Women 'Forced To Change Clothing' Before Boarding American Airline: Can We Stop Dress-Policing?

Comedian Chrissie Mayr recently tweeted about an incident at the Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas on May 2. She claimed that an American airport employee forced her and her friend Keanu C. Thompson to change their pants before boarding the flight. The comedian tweeted photos of the clothes they were wearing and the clothes they were asked to change into.

The duo arrived at the airport wearing a maxi skirt and trousers, but they were asked to change into shorts, which turned out to be "more revealing." She further claimed that they "literally had to change at the gate with no cover," which was very humiliating. While it remains unclear why the airport employee asked them to change, Mayr claimed that "he was a creep."

Chrissie Mayr Dress Policed At Airport

This is not the first time a woman has been asked to change her clothes by airport employees. In January 2022, model Olivia Culpo was in the airport on her way to Cabo San Lucas with her sister Aurora when an airport employee pointed out that her dress—a black bralette, biker shorts, and an oversized cardigan—was out of line with the company’s passenger dress code. She then has to put on a blouse before boarding the flight.

In 2021, a woman was told that she wouldn’t be allowed to board a flight as her top revealed "too much skin." Catherine Bampton was about to board a flight from Adelaide to the Gold Coast when she claimed to have been "publicly embarrassed" by the female staff of the airline. She was forced to put on another top, and only then was she able to board the flight. The airline employees have claimed that "the pilot didn’t like showing too much skin." Bampton was wearing high-waisted trousers and a high-neck halter top.

What is the problem with these airline companies and women’s clothing? Who gives them the entitlement to dress-police women? When there is no worldwide dress code that women are required to follow at the airport and they aren’t doing anything illegal, why did these women have to put up with such harassing and embarrassing situations?

We think that India is crazy about women and their clothing choices, but apparently dress-policing women seems to be a global issue. Men, especially, feel it is their right to decide what women should wear. And then there is our dear society, which finds fault with literally anything a woman wears because apparently, a woman's dress reveals her character.

When is society going to realise that it’s a woman’s right to choose what she wants to wear? Why is society so obsessed with not allowing women to exercise agency over their lives and bodily autonomy? Regardless of what women wear, pervy men are going to ogle at them. People resort to victim-blaming and shaming whenever a crime happens.

When is society going to really start teaching men to behave and be respectful towards women? Isn’t that the real problem that needs to be addressed?

No one is entitled to instruct women on how to dress. That being said, in Chrissie Mayr’s case, the dress she and her friend Keanu C. Thompson were wearing was absolutely fine. It’s weird that they were asked to change without even a screen. Was this particular airport employee a pervert or a bully, perhaps because he wanted to harass two women for the fun of it?

Only because society objectifies and sexualises women’s bodies do they find certain clothes inappropriate. If society starts looking at women as human beings rather than just "objects of sexual gratification," won’t women automatically be safer?

Suggested Reading: Esha Gupta Trolled For Being Braless: Wearing Bra Is A Choice, Stop Dress Policing!