by Lana Evans

Created on: September 20, 2007

Who's decision is to police the attire of the customer? Is either going to be a professional decision made by the airline or one made by customers in the form of the trends already set by society. The standard has already been set. We all know that when we are not at home we can expect to run into people from all walks of life. If we find some of their ways mildly undesirable then all we can do is practice the tolerance taught to us at church or in grade school; it's a basic ethic.

If people can tolerate sitting next to my screaming, coughing, not so fresh-smelling tiny tots and other people who may become temporarily undesirable only while in close quarters, then they would be unreasonable not to extend that tolerance to the poor scape-goat in the mini-skirt. She, like the rest of the passengers, has temporarily ventured out of her social clique to ride a plane with a bunch of strangers.

It takes us years to establish an even partly formed personal identity. Before someone boards a plane, he or she has been conducting business as usual in his or her own life. Their identity is established, and that includes the way they identify with what they wear. The way we dress is a strong part of who we are. Command over our own fashion sense is highly important to people in the United States. The greater offense is to be told that you can't wear the clothes that feel normal to you. The lesser offense is to have to see another person dressed in ways you neither want nor have to.

When you feel disgusted with the way another person dresses all it really means in general is that you hate the lifestyle associated with the clothes. That makes you imagine that you hate the person. It's just a case of 'higher then thou' intolerance enacted by people who have personal and professional enemies of their own for things a lot worse than then the way that they dress. Who are these people to bring their bad characters onto the airplane? They are, like the rest or the passengers from varied backgrounds, part of society. Airplanes are, after all, for everyone.

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