A week or so ago the New York Times had an article about how R-rated in-flight movies were upsetting parents who had to spend their whole flight trying to distract their kids from the overhead screens filled with carnage and breasts. Times readers responded, overwhelmingly, with sympathy for the parents and general disappointment in the airlines’ choice of entertainment.
But there’s always a nutbag in the crowd who has to stand up for the inaliable right of all child-free adults to have constant access to carnage and breasts:
Debra Lesslie! I don’t know how you ended up being so bitter and rigid, but do you actually suggest that a full one-third of the adult population of the U.S. should not fly with the young, but instead ride in buses, trains, station wagons, and donkey carts to Grandma’s house? Perhaps blindfolds are the answer, or a good whipping would knock some sense into those brats. Yes, I agree that children should listen to their parents and do as they’re told, but perhaps you’ve not lately spent three hours comforting a child who’s too young to read and disdainful of every distraction bursting out of your carry-on bag, and who will, after witnessing a man with a machine gun murder a dozen people, many of them with breasts, shriek to the entire airplane, “WAS THAT REAL?!” I hope I never have to fly in your icy, airless row, Debra Lesslie, but I probably never will because on the last two airlines I chose to fly on with Jackson (JetBlue and the wonderful Frontier) everyone could plug into their own screen embedded in the seatback directly ahead of them, and thus not be exposed to the Prevalent Gore.
Still, though, you suck.
Love,
A woman whose world revolves around the aesthetics and concerns of a six-year-old
This is odd. Every flight I go on seems to feature movies like Shrek 3.
Anyone get the feeling that ol’ Debra Lesslie could use a wee bit of a hug and possibly access to some dating services?
Oooh, very tempting to speculate of Debra Lesslie’s, uh, NEEDS. I really had to hold myself back, but you go right ahead!
What airline is showing breasts and carnage? I need to buy their tickets. The last two flights I was on (United and U.S. Airways) featured Cars and The Lake House. Ugh.
and, as I’m sure you’ve heard, Southwest has limited the amount of breasts involved in their flights by ASKING WOMEN TO LEAVE THE PLANE who they feel are wearing tops that are too low-cut. Male airline stewards are, that is. Male airline stewards who were clearly rejected for their first-choice job as Head of Dress Code Enforcement in their local middle school.
And yes, where are these gory in-flight movies? I always get “Ever After”.
Well, once I did get “Snatch”, but that was on a slightly suspect bus line out of Mexico City, so not quite the same.
Southwest has a PASSENGER DRESS CODE? ! Do male passengers have to wear collared shirts and keep them tucked into their pants, too, or the nuns will sew lace on their shirt tales?
I don’t know how you ended up being so bitter and vicious.
Have you ever been to Ukiah?!?! *chortle*
I frankly think the world might be a more interesting if it did revolve around the aesthetics and concerns of a six year old.
The Debra Lesslies of the world fail to realize that while it is true that not everyone has children, everyone was once a child.
Wait, they still have planes that don’t offer you your own personal headrest embedded tv? That’s what this Debra person and everyone else should be outraged about. Also, boycott Southwest: http://feministing.com/archives/007723.html#comments
One of the most distressing moments of my life was on a commercial flight almost 17 years ago. My four-month-old baby was crying inconsolably from, I asssume, ear pressure. I tried everything to calm her–nursing, rocking, pleading into her tiny ear. Nothing worked. I was so young and so conscious of disturbing the other passengers. My pits were soaked with stress sweat. The truth is that most everyone on the flight was pretty cool about it. EXCEPT for this one winch who kept shooting nasty looks back at me every two minutes. Now I know…it was Debra.
I had a surly Debra Lesslie type ( a cousin, perhaps?) tell me, as my one-year-old sat on my lap, that there should be an airline that is entirely child-free. Or at least designated flights that are child-free — akin to a smoke-free environment. “Because I didn’t pay all that money to listen to some kid scream.”
Don’t these people remember that they were young once, too? Or is that, in fact, the root of the problem….
Sweet fancy Moses, does this woman think this is some sort of … I don’t know … free speech issue?
Common sense dictates that you show something a general audience could comfortably watch or you provide an alternative system.
I don’t have kids but I know what an ordeal it can occasionally be to travel with them (on top of being an ordeal in general) and that it often is so because you’re seated near someone like Ms. Lesslie.
Amen.
Tamara, great point. We all started out as children; unfortunately, some of us never quite made it into adulthood.
I confess to being one who rants about all entertainment options being styled to the aesthetic specifications of a 6 year old; I have no children and I relish my rights to abstain from watching “family friendly” fare!
Still, we need to be mindful of the fact that children are around, whether on buses, trains, planes or the street; we have an obligation as a society to watch out for them, even when they’re not our kids.
