Ryanair are at it again with their strip-off charity calendar

[MrsStomp]

I don't know who has seen this www.ryanair.com/en/calendar but GGGRRRRRRRR - it has really got my goat. I think they've been doing it for a few years now. Here's some more of the coverage: www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3912561/Fly-Ryan-bare.html

The charity Debra are accepting proceeds from the calendar - obviously with being a 'charity calendar' it makes it all 'good fun'.

The first thing you see at the moment when you go onto Ryanair's website is a lot of women (cabin crew!!!) in bra and pants. It is wrong, wrong, wrong.

Here's the link for Ryanair's complaints section frd.ie/complaints/?language=en - well, you never know. Plus Debra's list of contacts in the UK: www.debra.org.uk/contact-debra.html

Brilliant typo in the article!:

"A Ryanair spokesman said this year's calendar is their "sexist ever"."

Inspired!!! I'm off to email private eye and the guardian!! You've made my day.

Good luck with Private Eye , they don't have a great record on sexism.

Yeah, but they do hate Ryanair . . . my enemy's enemy is my friend, sort of thing, iyswim.

Yes, would agree re Private Eye, but they do enjoy highlighting the ridiculous. And this is ridiculous - it is almost a spoof in itself.

I can't help but think that Easyjet are missing a trick here - ie: not exploiting the moral highground.

Oh blimey - have a look at the tactics being used by Ryanair on Labour MEP Mary Honeybell who objected to the calendar previously. Just grim. www.ryanair.com/en/news/ryanair-corrects-mep-s-false-claims-about-charity-calendar

Michael O'Leary...more like 'O'LEERy in that photo.

i cant stand ryanair but not because of this , if a bunch of cabin crew want to have a calander/go nude even for charity thats fine , if you dont want to, thats also fine , keep your clothes on.

I think the impact of this goes beyond those wishing to take part in the calendar or those who wish to buy it. The airline staff become associated with the calendar - I don't know whether they are obliged to sell it along with other airline goods, but I'm guessing they would have to. Michael O'Leary conducted himself in a horrible way in a Women's Hour interview with Mary Honeyball - constantly calling her dreary and describing her as 'whining on'. www.thehoneyballbuzz.com/2010/12/08/the-interview-with-michael-oleary/#comments

And what of the charities accepting the cash and the message they are giving out to their staff and those they support. You'll notice that no where on DeBra's website is there mention of this calendar - and presumabley that's coz they want to take the money and run as far from it as possible.

i heard that interveiw and he was quite rude, but he also made his point,

for comic relif about 10 years ago about 100 people went nude on tv, men and women. is that also sexist? or just to the women

about 2 years later about 20 men did the highland fling naked , sexist? only one sex were naked or was that just a laugh for charity?

now ryan air has some girls in their underwear, and it's sexist

would it still be sexist if 50% were male cabin crew?

I heard an interview on the radio with the head dude at Ryan air. When asked why there were no men in it he laughed and said it wouldn't sell.

v. sexist IMO. Can't stand him.

Nakedness is not sexist. Nowt wrong with the human body.

But turning professionals into sex objects is, whether they ate bare as the day they are born, or prancing round in their undercrackers. So it's not much like the Comic Relief example, which didn't attempt to sexualise the participants.

I think it would be OK if they did indeed have a mix of male and female staff (and perhaps different roles in the company).

Nude calendars per se don't bother me (I had a very nice one of fit farmers, all male, one year).

But the (probably unintended) indirect effect of this as labelling only some of the workforce as decorative does.

*are bare, not ate bare

Eating while naked is an effective dieting tactic, so I'm told.

i dont think he's right when he says it wouldnt sell actually clearly meditrinas fit farmers did , but this is a man who thinks it's good business to charge people a pound to use the toilet.
leBoF the afore-mentioned 'fit farmers' are they sexualized and if so is that sexist?

If it makes them more likely to be spoken to at work as though they are merely eye-candy, and puts them at risk of groping and unwanted leering etc, then of course it would be problematic. I suspect that neither farmers nor firemen are as vulnerable as female cabin crew serving drunk passengers in a confined space though. Which is why it's disingenuous to suppose that because the models volunteered, it doesn't impact on anybody else: it does.

There's nothing wrong with nude calendars. The only thing newsworthy is the fact that Ryanair are doing anything for charity. There has to be a catch somewhere.

The blokey calendars don't bother me so much - I don't buy them, they are not my cup of tea. But there subtext in men's calendar's is different(ie - the 'powerful' fireman; the 'highly paid footballer; the 'comparatively low paid, I'm here to serve you sir' air hostess')

I think various things bug me about the Ryanair calendar. The models are actual cabin crew and so rather than saying 'our cabin crew are professionals who go through extensive training to keep passengers safe', Ryanair are giving out the message 'we'd like you to think about our female cabin crew in their pants - but you know, it is okay, coz like it is for charity and so we can't be criticised'.

Ryanair say they are not doing this for profit ('every penny goes to charity') however, clearly it is profit-driven as there is massive publicity for this (most of the tabloids have reproduced the photos - therefore, the aim is not to sell calendars, but to get as many column inches as possible).

I dislike how Ryanair try to knock any debate on the head by saying it is just sour grapes from middle aged women who are just jealous of pretty young women. They may as well say 'shut up you ugly sows - we want to have our kicks looking at this young filly bending over and you're interrupting my w*nk'.

I'm confused.

I thought this sexism malarky was related to the fact we live in a patriarchial society. Call me simple, but all sorts of things will be inflected differently for women and men if you live (as we do) in a society that uses gender to discriminate.

Is not that why we get pissed off about women getting naked in order to sell cheap flights, or am I missing something?

thechairman - it wouldn't be sexist if it was a 50% split but it would still be objectifying people. the male air stewrds aren't even given the opportunity to apply to be in iirc

You aren't really getting my point. Ask female cabin crew how often they have to deal with unwanted touching and inappropriate remarks, from drunk or sober male passengers. I think you'll find it's quite often. Calendars of this ilk don't exactly help dispel the sexist image of them as vacuous trolley dollies there for decoration. That's not really a problem for a fireman, is it? And we aren't taking about them, tbh, but what the effect of sexist calendars and ad campaigns etc is on women working in those industries. If men have got a problem with images affecting their public perception and making them targets for sexual bullying, they are quite at liberty to campaign against it. Why is it when women speak out about how they are being treated, they immediately have to start worrying about men's problems? It really is quite astonishing.

Drunk passengers aren't allowed to board flights and sober ones aren't going to behave inappropriately because of a calendar. The ones that do need no excuse and won't have any excuse when they disembark and get arrested.