tswingwalking

Hey, Honey, have you seen the sex appeal anywhere?
Yeah, it’s in the top drawer.
Top drawer in the chest or in the closet?
In the chest.
Are you sure? I’m looking right in here and I can’t see it.
Wait a minute. I’m coming. Maybe if you picked up around here sometimes, you might know where to find stuff. Move over. It’s right over here. Uhhh…. Well it was here the last time I saw it!
Are you saying that you don’t know where the sex appeal is? This is not good. The air show is next week. We can’t possibly have a show without it!

*Insert theme music from the Twilight Zone*
*Using best Orson Wells impersonation…*

“…Or can they? Stay with us during this intrepid quest to find out what happened to sex appeal at Air Shows because it has surely gone missing!”

I have only one really clear moment, dating back to my youth, when I remember being exposed to capitalistic sexuality. It was during the Calgary Stampede Parade, when I saw the float that housed the Playmate of the month gal along with her gal pals. I remember telling my step Mum that they were real pretty girls. After all, they did have pink cowboy hats and everyone knows that there is nothing cooler than that!
Urgh! My step Mum? Not so impressed! Here is the real equalizer though…Me? I could care less. Following their float was something as equally inspiring, awesome or incredible as a matter of fact…it was the upside down clowns.

So how much does sexuality affect youth during festivals of this type? I dare say not much at all. Had it not been for my step mother’s reaction to the Playboy float, I doubt very much that it would have had any effect on me worthy of remembrance 30 years after the fact save for the pink cowboy hats of course.

Here I stand, so many years later, in my tight spandex/leather costume wondering where in the heck all the girly girls have gotten off to. Every other sport has the girl power front and center section. . Nascar has the trophy girls. Every convention ever has booth babes. Boxing has its ring number girls. Football has the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders and every other cheerleader that wants to work for them and air shows have what? Me? That’s gotta hurt!

When and why did the pendulum swing so far off center? When did cute little girls trying to earn an honest buck become the bad guys? There is surely a place for the Hooter girls, the paddock girls, the sunscreen sampling girls, etc in our industry.

Women have come a long way in aviation as in every other motorised sport. We can drape ourselves over the hood as well as we can race it on an international course. We can pose in front of it dressed like a parody of a commercial pilot in boy shorts or we can fly it for a living, for warfare or, like me, walk on it to entertain. We can compete on the world scale for notoriety. We can design, test, repair and build the future flying machines that will out perform all. You would be hard pressed to find offence with a girl using her good looks to represent a company, sell a product or hand out samples on the air show circuit. For us gals running with the big boys… we know who we are, what we want and where ours lives are headed. We actually look forward to meeting some of these young girls because a few of them may well become some of us one day if given the chance to see our world. It should also be noted that we encourage young guys too look good as well. We don’t even mind it if the old boys are looking good….Or, you know….That may just be me 