Title: Working the skies : the fast-paced, disorienting world of the flight attendant /
Authors: Whitelegg, Drew.
Publisher: New York University Press,
Year: 2007
Subjects: Flight attendants United States.; Flight attendants United States Anecdotes.
Abstract: "Get ready for takeoff. The life of the flight attendant, a.k.a., stewardess, was supposedly once one of glamour, exotic travel and sexual freedom, as recently depicted in such films as Catch Me If You Can and View From the Top. The nostalgia for the beautiful, carefree and ever helpful stewardess perhaps reveals a yearning for simpler times, but nonetheless does not square with the difficult, demanding and sometimes dangerous job of today's flight attendants. Based on interviews with over sixty flight attendants, both female and male labor leaders, and and drawing upon his observations while flying across the country and overseas, Drew Whitelegg reveals a much more complicated profession, one that in many ways is the quintessential job of the modern age where life moves at record speeds and all that is solid seems up in the air.^
Contents: We're here to save your ass, not kiss it -- Briefing : from stewardess to flight attendant -- Departure -- Safety checks -- In-flight entertainment? -- Cruising altitude -- The layover -- The return -- Debriefing.