(I’ve turned off many the movie on my laptop during the plane ride due to “inappropriate content” and the proximity to a small child…I wasn’t asked to, but kids look.)
You know, I consider myself to be “child-free” also, but I would never go to the trouble to write into a national newspaper and spew that kind of crap. I have a heart…it must suck to travel with little kids.
She probably yells at restaurant managers when there are kids (GASP) out in public there, too.
All right. I too count myself among those whose lives don’t revolve around six year old children– but Jesus Christ, Debra, if you want tits and gore, go rent something at Blockbuster and watch it in the privacy of your own home. If you’re providing “general” entertainment, it had best be “general.” Frankly, though not a parent, I don’t want to see tits and gore either. I’m not offended by it, like I was by the awfulness of “Glitter” (shown on American), but bored and annoyed. And, apparently, I am a milksop.
Even before I became a mother I was aware that my behavior and that of those around me was under the watchful eye of children. She’s probally one of those people who thinks it’s okay to stand behind me at target and say words like Fuck over and over again in the presence of my child.
Yeah, I’m one of those people who sort of rants about the general intrusion of kids into places that might be appropriate for adults-only (bars, R-rated movies in theaters, restaurants where dinner costs upwards of $120 a person) but man, airplanes are for everyone, and even if it might be sometimes grating to fly with children, there’s no reason the films on airplanes can’t be a little more child-friendly. And frankly, I don’t want to watch gratuitous violence anymore than you want your child to, so I’m all for banning the Rambos of the world from the airplanes of the world. Unless everyone’s got those little seatback TV screens, and then tits and violence for all who want them!
I love it when we all agree that someone else is a nitwit.
I don’t fly very often, but when I do, I’m unfortunately on a flight that doesn’t offer the luxury (if you can call it that) of an in-flight movie. Besides, I’m not really a fan of movies and I’d much rather read a book or play a video game… or even sleep.
I think Ms. Debra Lesslie is probably made because she cannot, herself, revolve her life around the aesthetics and concerns of a six-year-old.
I happen to work at a library where I get paid to revolve around the aesthetics and concerns of 6 year olds (as well as 5, 4, 7, 8, and their parents). I don’t mind, it’s kind of fun actually.
We could always go have a ‘peaceful assembly’ at her residence…
Hey. Why does the word “milksop” make you think of Donald O’Connor? Me, I’m thinking Danny Kaye.
Aren’t most movies “edited for in-flight viewing”?
And telling your kid not to watch when it’s a plane with one of those drop down screens is easier said than done. Dumbshit Lesslie.
Rebecca, Donald O’Connor was The Milkman! Yay, I’m a dork!
Ukiah is very far from a major airport. My guess is the Debra does not fly frequently, maybe not since the days when someone needed to turn the propeller to get the plane going. Back when children were seen, but not heard.
i’m just glad that those little seatback lcd screens are more prevalent. not only because i can protect my poor little impressionable 4-yeear-old’s eyes from gore and breasts, but because there are more likely to be cartoons available. the cartoons are for her, of course. of course.
I read that article too, with great interest. I’m about to do a cross-country flight with my 3 year old and 6 year old. I’m just hoping that something not-too-inappropriate will be on screen. Or else I have a looong flight trying to distract my kids from whatever we’re stuck with.
So, um, why can’t we have a couple of channels?
I’m always on flights where the movie is so boring and/or stupid that it induces sleep. I should think parents would appreciate that kind of service.
Perhaps Ms Lesslie just needs more fiber in her diet. She seems a little…bound up.
Debra sucks.
Or…maybe not. Maybe that’s her problem.
Milksop doesn’t make you think of Injun Joe?
I don’t think Debra has thought much about who’s going to pay for her Medicare and Social Security.
Maybe she’s counting on her many cats?
We rode on a flight once that had a horror movie (something about sharks). We really tried to not watch it, but you catch a few scenes whether you mean to or not. I personally would prefer to have not seen a woman cut her arm open to lure the sharks to her, and I really prefer my kid hadn’t seen it. Good times. I pack a sleeping mask now, just in case (“I’ll read to you in the dark! It will be fun!”). I’d wish a child upon Ms. Leslie, perhaps ideally a child with ADD, except it seems awfully unfair to the kid.
Although my one-year old was oblivious, I was embarrassed for the parents of 6-year-olds (and for myself!) that we were offered the incredibly non-boob, non-gun-blazing, but hideously ridiculous, brain-sucking film “The Last Mimzy” on my cross-oceanic flight recently. God! And THAT’S the one moment my kid wasn’t screaming!
