EQUITY WATCH : Flights of Fancy?

Something about an airplane must still trigger flights of fancy--and departures from sense and sensibility--in the minds of some airline officials.

Remember the airline ads that featured a flight attendant--then called a stewardess--teasing, “I’m Debby, come fly me”? Or the airline that once dressed its stewardesses in neon-colored micro-costumes with bubble hats--a look some found racy, but that nowadays seems more reminiscent of “Star Trek”?

And, of course, for years the airline industry employed only young, single women as stewardesses, until they were joined by men and became flight attendants.

Old habits die hard. Only last March, after a 17-year battle, did American Airlines modify rules that had required flight attendants to be as slim at age 40 as in their 20s. American’s previous height-weight tables assumed that men had “large frames” but women had “medium frames.”

And now comes Teresa Fischette, fired last week as a ticket agent for Continental Airlines because she refused to wear makeup. Continental’s new rule requires all female ground workers to wear makeup.

Is this just a tempest in the old “coffee-tea-or-me” pot? More likely it’s another jolting reminder that sex still sells. But Teresa Fischette isn’t buying any easy excuses. Continental offered her another job; she refused. Now the ACLU has taken up her case. Clearly, given the sensibilities of women in the 1990s, demanding blush and eye-liner as the entrance card to the workplace is an antique requirement.