Rain City Story

All Men Are Dangerous.

Frances Kemp booked an aisle seat on a recent British Airways (BA) flight because she had a bad leg that required extra space. Her 76-year-old husband Michael occupied the middle seat. A nine-year-old girl took the window position.

When a stewardess asked Frances to switch seats with her husband, she declined. The stewardess explained that the seating arrangement breached the airline's child-welfare regulations and moved the child.

Michael is a retired journalist with no criminal record; he made no contact physical or verbal with the girl; no complaint or request to move was received; the child's mother was elsewhere on the plane. The girl's welfare was deemed to be in peril solely because Michael was male.

BA has openly joined the ranks of airlines such as Air New Zealand and Qantas that view all men as a danger to children. It is difficult to know how many other airliners share this policy as it is rarely announced and can be enforced invisibly when seats are booked.

Indeed, BA itself has been quietly instituting the policy since at least 2001 when another 'seat rearrangement' drew attention. In answering a complaint from the humiliated man, BA explained, "We introduced the policy . . . in response to customers asking us to make sure their children are not seated next to men. We were responding to a fear of sexual assaults."

Source Article: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,231238,00.html

This reminds me of a personal experience I had during my first quarter at Ohio State University. Late during that quarter, my guidance counselor required me to select my intended major for the upcoming year (I enrolled in Summer to get a head start) and I had written down elementary education. A few days later, I received a note requesting that I skip math class and proceed directly to her office where I was told that men had no business in elementary education and that she would not sponsor that major. I tried to ask why but she wouldn't discuss it and told me to return to class. I thought about fighting it but decided it was not worth the fight and I filled out a new form with "Business Administration" as my declared major.

Heh. Good thing though as I've made 6 times what I would have made if I had ended up teaching elementary ed. How soon though until more companies adopt this policy? To me, this is just like the airlines banning all liquids because of a supposed terror plot involving liquids. Will my son (supposing I have one) be able to work with females or attend school with girls he doesn't know?