Yesterday Scott gave us vintage airline commercials. Real commercials. Here is a video of what looks like a real vintage commercial, but it’s fake. You’ll figure it out in a second or two. As sexist as I think this is, and I do, I laughed. Perhaps, because it captured the tone of commercials and an earlier era–not that flight attendants have ever been this way.
It would be fun to see a commercial like this one where the women get the flight of their dreams. I wonder what that would look like?
Years ago, hotels would have women-only floors targeted at women traveling alone as a way of increasing their female clientele by promising safety through exclusivity by gender. Of course, that was thrown into obsolescence after being considered sexist and discriminatory.
However, hospitality marketing gurus have managed to swirl around the “women-only” floor idea into one of “women-friendly” floors. Some rooms on such floors have special items for women (a Victoria’s Secret bathrobe, a blow dryer, vanity mirrors), and yoga stuff for women who want to work out, but, to avoid the sexist tag, the floors and facilities are not exclusive to women.
Hmmm…so what makes them special? Some facial creams and nail-polish that the other rooms don’t have?
In other words, hotels are out of ideas to market their services, so they take an old idea, tweak it to sound like a new one when it’s really not an idea at all. Then they sell it as a novel service for a niche audience and get some press.
Hotels such as the Crowne Plaza, the Hilton, and the Hampton Inn have been successful with this marketing gimmick, that too outside the Middle East — so who am I to criticize it. Time will tell how much female customers succumb to this marketing ploy.
An ending note for hotels: your customers are smarter than you realize.
Thanks to the Internet that allows us to travel and educate ourselves without getting out of our pajamas, today we can be privy into lifestyles and traditions of radically different cultures. And, when culture and superstitions blend, it’s almost impossible not to have an an interestingly strange (if not explosively bizarre) outcome: believing that wearing red panties with rats on them will bring you good fortune, for example.
That’s exactly what’s happening in Malaysia: Chinese women are buying red panties — this year with rat motifs — in order to get lucky as the Chinese Year of the Rat is about to begin on February 7. They say if you really believe in something, it will probably come true and if wearing red panties will strengthen your belief, why the heck not, eh!?
The Chinese new year is celebrated with a bang throughout the world. Most Chinese cities will have a 3-day public holiday to bring in the new year, and Chinatowns around the world will rejoice the beginning of the rat year through parades, firework displays, multi-course banquets and parties. Unlike the rest of us, the Chinese party for a good month post their new year’s day.
The Lunar Calendar determines the Chinese New Year. Although the western calendar is what’s mainly referred to by the Chinese, the zodiac Lunar Calendar still holds much importance.
I have never followed the Chinese calendar nor do I entirely understand it, but I do know that according to it I’m a monkey. The last Chinese Year of the Monkey was 2004, so if it’s a 12-year cycle, I suppose I’ll be celebrating in 2016?
As a woman I am always partial to questions of global women’s issues. Tackling the world on your own as a woman definitely has its struggles and delights, but most importantly, it makes you more aware of the treatment of women across the globe. Fortunately I am happy to announce a change in policy from one of the countries where the everyday life of a woman is under strict regulation: Saudi Arabia.
According to the AP, today the Saudi daily newspaper Ali-Watan reported that the government has made a policy decision allowing women traveling on their own to stay in hotels or furnished apartments without a male companion. Hotels will now accept lone women travelers, as long as their information is sent to the local police.
Although it may seem like a small step to us Westerners, it is a big advance in a country where women are under strict Islamic law. Everyday life for a Saudi women entails everything from not being able to drive to needing the permission of a male guardian to travel abroad.
The international community has voiced its opinion on the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia, insisting on the necessity for change. Beyond women’s issues, as a travel destination Saudi Arabia isn’t on the top list for the U.S. government; it was placed on the State Department Travel Advisory website, last summer and again during the holidays.
If Saudi Arabia is on your list of places to see this year, note that as a woman, you might actually be allowed–for the first time ever–to drive a car. Well, that might actually only be true if you are a Saudi citizen. I assume that if you got your driver’s license elsewhere, they wouldn’t put you in jail for actually using it there. But I wouldn’t bet on it.
Saudi Arabia is one of the most conservative countries, when it comes to separation of gender roles outside the home. An unaccompanied woman, for example, must shop behind curtains and cannot hail a taxi.
Needless to say, talking about something as progressive as allowing women to drive is already raising concerns. A woman would have to remove the traditional abaya robe to get a clear view behind the wheel. “Allowing women to drive will only bring sin,” a letter to Al-Watan newspaper declared last year, according to the Telegraph. “The evils it would bring – mixing between the genders, temptations, and tarnishing the reputation of devout Muslim women – outweigh the benefits.”
Folks, if you must go to Saudi Arabia, I suggest you take public transport.