How did I get sucked in to that horrific piece-of-shit film? And it was so “family–” ugh! I’m bringing back Disney’s old animated “The Jungle Book” and sabbotaging the airline equipement, slipping in MY film, and I’m SINGING ALONG with all the songs.
All Debras shall fear me and despair.
The main problem I have with Miz Lesslie is that she is one of those people who automatically think all children are assholes. She needs a sense of humor transplant. She’s probably one of those people who cranks their seat all the way back because She’s Entitled even if it cuts off your circulation.
OK, I’ll grant you that the last time I flew, my five-year-old did throw her arms up and exclaim “Whee” when the plane took off, but come on, it was hilarious and everyone around us cracked up. She was very quiet after that.
I would not pay this Debra person no mind. Misery loves company.
I never get to fly on the good flights! Let’s leave the poor woman alone. After all, she is walking around with two first names for a name. Perhaps that causes her a great deal of stress.
Debra Lesslie of Ukiah, CA… you most definitely suck. If it takes a village to raise a child, you are the cranky old lady on the corner with many cats.
Personally, I think the idea of airlines offering alternative adult-only as well as child-centered flights is a good one. I like kids, and I don’t blame them if I have to travel next to kids that are having a tough time traveling. Nor do I blame their parents. It’s still not fun, though – any more than it is trying to keep a kid happy and entertained on a long flight.
I think it’d be nice if both of those scenarios could be made a little easier by offering slightly different experiences instead.
BRAVO!!!
Oh, I love your letter. Oh, I love it. I hope she finds your response.
Oh Mrs. Kennedy, is it wrong to love you like I do? Weird, maybe, I’m sure.
Great letter.
I honestly think there’s something a bit wrong about people who don’t like kids.
How about imagining a world without them ol’ bitch Debra..Have you seen the film Children of Men?
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well said.
I just thought of something else. Debra should be thankful since my children and your child will be paying for her nursing home stay in about 40 years, thanks to Medicaid.
God please stop me. I think Debra sells Avon. That would explain a lot.
I will bet everyone here 100 dollars American that the letter writer in question has more than one cat that “thinks she’s a human.”
ok, the letter she sent in was pretty harsh, and she sounds generally grouchy. but some of the responses here are a bit extreme:
I think Ms. Debra Lesslie is probably made because she cannot, herself, revolve her life around the aesthetics and concerns of a six-year-old
and
I honestly think there’s something a bit wrong about people who don’t like kids.
i don’t like kids, but that doesn’t make me an asshole. though i don’t have any children, i am happy to pay taxes to support schools (and frankly wish a larger portion of them went to schools instead of, you know, the Pentagon). for whatever reason she’s childless, she’s probably sick of having the fact shoved in her face, like some of you have done here. that’s something i can relate to.
and just let me add that i don’t think of anyone’s children as the simply people who will pay for my nursing home when i’m old, etc. again, just ’cause i don’t like kids, it doesn’t make me an asshole. (and here’s hoping that Congress will have the votes to override the promised veto of the sCHIP expansion – yes, i, a weirdo ‘child-hater,’ think it’s important.)
I invite all those who want to selfishly argue for boobs and carnage in a mixed audience to do so with any mother who is dealing with a toddler on a transatlantic flight, layover in a foreign airport, or waiting out jet lag. Talk about boobs and carnage…
She’s frustrated. Ask her after she has a couple of kids, say…10 months apart, and has to fly cross country to go to a funeral. She’ll remember her words and will feel like an ass.
Yeah Kristen, i agree my comment was a bit blunt(and i would like to take this opportunity to change the ‘bitch’ to ‘biddy’!)
It was probably more directed towards people who shudder when they say ‘kids’..People who actually loath them – that I don’t get and in my experience these people are more often than not(actually always) very cold and not very nice anyway. I’m sure there is sometimes real trauma that hasn’t been dealt with (i.e. background of child abuse, miscarriage or stillbirth) behind it all and that is really sad.
Also I’d just like to say as much as I can’t work out people who don’t like children (and what they bring to the world, to life) I can’t stand those mothers who act like they belong to an exclusive club and are all smug about it (not suggesting anyone is doing it here, I hasten to add!). I can see why this would really get childless people’s backs up – especially those who would really like to have children.
Completely off topic.
I was walking through Soho in London on the weekend wearing my ‘writing well’ t-shirt and 3 women said ‘great shirt’. But no men ever comment. Perhaps its because of the magical nature of the shirts – they render men speechless.
Kate, you bought your shirt ages ago! Glad to hear it’s still holding up. As it were.
I’m so glad you posted this. That letter made me nuts.
Ok,now I’m feeling bad about being born in Ukiah, CA. Darn Debra for ruining the name of that fair city with her mean editorial.