Galley Gossip: Why are so many male flight attendants gay?

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Brian is leaning in the right direction, but he's also bought into some gay stereotypes. There are a disproportionate number of gay flight attendants for two very simple reasons:

Being a flight attendant is commonly considered to be a 'girl job', or what's known as a 'pink collar' position. Because of societal attitudes, gay men are often considered to be "one of the girls". This is known as heterosexism. By grant of their sexual orientation, it is, therefore, acceptable for gay men to be flight attendants; conversely, it's not considered acceptable for non-gay men. It's also why you don't see lesbians in 'pink collar' jobs; any lesbian with even a slight feminist leaning will run in the opposite direction from traditional girl jobs.

Secondly, working on an aircraft demands a great deal of shift work and being away for extended periods of time. Not ideal for those raising a family. Few gay men have kids at home (but this is quickly changing). I expect you'll find that women who are flight attendants will also be disproportionately child-free.

So, a combination of ass-backwards social acceptance and the practical reality that those without kids will gravitate to those well-paid jobs which involve long hours, travel and scheduling flexibility.

2-22-2011 @ 11:12AM

Heather Poole said...

Twenty years ago your theory about flight attendants and family might have been correct, but times have changed and I'd say at my airline, a major US carrier, the majority of female flight attendants have kids, including me.

2-23-2011 @ 9:55AM

robert0000 said...

I did flight attendant hiring for United from 1993-1998. Most of you are forgetting one thing: The vast majority of male flight attendants are gay because those are the ones who more closely fit the personality characteristics for which the airlines are looking: poise, demeanor, approachability, disarming nonverbal characteristics, co-dependent personality, etc. Straight males interview for the job but are not selected. Not to generalize too much, but straight men generally work hard at NOT having poise and approachability (hyper-masculinity) and moreover have an aggressive/alpha-male personality that cannot submit to a group. It's not so much that gay men choose to be flight attendants. Rather, it's that of the thousands who interview for the job, those males with delicate features are the ones selected; and by default, they happen to be gay.

2-23-2011 @ 12:34PM

Heather Poole said...

Robert,

That's interesting. And makes a lot of sense. Did you really see a lot of straight men interviewing? How long did you work for the airline?

Heather

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