An Australian woman claimed that she was 'slut-shamed' by Jetstar staff while she awaited her flight at Sydney airport. Serah Nathan (33), who is half-Sri Lankan, was wearing track pants and a crop top and was sitting on her boyfriend's lap when the altercation occurred.
According to Nathan, who waited to board her Tiger Air flight at 3:20 p.m. on November 3, a uniformed representative of the airline approached her and told her "to sit on a separate seat as there were kids around". The woman said that she and her partner looked at their surroundings and there were no children around.
The representative, who was now accompanied by the Team Leader, repeated the same request and said "you're disrespecting the parents here by straddling your boyfriend". Nathan claims that the Team Leader continued slut-shaming her and commented on her outfit and said: "I doubt you'll be able to board your flight dressed like that but either way you can't sit at this boarding gate" and asked her to sit in the Tiger Air lounge.
Nathan claimed that a white woman sitting opposite her was wearing a shorter dress. She took to Twitter to share her experience and posted a picture of the outfit she wore when she was allegedly 'slut-shamed'
"I was too shocked, too embarrassed, too enraged and humiliated", Serah exclaimed. She claimed that she was targeted for her nationality, news.com reported
Meanwhile, Jetstar denied any discrimination by its airline staff. "We don't tolerate discrimination in any form and our teams dispute they were acting in this way", a Jetstar spokesperson said. Upon her return to Melbourne, she contacted Jetstar Customer care service about the said incident.
She claimed of some odd responses from the customer care team, which only added 'salt to the wound', the report said. "We apologize to Serah for the manner in which her query was handled by our online customer service representative which fell well short of the standards we expect", Jetstar spokesperson said in a statement.
