The Invasion of the Body Snatchers: The Jet Age and the Eroticization of the Female Employee

When stewardess Janet Huntley flew from London to New York on BOAC’s Constellation service during November 1946 she wore a military-style uniform, similar to that worn by her male colleagues. Symbolically, Huntley was the very image of the Corporation’s anti-glamour/equity policy. Twenty years later, when stewardess Pat Bleasdale flew BOAC’s Caribbean to New York flight she was dressed in a paper mini-dress. The dress — white with cerise and purple flowers and green leaves, and a hem that, at most, ended three inches above the knee — was a far cry from the uniform wore by Janet Huntley (See Exhibit 6.1). In many ways, Bleasdale epitomized the marketing strategy of selling female sexuality not only of BOAC but also of airlines across the globe, including Pan Am and, to a much lesser extent, TCA (Newby, 1986), as ‘beautiful young women became marketing tools’ for a range of companies to promote their products and services (Omelia and Waldock, 2003: 76).