Now that Southwest has a new boarding system breaking up boarding into groups of 5 (even though still no assigned seat), their boarding process is much more civilized than NW's "everyone may board" after FC and elites. Apparently NW thinks this is quicker though of course each airline has their own idea of what "quicker" is!
John
I wouldn't call ANYTHING on Southwest "civilized"... I refuse to fly them, no matter how much I save.
Getting back to the original post, I tend to "dress down" when I fly, since most (all?) my travel is personal. I can recognize the typical PE's by their attitudes (that is, not to say it's bad, but you can tell a person who travels for a living), and I can understand how they might think that I am just another one of those clueless idiots who might fly once a year and stands in the way or tries to sneak on board early.
I just push forward as well... as "politely" as possible.