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It's the men's turn: Cebu Pacific FAs perform safety demo dance
It's the men's turn to dance. This time, male flight attendants of Cebu Pacific Air danced to the tune of “Safety Dance" — a song by Australian band Men Without Hats, and popularized on the hit TV series Glee — in order to demonstrate the proper use of life vests, oxygen masks, and other safety features of the airplane. The performance came after Cebu Pacific drew flak from women's groups — and even competitor Philippine Airlines' union of flight attendants, the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines (FASAP) — for their "sexist and gender-insensitive" gimmick that showed dancing female flight attendants. The local carrier recently introduced the gimmick of a “safety demo dance," which initially featured women flight attendants dancing to popular songs of Lady Gaga and Katy Perry. A video of the unique safety demo was uploaded on YouTube, a popular video site, by one of the passengers. It has since gone viral, with over 8 million views on YouTube as of this posting. The male version of the safety demonstration dance was performed while Flight 5J 936, the 8:00 am flight from Manila to Davao, was at cruising altitude. Another safety demo dance was done on Flight 5J 964 that left 10:00 am from Davao to Manila. A GMA News crew was on board both flights.
Passengers brought out cameras to capture the performance, which ended with the flight attendants chorusing, "Have a good flight, everyone!" to applause from their audience. "Okay lang po, it's more refreshing. From the point of view ng babae, parang nakakaaliw," said a female passenger. (It’s okay, it’s more refreshing. From a female point of view, it’s entertaining.) "I've never seen anything like that before. That was cool," said a foreign male passenger. He did add that he preferred "of course, the girls dancing." Other passengers were more critical. "Much better siguro kung wala na (It would be much better if there was no dancing)," said one male passenger. "I find it unnecessary." Candice Iyog, Vice-President for Marketing and Distribution of Cebu Pacific, said in an interview aired on GMA News’ “24 Oras" that the dance is “fun, we like the choreography. It's very innovative." The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines has said that they are not investigating the latest gimmick of Cebu Pacific, because it did not violate any rules of flight safety. Cebu Pacific has made it clear that the safety dance has not replaced their standard safety demonstration conducted before takeoff. "We still do the standard safety demonstration on ground, and then we do it again in flight," Iyog added. Still, not everyone is pleased. A FASAP statement said the group was "deeply perturbed" by the video, adding that the stereotyping of flight attendants as entertainers "will surely have a negative and sexist impact in the minds of the public, at the expense of the unwitting female-dancer-flight attendants." “Flight attendants are safety professionals and to require them to dance in front of passengers is demeaning and undignified," added the union. Iyog declined to comment on the criticisms of FASAP, saying that the cabin crew of Cebu Pacific were not part of the union. Meanwhile, Gabriela Women's Party described the dance as "exploitative" and not part of the flight attendants' job description. For its part, Cebu Pacific said that the demo dance is done in the interest of providing "fun" safety information and that the flight attendants partake in the demonstrations whole-heartedly.
