As a side note: I noticed the same thing with the flight attendants when I was on an ANA flight to Japan recently. As it turns out that while there is no official age restriction anymore, very few work at a Japanese airline past the age of 30. On my flight back with Lufthansa there were many 40+ flight attendants, Japanese staff included.
That's insane! In America the airlines formed strong unions in the 70s so I believe thats why we dont have those restrictions either. Yet I'm sure its very strongly socially enfornced :(
Huhm, I hadn't thought of it as a form of privilege, but I suppose it is.
On the other hand - while there has always been a double standard, I would contend the casualization of the work world really got supercharged when Steve Jobs asserted his ability to do the jeans & turtleneck combo, and subsequently basically every founder out here went casual very quickly, and let their staff do the same.
Prior to that - well, there was a 'male' beauty standard too. It was your suit, or khakis/collared shirt, or work uniform, and it's really only in the last 10-20 years that standard has begun changing rapidly.
So in that sense, I feel the rejection of Beauty Queening among the powerful women is what is paving the way for the less powerful to be able to do the same, because they can rightfully go 'It's good enough for <respectable person>, so why isn't it good enough for me?'
But it will be much faster if-when we have much more gender equity
As a side note: I noticed the same thing with the flight attendants when I was on an ANA flight to Japan recently. As it turns out that while there is no official age restriction anymore, very few work at a Japanese airline past the age of 30. On my flight back with Lufthansa there were many 40+ flight attendants, Japanese staff included.
That's insane! In America the airlines formed strong unions in the 70s so I believe thats why we dont have those restrictions either. Yet I'm sure its very strongly socially enfornced :(
I only read that the age restriction has been abandoned recently. The only Japanese company I found that still has such restrictions was Skymark https://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/32490?display=b
I wouldn't be surprised if these restrictions had been common in other countries as well when air travel was mostly for rich and famous people (men).
Huhm, I hadn't thought of it as a form of privilege, but I suppose it is.
On the other hand - while there has always been a double standard, I would contend the casualization of the work world really got supercharged when Steve Jobs asserted his ability to do the jeans & turtleneck combo, and subsequently basically every founder out here went casual very quickly, and let their staff do the same.
Prior to that - well, there was a 'male' beauty standard too. It was your suit, or khakis/collared shirt, or work uniform, and it's really only in the last 10-20 years that standard has begun changing rapidly.
So in that sense, I feel the rejection of Beauty Queening among the powerful women is what is paving the way for the less powerful to be able to do the same, because they can rightfully go 'It's good enough for <respectable person>, so why isn't it good enough for me?'
But it will be much faster if-when we have much more gender equity
That's a good way to think about it! and a perspective that i hadnt considered