{"id":35896,"date":"2017-03-27T23:58:35","date_gmt":"2017-03-28T03:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=35896"},"modified":"2017-03-28T23:50:40","modified_gmt":"2017-03-29T03:50:40","slug":"if-you-must-fly-united-remember-nan-kempner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2017\/03\/if-you-must-fly-united-remember-nan-kempner\/","title":{"rendered":"If You Must Fly United, Remember Nan Kempner"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>United Airlines got itself into a world of trouble yesterday over leggings after an alert (female) observer tweeted that two teenage girls were barred from a flight because of their leggings, while a younger girl was forced to put a dress over her leggings in order to board. The social-media genius at United decided <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quora.com\/What-does-Is-this-the-hill-you-want-to-die-on-mean\" target=\"_blank\">leggings were the hill that s\/he wanted to die on<\/a>, robotically tweeting that the airline had the right to deny service to &#8220;pass travelers&#8221; deemed to be inappropriately dressed.<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The passengers this morning were United pass riders who were not in compliance with our dress code policy for company benefit travel.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 United (@united) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/united\/status\/846065666922811393\">March 26, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Pass travelers are airline employees and their family members who are allowed to fly standby for free. A nice perk, eh? Still, who looks at a random teenage girl in the airport and thinks, &#8220;Her relative must work for United. Ugh! Look at her outfit!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KeeganAllen\">@KeeganAllen<\/a> The customer this morning was a teenage United pass traveler who did not meet our dress code policy for pass riding. ^KP<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 United (@united) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/united\/status\/846104385130160128\">March 26, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n<p>I could understand airlines asking pilots or flight attendants flying for free to wear their uniforms &#8212; as uncomfortable as those might be &#8212; in case those people are called upon to lend a hand in an emergency, but who cares about anyone else?<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s face it: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/greatspeculations\/2016\/10\/06\/the-athleisure-trend-is-here-to-stay\/#156b6c6c28bd\" target=\"_blank\">The athleisure trend hasn&#8217;t shown signs of going anywhere<\/a>. Also, you can say, &#8220;Leggings aren&#8217;t pants&#8221; all you like, but &#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@jasonwdonnelly\/10-reasons-why-anyone-who-says-leggings-arent-pants-is-wrong-1d0e4b9f88f7\" target=\"_blank\">they&#8217;re fucking pants<\/a>. Even United knows its passengers aren&#8217;t going to stop wearing leggings &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">To our customers\u2026your leggings are welcome! Learn more about our company\u2019s pass travel privilege: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/5e3euG1H9G\">https:\/\/t.co\/5e3euG1H9G<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 United (@united) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/united\/status\/846171188573425665\">March 27, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n<p>&#8230; and why should they? It&#8217;s not like the airlines are doing anything at all to make passengers feel comfortable these days. Give us some leg room, decent food, and consistently polite service, and maybe we&#8217;ll all feel like wearing suits again.<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/56021818\" target=\"_blank\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 74.410774% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/56021818?et=DI31SmtpR9R7M0jmtkQ-VA&amp;tld=com&amp;viewMoreLink=off&amp;sig=Tdqcm1WVl2noaT4XTcFf8Ct2rnBEuiM040WBRXyf4ac=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"442\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n<p>I personally don&#8217;t wear leggings anymore. I wore leggings daily for at least four years in the 1980s and I&#8217;m apparently still legginged-out.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_35900\" style=\"width: 508px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2008\/03\/leggings-flashback\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-35900\" class=\"size-full wp-image-35900\" src=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/amsterdam1989.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"498\" height=\"702\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/amsterdam1989.jpg 498w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/amsterdam1989-213x300.jpg 213w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/amsterdam1989-300x423.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 498px) 100vw, 498px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-35900\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Capri-length leggings in 1989. Click for original post.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Also, practically all jeans have stretch now, so I stick to denim. That said, here&#8217;s the plan that I always kept in mind, but never had to use, in my long-shirt-with-legging years: Do like the late, great fashion icon <a href=\"http:\/\/decadentoldbitches.blogspot.com\/2011\/06\/nan-kempner-original-social-x-ray.html\" target=\"_blank\">Nan Kempner<\/a> did when <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wmagazine.com\/story\/nan-kempner\" target=\"_blank\">denied entry to the restaurant La C\u00f4te Basque<\/a> in 1968 because she was wearing a Yves Saint Laurent pantsuit and pants on women were forbidden. She took off the pants, declared her tunic to be a very short dress, and dined in style.<\/p>\n<p>By the way, women wearing pants could really cause a stir in the late 1960s. In 1969, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/reliable-source\/post\/update-first-woman-to-wear-pants-on-house-floor-rep-charlotte-reid\/2011\/12\/21\/gIQAVLD99O_blog.html?utm_term=.de49004733c3\" target=\"_blank\">Rep. Cynthia Reid blew male colleagues&#8217; minds by being the first woman to wear a pantsuit in Congress<\/a>. Future president Gerald Ford thought it was great, and somehow, we all survived. I&#8217;m going to bet that we&#8217;ll live through leggings too.<\/p>\n<p>UPDATED TO ADD: There&#8217;s a good take on the whole kerfuffle <a href=\"http:\/\/onemileatatime.boardingarea.com\/2017\/03\/26\/united-leggings-dress-code\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>, saying that it all would have been fine &#8212; because pass travelers are aware of the (very woman-focused) dress code &#8212; except whoever was on Twitter blew it from a public-relations perspective.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>United Airlines got itself into a world of trouble yesterday over leggings after an alert (female) observer tweeted that two teenage girls were barred from a flight because of their leggings, while a younger girl was forced to put a dress over her leggings in order to board. The social-media genius at United decided leggings&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2017\/03\/if-you-must-fly-united-remember-nan-kempner\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,46,49],"tags":[1218,1219,1217],"class_list":{"0":"post-35896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"category-feminism","9":"category-in-the-news","10":"tag-leggings","11":"tag-nan-kempner","12":"tag-united-airlines","13":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35896"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35918,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35896\/revisions\/35918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}