be a Human Rights Tribunal proceeding to sort it out.

[Rowdy]

Seeing as you're in Langley you're welcome to volunteer! kirsten@girlsfly2.ca

@Rowdy it's actually Women of Aviation Worldwide Week. http://www.womenofaviationweek.org/
.

Sorry for getting that incorrect!

I've sent a couple of friends your way Always good to see new people get involved in aviation

[B52]

Yep, its a "Publicity Stunt".

She made it public, thru her face book page.
Now she will be the darling of every raging feminist around the world.

At the same time, thousands of dedicated male pilots are treated
as unfit parents because they were born with testicles.

97% of all support payers are male in Canada.
You almost never hear of a "single dad" and
in the feminist world, a full time dad is like a red rag to a bull.

This "note" was a publicity stunt.
The pilot could have done the world a favour by ignoring it.

No offence intended to the several west jet female pilots I used to fly with.

[NeverBlue]

its possible they weren't educated period.

..."its" should be spelled "it's" when using as a replacement for it is...

...just say'n

[winterwarmfront]

Reading the comments on this thread, in particular the ones that were removed, illustrates perfectly the reason why she likely chose to respond publically instead of “brushing it off”. Because it’s still an issue.

She’s a Boeing 737 Captain with 17 years of flying experience- I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that she’s been subject to more than her fair share of offensive remarks and off-colour jokes. Just a hunch. As a sweet young thing, perhaps she was able to laugh them off or ignore them like a good girl but here’s the thing about time and frequency- they make you grumpy. The whole conversation about whether or not she should have kept it to herself completely misses the point- it’s not a decision she should have had to make in the first place.

I say good on her for having the courage to out this guy and start a national conversation on the subject. And good on Westjet for backing her up. What an embarrassment that some of her fellow pilots and colleagues here on AVCANADA can’t do the same.

@ Stu Pidasso- if “Captain Two Names” was only thinking of herself, she would have thrown it in the trash instead of going public and subjecting herself to the kind of backlash witnessed here. As for the “who cares?” crowd- if you don’t care, then don’t post.

[Old fella]

Idon't know why a person(female) would post such commentary on her personal FB site........... nobody pays attention to the musings of a so-called bible thumping evangelical male, this is 2014 not the late 50’s, 60’s era that I grew up in. The opposite gender is equal in all respects, we all know that.

[complexintentions]

I'm just tired of the culture of victimhood and endless whining in the media, social or otherwise. Gender issues aside. But I suppose the public airing of slights (whether perceived, genuine, or contrived) is the new normal in the Age Of Oprah.

I don't agree with the sentiment on the napkin, but it's just silly - like the tantrum of a child or the ranting of a simpleton. You can't reason with that mentality. The correct response is to shrug and ignore it. Anything more is only giving it the credibility - through attention - that it craves.

All this captain has done is shown that such things get to her, which will only encourage more of it. Hardly a strategy of strength and inspiration, to broadcast your insecurity to the whole world. My admiration goes to the individuals that laugh in the face of those who try and put them down. Not this woman, this time. The note didn't diminish her. Posting it did.

[BTyyj]

Well said complexintentions,

Unfortunately, the individual who made this note likely got the exact response he was hoping for from his remarks.

[bmc]

I think there must be two different Facebook apps out there, from reading this thread. The one I use is closed to my friends. I post all kinds of stupidity, comments and observations. It appears, from this thread, that there's a different Facebook that is connected to Canadian media desks for the whole world to see. On this one, apparently, news sources wait for status updates, particularly from Calgary based captains. This version of facebook, which I am unfamiliar with, is used by conspiracy theorists with too much time on their hands.

[Castorero]

Reading the comments on this thread, in particular the ones that were removed, illustrates perfectly the reason why she likely chose to respond publically instead of “brushing it off”. Because it’s still an issue.

She’s a Boeing 737 Captain with 17 years of flying experience- I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that she’s been subject to more than her fair share of offensive remarks and off-colour jokes. Just a hunch. As a sweet young thing, perhaps she was able to laugh them off or ignore them like a good girl but here’s the thing about time and frequency- they make you grumpy. The whole conversation about whether or not she should have kept it to herself completely misses the point- it’s not a decision she should have had to make in the first place.

I say good on her for having the courage to out this guy and start a national conversation on the subject. And good on Westjet for backing her up. What an embarrassment that some of her fellow pilots and colleagues here on AVCANADA can’t do the same.

