There is always the exception to the rule, most posters here, most of your former colleagues and much of the world disagrees with you, FoPAA.

As a former "stewardess", I can't really recall ever being "addressed" as such ~ it was always Miss. Passengers would from time to time enquire about our surnames and every now and then write glowing letters to the company, and after the pre-amble usually say something like: "one of your stewardesses Miss Jane Doe, was especially kind to my wheelchair-bound husband, securing extra blankets and pillows for his legs on our long flight" or on occasion ~
:eek: "one of your stewardesses, Miss Jane Doe was particularly rude and would not serve us drinks in the galley LOL. But some of the best ones were after emergency landings during turbulence, and difficult ground weather and deboarding; I kept those.

One wonders ~ who pray, trained today's FAs :cool:

And when was that poll conducted?

I'm curious, hfly, when you're doing your experiments and you run across the occasional FA who DOES object to being called stewardess, what's your attitude then? Do you accept at face value that they might prefer the term FA, or do you continue to use stewardess?

......

Im curious whether you were at PA when your job title was officially 'stewardess'. If you were, then how could you ever feel belittled? Feeling belittled comes from the inside.....

I certainly dont see how the words 'flight attendant' provides a person with greater honour or esteem??!

But you were treated like dummies, ;) as when the word "stewardess" in the USA, they were also required to meet rigorous weight and dress standards (girdles, nylons, high heels and specific grooming standards were de rigeur, and violating them would get you written up,) and "stewardesses" were required to be single and never to have had a child, required to retire when they married or hit 30 or 32 yars of age, could not have aided vision, etc. etc. While "stewardesses" were required to pass certain tests and to be prepared to evacuate aircraft, etc. aesthetics were of prime importance - the apex (or nadir?) being Braniff's and PSA's ideas of how to attract businessmen to flying by dressing "stewardesses" like sex toys, and National's "I'm Karen - Fly me!" advertising campaign.

The "unmarried status" and age discrimination regs were dealt mortal blows by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) when they were challenged in court by courageous flight attendants in the 1970's and '80's. Today, it's about whether you can do the job, full stop - at least in America.

As one who has been flying over 60 years, I remember those days: Thanks, but the "good old days" many recall weren't so good after all. :)

Stewardesses were hardly the only working women facing such unfairness. What does that have to do with changing the job title, though? I'm sure I could find similar injustice with the requirements of teachers, nurses, seamstresses, and many others. Not all of them decided to rid their job titles of any real meaning in response.

Yes, I started out as a stewardess in 1970. And I've been called stewardess, miss, ma'am, stew, a sort of hissing sound, I guess you name it, I've been called it, but I may or may not have liked it!
Times and mores change, and what was prevalent in 1970 grew less acceptable to me (and 10% of my colleagues:p). I realize that British Airways didn't give up the term stewardess; I feel its use in the US was completely out of date about 30 years ago.
And please note that I said "meant to be belittling;" unfortunately there are a lot of just plain old mean and nasty people in this world. (None of them, of course FTers!)

well, that's somewhat significant, because you keep trotting out your study over and over again to justify your take on this word. If you want to cite this as evidence, then why can't you just explain to us how you went about collecting this information?

i ask because people will react differently depending on the situation. If you're cornering a FA in the lav during their breaktime, and you're a paying customer in F, and you phrase the question a certain way...well, you'll almost certainly get a different response than if a person feels truly free to answer a question honestly.

you congratulate someone because they know the "real meaning?" and attack an FA who disagrees? If this is how your 'study' went, I can see how you achieved the proported results.

and by the way, don't you think it's a little paternal to decide for the rest of the world what words mean?

again, english is a living language. Meanings of words, spellings of words, and usage of words change over time. I am not arrogant enough to think that my preferred definition for a word is the "right one," even if based in historical fact. The only "right" definition of a word is whatever the person you're saying it to thinks it is.

the real question is why you feel so dead-set on using a word that obviously offends at least SOME of the people to whom it's directed?

FoPAA, I am a serious DL flier out of JFK, I know dozens of your former colleagues on a first name basis and can safely say that over the last 15 years there is not one DL flight that I have been on where I have not known somewhat well at least one Stewardess on the plane, in your category, former PAA crew I would say the number is closer to 99% that like the term.

Inyourvillages, I am really uncomfortable with your insinuations, you are nobody at FT and you obviously have stepped into a place and conversation that you are not familar with. This whole thing is partially tongue and cheek and the thread is considered to be a lot of fun for those of us who are real FT'ers. You however are trying some sort of Nazi-like PC-police in sheeps clothing, attacking the "scientific study" implying that I am some sort of person that pressures people into making certain answers. I strongly suspect that I have a little more travel and life experience tahn you do. Perhaps you should tread more carefully on a forum that you have just joined, as you are really out of tune wth this place.

I have worked for a major US airline for over 30 years, so know quite a few of these folk. I have no idea where you came up with these statistics, but I can guarantee you, they are nowhere near these made-up stats! Unless you have a valid Gallup poll, or something similar, don't make up numbers. Besides, try calling a flight attendant a stewardess a few times and see what you get!!!

A rose is a rose... I have had to adjust my vocabulary on a whole rash of items--flight deck, not cockpit; flight crew, not pilots; jetbridge, not jetway (since Jetway does not make all of the jetbridges in use); etc. But flight attendant has been in use for so long now, how can you not have gotten used to it by this time? Personally, I don't care what they are called, as long as they do it professionally and graciously. But really--if it is that important to someone who HAS the job, is it really that necessary to be so disrespectful? When you get the job, feel free to call yourself steward or stewardess. But until then, go with the flow & show them the respect that they deserve.

classy.

what i'm asking for is for you to describe how you got your data.

you: in my study, 80% of people say x
me (thinking): hmm that is not at all in line with my experiences. i'll ask him how he arrived at that number
me: how did you arrive at that number?
you: i didn't say it was scientific. but clearly the huge majority of people agree with me.
me: ok, but you are still citing it as fact. so why don't you just tell us what the question was. or where you approached the FAs, or anything?
you: you're a nobody. i don't like what you're insinuating. you are nazi-like.

listen, i'm not impunging your character. so stop being so defensive. YOU started a thread based on this data. all I'm asking for is for you to explain how you collected it. that isn't nazi-like, that is a normal question.

as i said above, i have a life-long friend who was a flight attendant. she is the only FA i have ever discussed the issue with and she was quite clear that she did not like the word and found it insulting. i could come here and claim that "100% of the flight attendants I spoke with hate the word stewardess." see how easy it is to manipulate numbers? and i'm not accusing you of manipulating anything. all i want to know is how you arrived at this conclusion.

what is up with all the name-calling of anyone who disagrees with you? this is what all your life and travel experience has led to? what did you say to the flight attendants who did not like the word stewardess? did you tell them that they were nazi-like also?

Yes, that was an explaination of why i wanted to know your methodology; not an accusation.

Although I'm not a "real FTer," I can recognize when something is "in good fun" and when something is not. ****
Are you going to tell us all where you came up with the numbers, or is this going to simply be a thread where you make a claim, refuse to explain how or why, and vilify anyone who disagrees with you?

***
To the rest of you, I'm sorry if I crapped on this thread. I found the OP somewhat lacking and in the process of trying to get more information apparently caused the thread to spiral into the mire.

At the same time, I don't think being new here opens oneself up to this kind of abuse.

I disagree that one need to "fit in" to be credible. Isn't healthy debate what this is all about? Isn't the goal to welcome new posters with all kinds of ideas? I fail to see how post count matters. It's content, not quantity.