Author Archives: cmsherma

Promiscuous flight attendants

Nationality: African-American
Age: 40's
Occupation: Flight Attendant
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/26/2016
Primary Language: English

Informant: “People think that we’re [flight attendants] all, um, whores. You know? [laughs] And no, we’re not.”

My informant is a middle aged male flight attendant. He has worked in the airline industry since his early twenties, and has encountered this stereotype his whole time in it. I asked him to describe how specifically he’s encountered this stereotype:

“You go out, meet people, talk to people, and that’s one of their first things they’ll ask.
People say, ‘I bet you have someone in every city.’ And I’m like, ‘Really? Really, you think that? [laughs] Do you see a herpes patch on my lip?’ You know, by the time you work a 14-hour flight internationally, you know, you get 4 hours of sleep…been up all night, do you really think that person is—the first thing that person is going to do is go and find hookups? No…it just doesn’t make sense. No. Now, do they meet people?…Do we have sluts? There are sluts in every industry. But the airline industry probably has, you know, the fewest.”

I asked him about where he thinks that stereotype comes from.

“It’s tied with glamour, it’s tied with the 70’s, of, you know, when they [flight attendants] had to be single. And they were some of the most beautiful women in the world. And it was an era when men…there was a lot of chauvinism, you know, chauvinistic pigs, you know, you could grab a woman.”

I think my informant enjoys talking about and laughing at this stereotype because it contrasts so sharply with reality. As he explains, flight attendants are incredibly hard working and don’t have the time to sleep around in every city. This stereotype is also particularly interesting because it speaks to how long it takes for a popular image of a race, creed, or occupation to fade away. It has been decades since the glamorous days of 1970’s stewardesses, yet people continue to think that flight attendants are promiscuous. It also speaks to how much we expect out of flight attendants and service staff in general. They accommodate our every need to the point where we think they can satisfy our sexual urges as well.

Sweeping a foot

Nationality: African-American
Age: 40's
Occupation: Flight Attendant
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/26/2016
Primary Language: English

Informant: “Someone sweeping your foot with a broom…It’s supposed to be bad luck.”

My informant is a middle-aged flight attendant and actor. He has observed this superstition his whole life, but does not recall from whom he learned it. According to him:

“I’m not very superstition but the things that I am superstitious about, I’m very adamant about those things.”

I asked him whether or not he believes it causes bad luck, to which he responded:

“I don’t think it necessarily…I just don’t…it has the potential to because that’s what superstition is. I don’t need that extra mixed in.”

He described the kind of context in which he observes this superstition:

“You know, like suppose you’re in a restaurant, um, and someone’s sweeping, one of the staff is sweeping, and then, they’re trying to get the shit up off the floor, um, there’s a time and a place for that. You don’t sweep the customer’s foot or you don’t sweep around them, you know what I mean? I think it’s incredibly rude…”

My informant is a flight attendant, and so has a fine tuned sense of how to treat a customer’s limited space. Thus it makes sense that he would be so vehemently against violating a person’s privacy and body in this way. He understands and respects the codes of the service industry, and applies them to the way he treats other people in general, regardless of whether or not he is serving them. It also makes sense that a superstitiousness and fear of ill fate would be attached to this behavior. If someone’s foot is swept with a broom, their body is, in a sense, being included with dirt and dust. It is a form of degradation that can signal an equally degrading or unfortunate future.

Soakers

Nationality: African-American
Age: 40's
Occupation: Flight Attendant
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/26/2016
Primary Language: English

Informant: “People that don’t wear their shoes, and only socks or barefoot into the bathrooms, the lavatories, we call them soakers…cause they soak up all the shit that’s on the floor.”

My informant is a flight attendant. He has worked in the industry for since his early 20’s, and learned this term from other flight attendants upon entering the industry. In private, they would call a customer they noticed entering a bathroom without shoes or socks a “soaker. My informant has seen “soakers” on many flights, and regards it as an especially disgusting phenomenon because, as he put it:

“People, you know, people just can’t see. So they’re walking on everyone’s splatter or whatever…You get turbulence, when they’re in there, you’ve got shit, you know, splattering!…Now let alone just the people that are physically ill.”

