Do You Think This "Sports Illustrated Swimsuit" Airplane Safety Video Was Sexist?

If you’re lucky enough to have flown Air New Zealand in the past few months, chances are you were shown the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit safety video the magazine put together in celebration of their 50th Anniversary. It’s also a safe bet that you paid close attention to everything they told you because generally speaking people stop what they’re doing when they see Christie Brinkley, Jessica Gomes, Chrissy Teigen, Hannah Davis and Ariel Meredith.

See our coverage on the making of this video “Safety in Paradise” here.

That being said, Air New Zealand passengers will no longer be greeted by beautiful women in swimsuits buckling seat belts because of negative attention the video seemed to be grabbing. An Australian (they’re always ruining it for Kiwis) woman by the name Natasha Young felt the video was too sexist and started a petition on Change.org to eject it. From the petition:

Air NZ finds it appropriate to reinvent the in-flight safety video with a celebration of Sports Illustrated 50th anniversary. A safety video is to alert passengers on what to do in an emergency; it should not be an excuse to objectify the sexualized female body. This video completely disregards passengers who find it offensive for religious reasons, who have body image struggles, who are parents concerned about their children’s impressionable nature, who believe women deserve more respect, and who have teenage daughters who deserve more respect.

Honestly we don’t see the big deal about the whole thing. Are these women looking at themselves in the mirror and frolicking in pools? Absolutely. But they’re on vacation! Who doesn’t do that while they’re on the beach?

Watch the video below and decide for yourself what you think. Just know that it’s being replaced by a safety video filmed with Bear Grylls who may or may not have found a way to sneak in a discussion to the benefits of drinking your own urine. Would you want your children watching that?

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQDip9V49U0&w=590]