The first time I boarded a plane for a destination not Tobago, I wore a suit and tie. Many years and many flights later, when the management of BWIA gave me a first-class ticket to London, I was politely but pointedly informed by a very senior manager that appropriate dress for that company’s first-class cabin was nothing less than a suit and tie. In other words, he made it very plain to me that I had to travel in “plane” clothes. Earlier this week, I was travelling on a crowded Caribbean Airlines jet from Trinidad to Antigua when I received quite a jolt. It was not what we call an “air pocket” or turbulence that causes us to clutch at our seatmates as the plane begins an abrupt descent into the ocean. It was not the aircraft but my jaw that dropped as a young man, walking along the aisle back to his seat, showed off his own seat by wearing his white short pants at a lower level than his green underwear. I had heard about pilots flying planes by the seat of their pants, but this person was in the cabin displaying his cockpit.
Wikipedia and other sources refer to this particular style as “sagging”. This made the young man what we in the region would refer to as “saga” or “saggerboy”, defined by the Caribbean Dictionary as “a person boastful about his physical attributes”. While I am a little behind in my knowledge of fashion, I am not such a big behind as to dress like that, approve it or show mine off. As you grow older, your physical attributes sort of bottom out, like the Trinidad or Jamaican dollar in a recession.
It is said that “sagging” is a predominantly male fashion started in prisons by gay prisoners who wanted to make abundantly clear their abundance and availability to the other inmates. A Snopes fact-check acknowledges that the practice did originate behind bars, but it was caused by “ill-fitting, prison-issue garb”. Some of the prisoners were provided with clothing a few sizes too large and, with no belts (because of the risk of prisoners hanging themselves or being hanged by their inmates or jailors in their cells), the “oversizing, coupled with the lack of belts in the big house, led to a great number of jailbirds whose pants were falling off their arses.” A gentleman sitting near to me who saw the young man’s display of his attributes angrily said that they should jail that body part together with the rest of the youth in some place where the other prisoners would recognize and accept his signal of readiness. In other words, they should “jail his arse”.
I recognize that, in the past, air travel was an event so infused with glamour and novelty that it forced passengers to dress up for the occasion. However, today it is all about comfort and not appearances. While there are people calling for a dress code on airplanes, others want it to go further and they insist that flying is no longer a special occasion; that it is very much like riding a bus. They ask why we insist on a dress code on airplanes but not buses, taxis or other public transport. The problem is that, while the idea sounds good, it is not all “plane” sailing.
I remember once a seatmate of mine, declining my offer of assistance, hurriedly lifted her carry-on to put it in the overhead locker, and her external covering, not exactly a dress, headed downwards to her ankles while her arms headed upwards. While not entirely “thong-tied”, I turned my back on her quickly to deny the other passengers a view that might have pleased some of them but considerably embarrassed her. She pretended to read for the rest of the journey, eyes locked straight ahead.
These days there is passenger “shaming”. A few years ago, United Airlines made news when it denied boarding to a couple of teenagers in leggings. Recently, a woman on an American Airlines flight was not allowed on board because she was wearing distressed jeans. Emily O’Connor boarded a Thomas Cook plane heading to Tenerife while wearing what is called a crop top, or bra-let. She was told that she had to cover up the garment or be removed from the plane. Even though she borrowed a jacket, the airline announced the whole episode over the loudspeaker. In 2016, JetBlue refused to let a woman remain on board because of her thigh-high socks and shorts. In fact, Ellen DeGeneres featured the topic on one of her TV shows, and there is a Facebook page devoted to passenger shaming.
Recently, there were several posts of a woman drying her underwear using the plane’s air-vent. It clearly was not Victoria’s Secret. Another featured a Chinese woman using a chair in the passenger terminal at Chiang Mai airport to dry her underwear. “Taking advantage of a chink of sunlight,” is how someone described it. An Australian news source reported: “Passengers have been caught on-camera engaging in some pretty disgusting in-flight behaviour over the years. We’ve seen photos of passengers giving themselves in-flight pedicures—with passengers peeling off dead skin and being caught with hands down their pants. Others have completely disrobed in mid-air.”
I am not sure how I would have reacted to some of those episodes but I believe there should be limits to what you wear and how you behave while locked in a cramped space, sometimes with hundreds of other people. USA Today advises: “Choose comfortable and supportive undergarments. Pick underwear without scratchy tags or uncomfortable seams. A thong and strapless bra might not be the best choice for a woman, since you can’t easily adjust these garments mid-flight if they start to irritate you.” What the newspaper didn’t say is how to deal with people whose use of the blower to dry underwear irritates you even more.
Tony Deyal was last observed recalling that when he recounted his experience with the young “saggerboy” on the plane, one of his friends remarked: “Well at least he had on underwear.”
Tony Deyal is from Trinidad.
He now runs a column in the Jamaica Gleaner, NationNews Barbados and the St Lucia Star. and runs a free literary magazine on mytrinidad.net.
Tony can be contacted at tdeyal@yahoo.co.uk or on1-868-351-1000.