My informant laments the size of airplane lavatories as it forces passengers, both men and women, to as he put it, “splatter” all over the floor. And according to him, the “soakers” only make it worse, because they take that “splatter” and drag it all around the cabin. This folk term speaks to his, and other flight attendants’ larger frustration with the inconsiderate and unhygienic behaviors that so many passengers adopt on planes. It also speaks to their frustration with the airline companies for making bathrooms so small as to almost guarantee uncleanliness.

I think my informant marvels at soakers because they are foreign and exotic to him, as he himself is such a dignified and well-put-together person. I also think this phenomenon is a great example of how frighteningly comfortable we have gotten on airplanes. People all around the world are so used to flying that they feel at home enough to take off their shoes and socks, without even thinking about the hygienic implication.

Never touch another man’s dice

Informant: “There’s minor traditions that lots of gamblers have and stuff, like you never touch another man’s dice.”

Collector: Is that observed in D&D [Dungeons and Dragons]?

Informant: Yeah, in general, it is. And you almost never reach over for somebody else’s dice. You know, you have your little pile in front of you. If someone needs to borrow one, it’s ok if someone hands you one, ya know, but you don’t go grabbing at other people’s things like that.”

Collector: Is that something you observe?

Informant: “Yeah, yeah, I would say 99% of people that play it…”

Collector: Did you ever make that mistake and then learn not to?

Informant: “[laughs] You know, most people do because of a perceived unluckiness in that if you do that, it, it, it is…I want to say it almost always ends up being a horrible role, you know, somebody else’s dice, especially without permission. [laughs] It always ends up with the worst possible thing that could happen. [laughs] And I don’t know if that’s actually what happens or just everybody notices it, you know what I’m saying? [laughs] But I’ve seen it many a time from some newb that steps up on the mound.”

My informant is a 44 year old male who often plays board games and role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons. I imagine he observes this superstition not only because he believes it has an effect on luck but also because it shows respect for other gamers. It speaks to a larger culture of mutual respect and commonly accepted ground rules that exists within gamer culture, one which allows game-playing among lots of people to function smoothly. I find it really interesting that those who take another’s dice are the ones punished with bad luck. In this way, this superstition serves as a warning to keep everyone in check.

Haunted Guard Post

Nationality: Israeli
Age: 25
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/24/2016
Primary Language: English
Language: Hebrew

Informant: “The story goes that there’s one guard post nobody wants to guard in because it got blown up a couple years before. And the guy that was blown up in it supposedly…they never found his legs. And to this day you can still hear him tip toeing about in the darkness.”

After telling me this legend, my informant followed up with this personal anecdote:

“Listen. I’m not a superstitious guy. I don’t believe…I didn’t…didn’t buy it when I first heard the story. I thought they were just trying to scare me, ya know? And yet when I was up there and I was sitting—standing there, I was staring out at the fog. It was dark. I heard footsteps and I opened up the door and no one was there. And it fuckin’ freaked me out!”

My informant is a 25-year old man who spent four years in the Israeli army. This story was passed around between Israeli soldiers stationed in Lebanon. It was often recounted by someone visiting the guard post to the guard on duty. He gave this background to describe what he imagined to be the reason for the legend’s existence:

“We were up in Lebanon. There was this guard post that nobody liked to guard in. Now, first of all, Lebanon is a very spooky place. It’s not what you think of when you think of the Middle East. It’s not sandy and desert. It’s a forest. And it’s foresty and covered in fog, high up in the mountains, there’s snow there. And so, there’s this fog, almost every day, this thick fog. And there’s enemies just a couple kilometers away that want to kill you. It’s a spooky place to be guarding anyway. I think that’s probably where the superstition came from.”

My informant is a screenwriter and is currently working on a screenplay based around this legend. I believe he enjoys this particular piece of folklore because it is so cinematically spooky, but also because it collided with his reality in such a memorable way. The army demands soldiers to maintain self-composure, but as they are human beings, cannot help but fear being hurt by the enemy. I imagine it was a popular story in the army as it was a way for soldiers to express their fear of death and mutilation without talking about it directly.