Yesterday, on my way to Los Angeles, I watched a man try to clear security with a cat in a duffel bag.
The man was asked to remove the cat from the bag because:
1) you can’t send a cat through the belt screener
2) TSA needed to scan the bag the cat was in.
The man objected to his removal of the cat because he and the cat had not been formally introduced, and to him, taking the cat out of the duffel bag didn’t feel appropriate.
TSA promptly guided the man and the bagged cat to a private room for a formal introduction and security check.
After the private screening, the man and the cat boarded the flight without further incident.
There is so much talk these days about what is and isn’t appropriate behavior in the corporate world, in Hollywood, and at home. And while the conversation is around male entitlement and power, it should also be about self awareness and context for both sexes.
Like the man with the cat in the duffel bag, if we all just took a moment to consider our next step and how that would play out in the context of the moment with our current audience, so much of this wouldn’t even happen. Because in so many cases, the intent in these terrible moments isn’t actually sinister, it is just fucking cluelessness.
#metoo