I was onboard UA910 between DEN and ORD today. I had my laptop on the tray table as I was going through some company e-mail. Two flight attendants came up the aisle with the beverage cart. I closed all of the programs to reveal the desktop just a few seconds before one of the flight attendants asked me what I wanted to drink. She takes a look at the photo I am using for my wallpaper, gives me a look of surprise, and says "Get rid of that!"
I wasn't sure what she was referring to. "Excuse me?" I said. She repeated "Get rid of that". I asked her what she was referring to and she said "The photo on your laptop". At first I thought she was joking. When I didn't react to what I thought was her joke, she said "I'm serious, you need to get rid of that photo". "It's very disturbing" she added. I told her that it was a photo that I had taken myself and that's all that it is...a photo. I still didn't react to her demand. In an increasing I'm-about-to-really-make-your-day-worse tone, she told me that I shouldn't have this kind of photo for everyone to see on my laptop and once again affirmed "I better get rid of it". I finally opened the Windows Media Player to start listening to some tunes. This covered the wallpaper the flight attendant found to be so offensive.
So what was the photo of? Was it pornographic? Violent in nature? Twisted? Or otherwise unsuitable for the public to view if they peaked at my laptop? Nope! It was this:
http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=5938235
When the flight attendants moved on, I noticed that pretty much everyone within an earshot was staring at me. I looked around to see all of the stares. Everyone had this look on their face that was is hard to describe, but it really made me feel humiliated. I've come across indifference, rudeness, poor customer service, lies from FA's and GA's (like it's illegal to take photos of airplanes!), and other poor behavior from United Airlines during my many years of flying with the airline. This is the first time United has made me feel humiliated in front of other passengers. All because the flight attendant was a little squeamish looking at a harmless photo I was using for wallpaper on my laptop. Who knows what was going through the other passenger's minds as to what the flight attendant found to be so offensive on my laptop that they couldn't see. They probably thought I was some kind of porn freak or something.
Should I have spoken with the purser about this?