Airline Dress Codes?

Airlines give many reasons not to let a person on board. However, what a person is wearing was never one of them.  On Saturday, August 25, 2012, David Koenig reported incidents of people who were not able to board in an article called, “Airline Dress Codes Ban Cleavage, Shirts With Expletives” from The Huffington Post. Recently, an airline employee confronted a woman, who was flying on the Southwest from Las Vegas, for showing too much cleavage. Another woman reported that an American Airlines pilot lectured about her shirt, which had a swear word written on it. Debate was brought out when both women told their stories to bloggers. Last week, a graduate from Arizona State University, named Arijit Guha was prohibited from flying on a Delta plane because he was wearing a shirt that read, “Terrists gonna kill us all” (The Huffington Post). He told them that his shirt was satirical and he wore it to a protest on racial profiling. Guha then stated, “I thought it was a very American idea to speak up and dissent when you think people's rights are being violated” (The Huffington Post). A year ago, Deshon Marman, a black youngster, was pulled out of an airplane and arrested because he refused to pull his low-hanging pants up when employees told him to. Marman’s lawyer complained that the same airline allowed a white man, who was wearing a woman’s underwear, on board.

The article is important not only because peoples’ rights are being violated, but also it brings into question that airlines are being racist. It is true that the first amendment forbids the government from limiting one’s freedom of speech rights, but it does not apply to rules set by private companies. Therefore it is important to take note that Guha was not confronted by government security screeners, but rather by private Delta employees. Airlines do not have clear rules of clothing, which leaves people to decide what to wear on their own. However, terrible that a black man who had his own style of dressing up was arrested, while a white man, who was wearing a woman’s underwear and nothing else, was allowed to fly.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/25/airlines-dress-code-controversy-cleavage-2012_n_1829989.html?ir=Travel