I'm afraid that I'm with those who don't see a problem with gender-specific titles. Steward, Stewardess. Waitress, Waiter. I've actually been to a restaurant where the term waitron was in use. Egad, that sounds like some sort of robot.

Excellent obscure lyrics reference...I prefer Bette Midler's version. ^

It seems to me that the argument here is that people shouldn't be offended by mere terminology when it's used by people who don't actually mean to offend. So ideally the word "negro" could be used in conversation and all parties involved would understand that nobody is trying to insult anybody else; imputing meaning to word selection - especially in the benign case of FA vs. stewardess - is silly.

Lisa: His name doesn't matter. "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."
Bart: Not if you called them stench blossoms.
Homer: Or crapweeds.
Marge: I'd sure hate to get a dozen crapweeds for Valentine's Day. I'd rather have candy.
Homer: Not if they were called scumdrops!

If we're going retro, why not go the whole hog and have air hostesses?

Personally, I'm happy with flight attendant. I have trouble with the term "cabin crew" as it makes sense only when applied to more than one person. How am I supposed to react when the pilot tells me that my cabin crew today is Julie?*

* Made up name

Exactly. If "stewardess" makes someone think of "sex kittens", it's for reasons wholly unrelated to the word itself. The job duty for which flight attendants take the most pride, flight safety, is something you would expect from a steward(ess), as that suggests someone with management responsibilities. "Attendant" conveys none of that. Heck, I've attended losts of flights and I don't know how to put out a cabin fire.

Yes, their feelings do matter, but they don't necessarily control. And they certainly don't prevent teasing when the titles they choose are silly. African-American is ironic when you consider how P.W. Botha would have been African-American had he crossed the Atlantic and passed our citizenship test.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P_W_Botha

I'm too young to remember when they were called "stewardess". When I hear someone use that term today, I cringe. Don't know why. I guess some of you would say I've been brainwashed by the PC crowd. But I just somehow have it in my mind that "flight attendants" are professionals, who are primarily there for my safety, and secondarily there to serve food and beverages. The word "stewardess" doesn't have the same connotation (rightly or wrongly) in my mind.

I guess I could be convinced that there was no legitimate reason to make the change from "stewardess" to "flight attendant". But I also see no legitimate reason to change back. Some people will always say that way things used to be were better.

I agree that there's no point in changing back, but the next time (and there will be a next time) there's an effort to retrain the flying public to change its terminology, we'll ask whether it makes any sense to play along.

Oh, please, don't give me "negro" as an example. This is not a term which anyone ever took pride in. Stewradesses took great pride in their work and it was only a bunch of bad marketing moves and films/tv shows in the 1970's that for a time put a stigma on the word. Stewardesses were extremely proud of their jobs and as Soames pointed out they were perhaps much better qualified once upon a time than today's FA's. Seriously, language requirements were much higher as was the training both in terms of time put in. Now society may have degraded to a point where the average steward(ess) has to deal with a lot more crap than they did once upon a time, and for sure their compensation is now much less, but this does not in anyway mean that training was any less (it was more) than it is today. One should also note that it was a hell of a lot more competitive in the old days to be a stewardess and a many career paths to independant and creative thinking women were closed, that being a stewardess was a career that attracted a LOT of very intelligent women, I would hazrd to guess that once upon a time the "gene pool" of FA's was much higher than it is today (also based on what I said before that it is now a "job" rather than a "career" for younger hires).

And African-American is really ironic when it is used generically to refer to any black person. I have a friend who has the dark skin and other physical attributes of a person who is generally referred to today as "African-American." Problem is that his ancestors are from South America, and have been there as long as anyone in the family can remember. So he is about as "African" as I am (hint: I'm not).

In the old days, he was called a "negro," and that term was accurate - even he says so. Nowadays, he's called "African-American," and it isn't.

Going back to a point someone (might have been George Carlin) was trying to make earlier in this thread: We have tried so hard to develop terms that don't offend anybody that we've ended up offending or upsetting just about everybody.

Another true story. A friend of mine who is a lawyer represented a tribe in Arizona. When he first was introduced to the group, he asked how they wanted him to refer to them -- expecting that they'd reply "Native Americans." His host laughed and said something to the effect of: "We are Indians. Only the white men call us Native Americans, and we usually don't correct them because it seems to make them feel better." PC terminology gone awry....

Really? On what do you base this sweeping generalization?

The OP didn't mention talking to any airline personnel who were "offended or upset" by the term "flight attendant". Just because someone prefers Option A doesn't make them offended or upset about Option B.

Anyway, I'm willing to be that the majority of these airline personnel in question are members of a "Flight Attendants" union.....maybe they should take it up at the next union meeting. Talk about fiddling while Rome burns...

The term flight attendant is gender neutral, where stewardess/steward requires specific gender. The change was made to lessen the confusion for the traveling public.:D

I feel the same way, and I was born in 1975. I'm happy to conform to whatever the modern term may be -- based on the name of their union, I'm going to guess that most FAs are happy being called just that. That being the the case, FA it is. But this was an instance of language change that I rather regret. The modern name is so sterile. "Stewardess" says international jet set to me. It's something I wanted to be when I grew up. Maybe I'm just young enough to remember FAing as a glamorous job, but not old enough to remember the sexism & discrimination that went along with the old school.

Mmmmm, not even that is 100% true: vis a vis the tremendous pride of professional athletes for their accomplishments in the Negro Leagues baseball teams. No movement to change the name to African American Leagues. None at all. Just brought it up to point out how difficult it is to make sweeping generalizations.

The United Negro College Fund is another example. No pride, my a$$.

Actually, it's not at all difficult to make sweeping generalizations. Just look to this thread for proof. ;)