Is it Time for All-Female Aircraft Sections?
Living in the Middle East I’ve noticed that there are many spaces that allow women the opportunity to be in an all-female environment including public transportation, hair dressers and on certain days of the week, water parks. However, we don’t have the option for an all-female environment where we need it the most. Aeroplanes. Now, hear me out before you dismiss me as crazy.
Some airlines offer child-free sections in order to cater to passengers who don’t want to listen to babies who have excellent career prospects as sirens. Since children are usually not board members for airlines, it’s quite easy to make an objective decision about whether there should be child-free sections. However, since board members usually happen to be men, they are often oblivious to the fact that men are usually less pleasant to sit next to. Wait, it’s still not time to call me crazy.
I take about 15-20 flights a year, usually sitting next to strangers. When these strangers are men, they almost always spread their legs as far as they can, with one foot being about halfway into my legroom. And if I try to claim the footspace back, the same man’s elbow will protrude about 4-5 inches past the armrest. I can’t help but think that these men often intentionally get on the plane with terrible body odour so I move as far away from them as I can, giving them even more space to stretch out.
On my most recent flight, returning to Dubai from Copenhagen, I found myself wondering if it was the seat design that prevented my male seatmate from keeping his elbow, foot and foul odour to himself. So I decided to survey the plane. I noticed that when men were seated next to women they knew, or other men, they somehow managed to fit inside their seats. Needless to say, when women were seated next to women there didn’t seem to be any visible problems. So the logical conclusion was that the seats were not to blame.
What was interesting was that when men were seated next to unknown women, they usually did not fit in their seats and women were noticeably trying to move as far away as possible from the men conquering their personal space. In fact, there was even a man who had 4 seats to himself and was lying down, but still felt the need to recline all 4 seats and make things unpleasant for the girl behind him.
I’m not saying every male passenger is inconsiderate, but I think given a choice most female passengers would rather avoid having strange males within a millimetre of them. So airlines if you’re looking to get more female travellers on board, it’s time to give us our own space. And no, please don’t seat the crying babies with us. They are compact enough to sit next to the men.
yes and then we would have female only toilets as well
Score!
I think this could also be extended to subways & buses. Man-spreading is plight all of us women face, no matter our mode of (shared) transport!
That actually is the case here! In fact quite a few cities have women only sections on their subways.
Yes I notice it in my last trip to Munich it was horrible 😡it’s my first time travel through aeroplane and I discovered also that the females and males use same toilet when I came back to AbuDhabi I forced my self to stay away from toilet 😥😤
I suppose the real trick is to use the washroom before anyone else does because people seem to be extra messy when in mid air.
But can we have men-only stewards? Especially handsome ones?
Amen!
Hrmmm…interesting… Women’s only areas on a plane.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t that done in the American South back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries where blacks were given “special” places to sit in public areas?…
Please… tell me… How’d that work out?
Well the difference here is that women can sit in either section. Women-only subway cars have proved to be quite popular in Japan, Brazil, UAE, Mexico, the Philippines and a lot of other countries. Once again in these places women have absolute freedom to be any subway car but have the option of a male-free space.
But yes, the ideal scenario is men (or women for that matter) staying in their own space.
interesting. I didn’t know that. I guess it’s true that you learn something new everyday.
On a flight last month I had a man sitting in front of me that as soon as he sat down he slammed the seat into recline, I have very long legs and was very uncomfortable, I basically had my knee’s up around the assuming the plane’s going down position! I sat for the hour and 1/2 pushing his seat with my knee’s and then to annoy him I stretched my legs as far as I could under his seat until I was kicking his ankles, he got the hint!!
What is it about flying that makes people (myself included) more passive-aggressive than usual? I’m sure in a regular situation most of us would just talk to the person getting in our way…
Baby-free everywhere please. Men I can cope with 😉
I understand what you are suggesting. I also, understand how it appears men seem to take over the space, but it sounds as if women are willingly giving it up. Perhaps they can charge the men more since they are taking up the space. And the women can pay less since they are giving up the space.
Or the women should just use their jackets, purses, books, and bags (and such) to help claim the space they paid for. That way they don’t actually have to touch or risk touching the man, but they can set the boundaries. Plus, it is always a good idea to care a little bottle (something that will be allowed through) of really fragrant lotion to be applied when a fellow passenger has a stench that can’t be tolerated.
I always did the chant/prayer as people were boarding, “Oh, please, please, please don’t sit by me, don’t sit by me . . . . “
I actually do have a vivid recollection of trying to reclaim the space (I was sitting next to a woman that time).
Throughout the flight I kept getting jabbed by her elbow, so when she finally moved her arm for a moment I claimed the armrest. So she put her arm on top of mine and continued to jab me!