Have you heard about Southwest Airlines playing morality police?

On a recent Southwest flight from San Diego to Tucson, a 23 year old female passenger was asked to leave the plane because a flight attendant said her clothing was too revealing. Kyla Ebbert was asked to come up to the front of the plane to speak with the employee, where he told her, ‘I’m sorry but you’re going to have to catch a later flight because you are dressed inappropriately, this is a family airline and you are too provocative to fly on this flight,”. When Ms. Ebbert asked, “What part is it? The shirt? The skirt? Which part?” the employee replied, “the whole thing.”

Kyla offered to sit in her set with a blanket over her lap (she also pulled her tank top up and her skirt down) and she was allowed to stay on the flight. For the record, Kyle wore the SAME outfit on her return flight, and was not asked to leave the plane, and claims she was in fact complimented on the outfit by one of the flight crew.

Now Kyla is asking for an apology from Southwest Airlines, who issued this statement:

“Southwest Airlines was responding to a concern about Ms. Ebbert’s revealing attire on the flight that day. As a compromise, we asked her to adjust her clothing to be less revealing, she complied, and she traveled as scheduled. When a concern is brought to our employees’ attention, we address that situation directly with the customer(s) involved in a discreet and professional matter. Fortunately, as an airline that carries approximately 96 million customers a year, those situations are extremely rare.”

Here’s my take on this whole thing. Kyla, your oufit IS too revealing. I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, but when I saw you speaking with Matt Lauer on The Today Show, while wearing the outfit in question, I noticed two things:

• You had to pull your skirt DOWN when you stood up, as to not expose yourself on national television.
• You also gave the entire Today Show audience a clear view of your white panties when you sat back down on the couch.

So yeah, if that’s what the people on your flight were treated with, then your outfit IS too short.

However, I firmly believe that unless Southwest has a firm dress code in place, they had no right to ask you to change or leave the flight. Obviously, without a dress code in place, you are subject to the whims and morals of each crew member, and how they react to your outfit. (A female crew member might react differently from a male crew member, or it may have been a conservative passenger who complained, while the college students enjoyed the view quite a bit.) I don’t think it was correct for them to address this in the manner in which it was handled, and I do believe Southwest owes you an apology, simply because they do NOT have a dress code, and despite what they think, the matter was not handled discreetly.

That said, have a little class. You don’t need to fly on a plane in a skirt so short that we all see your panties. Haven’t you ever seen What Not To Wear? Dressing in too short / skimpy attire only makes YOU look trashy, regardless of how nice of a person you are, or how educated you may be. You made the wrong call in this outfit, and as much as I’d like to stand up for you and say you should wear whatever you’d like to wear - you’re dressed like a slut from the waist down, so I can’t.