Fly Girls, the new CW reality show that follows five female flight attendants living under one roof, has been slammed by critics for encouraging a sexist attitude towards the profession.
The series, which debuted March 25, features five Virgin America flight attendants and follows their lives together as they try to get along in one California household, as well as following their working lives at the airline.
“Five beautiful Virgin America flight attendants as they jet from one glamorous location to the next, including Las Vegas, South Beach and New York City, while pursuing good times, great parties, adventure and love,” the show’s tagline screams. However, critics and unions have slammed the show for restoring the stereotype that flight attendants are flirty and promiscuous — a misconception the airline ndustry has been trying to shake since the sixties.
“The show implies that a flight attendant’s main job requirement is to keep her legs oiled,” The Wall Street Journal’s Megan Angelo wrote this week. “The girls flounce from their sprawling house to cocktail parties and back again; the only time we see them on a plane is when they’re discussing the (planted?) handsome guy in first class who invariably ends up hitting on one of them.”
Corey Caldwell, spokesperson for the Association of Flight Attendants, agrees. He believes Fly Girls is a misogynistic throwback to the “Coffee, Tea or Me?” era of the 1960s.
“Flight attendants will be losing any dignity that was gained if Fly Girls becomes a hit,” Walt Belcher wrote in Tampa Bay Online.
Even The Transport Workers Union is raising a fracas over the show. They say contrary to the glamorous lifestyle Fly Girls portrays, flight attendants in America are poorly paid and sleep in cars or crew lounges because they can’t afford housing. The TWU is hoping to use the show to kick-start a campaign to unionize Virgin America’s flight attendants.
Did you watch this week’s premiere of Fly Girl?