Photo by americanistadechiapas on Flickr
Over at the Atlantic, Megan McArdle is addressing blogger Glen Whitman’s argument about the economics of Pan Am flight attendants’ boobs. Here’s Whitman:
For an economist, the most fascinating aspect of Pan Am is the highly attractive flight attendants — or rather, stewardesses, since the show is set in the early 1960s. If you’re young enough, you might think that’s just TV. But I’m just old enough to remember flying in the 1970s, and I recall stewardesses who really were, in fact, hot. Okay, I was too young to understand the concept of “hot” — but I was definitely aware that I was being attended by some very pretty young women.
As predicted by a simple supply-and-demand model, airlines were willing to offer more flights at these high prices than customers were willing to buy. Under normal market conditions, that would lead to falling prices. But since the airlines legally could not compete on price, they competed on quality instead. They offered better service, better food, and… wait for it… more attractive stewardesses.When deregulation came along, however, it became apparent that as much as male customers might have enjoyed the eye candy, they weren’t willing to pay for it.
As McArdle points out, it’s not economics killing Whitman’s boner, but labor laws:
Stewardesses used to be subject to all sorts of extremely strict rules: they couldn’t be married, couldn’t gain weight, couldn’t get pregnant, couldn’t be much over 30. If you fire everyone who violates those rules, then yes, you will select for a much “hotter” group of women than the current crop.
In other words: The Pan Am stewardesses aren’t beautiful because they’re TV actresses, a profession in which success is directly dependent on how well you match up to cultural ideals of beauty. They’re hot because they’re 1960s flight attendants, a profession in which success is directly dependent on how well you match up to cultural ideas of beauty. Oh, AND ALSO they are TV actresses.
McArdle doesn’t mention another factor, which is that some of the beautiful women who would have been stewardesses in the Pan Am era are now allowed to be lawyers and scientists and crazy things like that. Outside-the-home work for women was just starting to ramp up in the early ’60s, and there were limits on what jobs were considered achievable for the ladies. In a field where the options are secretary, elementary teacher, or flight attendant, a woman with the travel bug would probably choose Pan Am. Today, she could log just as many miles becoming a CEO. (Or a television actress, I guess.)
Given that we’re talking about an industry in which Kat Dennings is considered grossly fat, it’s a fair bet that if you find yourself saying, “Gee, I wonder why these flight attendants/teachers/ER doctors/vampire slayers are so attractive,” the answer is “because that thing you are looking at is not a window, but a TV screen.” But one benefit of retro shows like Pan Am is that they remind us how far we’ve come from that narrow, sexist standard in other professions. Or they remind us how airline deregulation means we’ll never join the Mile High Club, I forget.
Previous in TP Alyssa
By clicking and submitting a comment I acknowledge the ThinkProgress Privacy Policy and agree to the ThinkProgress Terms of Use. I understand that my comments are also being governed by Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policies as applicable, which can be found here.