Super-sized hosties
December 29th 2006 03:32
TomN (of Boat Heaven blog fame) recently addressed some issues that had been weighing on his mind. Throughout his years of air travel he made the observation that international hosties were generally pieces of “eye candy”, while our homegrown hosties had perhaps consumed too much candy and were “big heifers”.
I too noticed the beauty of European hosties, who all appear to have just stepped out of a hair salon, had their face made up by a professional makeup artist, and exude the glamour of models strutting their stuff on a Milanese catwalk even as they are walking through the cabin collecting rubbish.
Likewise, Asian hosties are always slim and have immaculate makeup and hair (the latter of which even the worst case of air turbulence does not seem to ruffle). I have heard that part of one Asian airline’s recruitment process involves its wannabe hosties modelling swimsuits. The recruiters want to eliminate any candidates whose unsightly bulges would be evident in the tight fitting uniform.
Unfortunately, in the era of equality for all in the workplace, image still reigns in the airline industry. It is undeniable that having the correct height/weight ratio, having a decent face (or one that can be made decent with the assistance of makeup) is an important, if not THE most important factor in securing a hostie gig. All airlines ask applicants to send in a full-length photo!
So TomN, in answer to your question “did QANTAS in the eighties start to hire big heifers?” I would have to say NO. Those rotund hosties on our national carrier became that way, as you speculated, “due to good living”. The lifestyle enabled them to indulge in fine food and drink.
I also have a theory about the correlation between body size and cabin aisle width, which may be applied to airlines with some super-sized hosties.
When a hostie begins her career she is young, slim and energetic, allowing her to cope with the lengthy, narrow aisle in cattle class. The ‘herd’ she is responsible to look after is numerous, so she rarely gets a moment to rest and eat, and besides the food in this cabin is barely palatable.
As her career progresses and she is promoted to work in Business class, she develops a ‘spare tyre’ because the food in this cabin is more abundant and palatable, and the aisle isn’t nearly as long as in cattle class so she expends less energy. The aisle is much more spacious in this cabin too.
By the time she is working in First class, she has attained ‘heifer’ status. There are only a handful of passengers and therefore much less work to do, which means more time to eat relatively good food/ sit down and gossip/ read magazines. Her metabolism rate has decreased with age for she has been in the company for a number of years now. The novelty of being a hostie has well and truly worn off, and she is hardly motivated to get off her huge lazy bottom and attend to the passenger’s call bell, although even if she summoned the motivation she wouldn’t have far to walk in that small cabin with the short and very wide aisle.
As the aisles widen in each cabin, so do the waistlines of the hosties. It’s almost as if the aisles deliberately accommodate to the change of the body from slim to super-sized.
However for TomN, the aisles are not accommodating enough. He complains about chunky QANTAS hosties banging their hips into his elbow every time he takes a cup or glass to his lips. TomN, I suspect that when these incidences occurred you were travelling in cattle class, where even the slimmest people have trouble fitting in the aisles, let alone big hosties. In my old airline (which was not Aussie, European or Asian) I recall constantly having to apologise to passengers for knocking their elbows with my hips (and I am not fat, or ‘hippy’). In order to avoid this, I soon learnt to walk in crab-like fashion down the economy class aisle. And if you were seated in premium class (where aisle space is plentiful) when your elbow met with a hostie’s hip every time you took a drink, then you must have been served by the beefiest hosties in airline history!
I can offer a couple of explanations as to why you didn’t experience the same problem on European and Asian airlines. Either their aircraft have huge aisles in economy- unlikely, or you didn’t notice any hosties bumping into you as they were walking past because you were too busy gawking at the “eye candy”- very likely!
I too noticed the beauty of European hosties, who all appear to have just stepped out of a hair salon, had their face made up by a professional makeup artist, and exude the glamour of models strutting their stuff on a Milanese catwalk even as they are walking through the cabin collecting rubbish.
Likewise, Asian hosties are always slim and have immaculate makeup and hair (the latter of which even the worst case of air turbulence does not seem to ruffle). I have heard that part of one Asian airline’s recruitment process involves its wannabe hosties modelling swimsuits. The recruiters want to eliminate any candidates whose unsightly bulges would be evident in the tight fitting uniform.
Unfortunately, in the era of equality for all in the workplace, image still reigns in the airline industry. It is undeniable that having the correct height/weight ratio, having a decent face (or one that can be made decent with the assistance of makeup) is an important, if not THE most important factor in securing a hostie gig. All airlines ask applicants to send in a full-length photo!
So TomN, in answer to your question “did QANTAS in the eighties start to hire big heifers?” I would have to say NO. Those rotund hosties on our national carrier became that way, as you speculated, “due to good living”. The lifestyle enabled them to indulge in fine food and drink.
I also have a theory about the correlation between body size and cabin aisle width, which may be applied to airlines with some super-sized hosties.
When a hostie begins her career she is young, slim and energetic, allowing her to cope with the lengthy, narrow aisle in cattle class. The ‘herd’ she is responsible to look after is numerous, so she rarely gets a moment to rest and eat, and besides the food in this cabin is barely palatable.
As her career progresses and she is promoted to work in Business class, she develops a ‘spare tyre’ because the food in this cabin is more abundant and palatable, and the aisle isn’t nearly as long as in cattle class so she expends less energy. The aisle is much more spacious in this cabin too.
By the time she is working in First class, she has attained ‘heifer’ status. There are only a handful of passengers and therefore much less work to do, which means more time to eat relatively good food/ sit down and gossip/ read magazines. Her metabolism rate has decreased with age for she has been in the company for a number of years now. The novelty of being a hostie has well and truly worn off, and she is hardly motivated to get off her huge lazy bottom and attend to the passenger’s call bell, although even if she summoned the motivation she wouldn’t have far to walk in that small cabin with the short and very wide aisle.
As the aisles widen in each cabin, so do the waistlines of the hosties. It’s almost as if the aisles deliberately accommodate to the change of the body from slim to super-sized.
However for TomN, the aisles are not accommodating enough. He complains about chunky QANTAS hosties banging their hips into his elbow every time he takes a cup or glass to his lips. TomN, I suspect that when these incidences occurred you were travelling in cattle class, where even the slimmest people have trouble fitting in the aisles, let alone big hosties. In my old airline (which was not Aussie, European or Asian) I recall constantly having to apologise to passengers for knocking their elbows with my hips (and I am not fat, or ‘hippy’). In order to avoid this, I soon learnt to walk in crab-like fashion down the economy class aisle. And if you were seated in premium class (where aisle space is plentiful) when your elbow met with a hostie’s hip every time you took a drink, then you must have been served by the beefiest hosties in airline history!
I can offer a couple of explanations as to why you didn’t experience the same problem on European and Asian airlines. Either their aircraft have huge aisles in economy- unlikely, or you didn’t notice any hosties bumping into you as they were walking past because you were too busy gawking at the “eye candy”- very likely!
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Comment by TomN
Boat Heaven
Cheers
TomN