@ Stu Pidasso- if “Captain Two Names” was only thinking of herself, she would have thrown it in the trash instead of going public and subjecting herself to the kind of backlash witnessed here. As for the “who cares?” crowd- if you don’t care, then don’t post.

Couldn't have said it better myself... there are elephants in every room and talking about them leads to changes in attitudes, in time.

Castorero

[Stu Pidasso]

Unfortunately the one missing the point, is yourself. There is REAL harassment that does go on and this isn''t even in the ball park.

[Meecka]

Women of Aviation Worldwide Week.....

I know this is a tangent to the thread, but I am curious.... Since when is Pilot the only aviation job out there? I'm constantly amazed that when there are these kind of events held the focus is on pilot, and pilot only. "Lets get more girls flying!" I never hear or see "Lets get more girls maintaining".

On topic... you would be disgusted at some of the crap that has come out of peoples mouths when they find out I am an AME. Not only from men, more often than you would think from women which just irritates the bejeezus out of me. To be honest I've just come to expect it as part of me being who I am doing what I do. Most of it I ignore as not being worth my energy to respond to, if its particularly offensive then we're going to have words, and I don't care what gender you are.

[complexintentions]

Not sure what your point is Meecka, since you give no hints as to your gender or what we're supposed to be disgusted about. But we promise to try and be outraged it you just spell it out for us.

One of my sisters is a nurse. On her entire wing, there is one male nurse. Who is constantly teased, poked fun at, and just plain harassed - by his colleagues, by doctors, even by patients he's caring for, who ask why wasn't successful in becoming a doctor and the like. (?!?)

Does he let it get to him? Well, no. He's cheerful, cares about people, loves his job and doesn't do it to try and prove some point about his gender being in a decided minority in his chosen vocation. He's professional and just brushes it off, like the verbal pocket lint it is. I'm pretty sure he's never posted any of the comments pointed at him on Facebook. He can't be bothered, he's too busy doing something he's passionate about.

Whom do you think has my respect, the nurse or the pilot?

People need to get a grip. Stu Pidasso is right - this doesn't even make the grade as harassment. The napkin writer wasn't threatening to go all Silence of the Lambs on the Fair Lady, he was just being a common bigot. Boring and old-fashioned, but not illegal or even against the terms of his ticket. I may find his views distasteful but I find the idea of trying to somehow force him to think a certain way, even more so. Groupthink is terrifying and Facebook is the ultimate example of such.

And no, endless "conversations" about things do not convert small-minded people. The only result in is a lot of pointless chatter. Prejudices and stupidity have no cure and cannot be regulated away.

[ahramin]

Complexintentions,

You are very correct in saying that this particular nutjob isn't the problem. He's easy to ignore, and not in a position to make decisions that affect a large number of people. But the roadblocks we're hitting on the way to gender equality are no longer individual people with evil in their hearts trying to oppress women. The problems are attitudes and norms that most people don't even realize they have. The good news is that unlike trying to change some nutcase's mind, changing people's unconscious attitudes is not that hard. You just need to make people realize that they do make decisions and judgements based on unconscious assumptions, and then make them realize what those assumptions are.

Think about this little tidbit: In business careers, likeability is strongly correlated with success for men, and slightly negatively correlated with success for women. In other words being a personable fellow able to get along with people helps your career (makes sense), but being a personable gal hurts it. Why would that be? It's not because the evil bosses are plotting against womankind. It is because managers have to make judgement calls about who is capable of leading a team, making tough decisions, etc, and they make unconscious (usually false) assumptions based on traditional roles for women. They don't know that they are making biased decisions that end up excluding some of their best talent, but they are.

All this to say that no, this napkin note isn't a big problem in the gender equality struggle. But it is an excellent opportunity to say what needs to be said, and get people thinking about the real problems.

[crazy_aviator]

With my 7 yr old daughter, Ive managed to change 1.5 diapers, SOO, I would classify myself as an emerging metrosexual, total equality, politically correct, non male chauvanist, , white skinned hetero-male !

[crazy_aviator]

oops, 7 MONTH old

[ahramin]

Don't worry crazy, we won't tell your wife.

Why is it that we think changing diapers is a woman's job anyway? What is it about that particular job that requires skills so few men apparently possess?

[AirFrame]

Best response possible:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1feazmJ2 ... e=youtu.be

I happily support women entering aviation... What I don't like is reverse-discrimination against men. We're going for equality, aren't we? Why do we need a women-only event?