SouthWestAirlines to woman: skirt too short to fly from Planck's Constant

Kyla Ebbert is seen on NBC's 'Today Show' wearing the outfit she says she was wearing when she was told by Southwest Airlines that it was 'inappropriate.

First off, I am always disappointed whenever some petty functionary worries himself over some minor dress issue when there are bigger threats to the security of this country. One would think that airline officials should be troubling themselves over the threat of Islamic terror instead of acting like Islamic terrorists who think scantily clad women are like sizzling steaks.

Here's the story:

Pantagraph,
Airline tells woman skirt too short to fly
SAN DIEGO -- A 23-year-old woman who boarded a Southwest Airlines plane in a short skirt for a flight to Arizona says she was led off the plane for wearing an outfit that was considered too skimpy.

Kyla Ebbert said a Southwest employee asked her to leave her seat while the plane was preparing to leave San Diego's Lindbergh Field on July 3.

Ebbert, a student who was headed to Tucson for a doctor's appointment, said Friday on NBC's "Today" show that the employee told her she would have to catch a later flight.

"You're dressed inappropriately. This is a family airline. You're too provocative to fly on this plane," she quoted the employee as saying.

"I said, 'What part is it? The shirt? The skirt? Which part?' And he said the whole thing."

Ebbert was eventually allowed back on the plane after offering to adjust her sweater but said she was humiliated and embarrassed.

Southwest explained in a letter to her mother, saying it could remove any passenger "whose clothing is lewd, obscene or patently offensive” to ensure the comfort of children and "adults with heightened sensitivities.”

Well, here's the thing: everything is offensive to "adults with heightened sensitivities." Should Jews be thrown off planes because they're offensive to Muslim passengers? I'm offended by Muslim women who wear burqas. Can I ask South West Airlines to remove those hideously oppressive symbols of a barbaric culture?

And here is where our educational system fails: the man who asked Ebbert to cover herself because she was lewd does not understand what lewd means. Legally, in order to be lewd one has to intend to excite sexual desire. Indecent exposure does not mean exposing one's belly button in public; legally it means revealing one's genitals under circumstances likely to offend others. Was this woman on a mission of prostitution on the flight? Hardly. And who are flight attendants to be the judges on matters of fashion and taste? What they should be looking out for is the nervous passenger who's clutching his briefcase too closely.

Unless she was twirling tassels taped to her nipples, I say to the airline personnel: get a life.

Here's the NBC Video.

Here is the link to her Myspace page. She's obviously not a shy girl but so what?