Qantas's questionable programming: the female orgasm at 36,000 feet

At the risk of sounding like a Tea Party person from Ohio, I have to wonder about this.

The Daily Mail in the UK has a fun item about how Qantas has been including a TV show about female orgasms as part of its on-air entertainment programming. It's said to be a little bit on the graphic side now and then, with snippets from old porn films (hopefully vintage ones that are more like burlesque than something along the lines of Deep Throat).

The film, which was (figures) made in France, is said to be aimed at helping viewers "understand the intricacies of the female orgasm."

Qantas spokesman Luke Enright told the Daily Mail the program was the most popular on its TV channel and would continue to be screened until November.

Sounds intellectually quite interesting, and probably of considerable help to those of us heterosexual males of the married persuasion. But I don't know about showing it on an airplane, even if there's a warning given before people push the button, so to speak.

Like I said, I'm not a prude. But I really wouldn't want my six-year-old, if I had one, to be sitting next to a guy watching the show. It's one thing to be handing out pyjamas in biz class, but raincoats?

I was once on a flight and got an upgrade to business class and watched a Mexican movie that sounded racy but fine. Pretty soon there were naked bodies all over the place (well, not really, but a couple) and some fairly graphic stuff going on, and I had to close down my tv screen and point it away from other passengers for fear of being extremely embarrassed.

(I seem to recall a conversation once with a Toronto sports writer who had talked to a member of the Philadelphia Phillies back in the 1990s and how the player had said he would openly read pornographic magazines on an airplane, which is a pretty stupid and remarkably insensitive, even for someone from Philadelphia.)

Anyway, it's always interesting to get into airplane etiquette. It never ceases to amaze me how people can be so callous and forget the rules of basic decency by slamming back their seats or trimming their nails or playing obnoxiously loud video games, such as the guy two seats from me did on my way back from Jamaica last month.

I read a couple of interesting items in USA Today Travel this week, as well, about how folks who dress up a little get more upgrades at the airline counter, and at hotels. Which makes sense. I don't mind someone wearing shorts and a Hawaiian shirt on a trip to the Caribbean, but I've never understood people who wear tattered, old clothes on a flight from Toronto to, say, New York or Los Angeles. You don't have to get dressed up like Don Draper or anything, but a nice pair of pants and a shirt surely isn't too much to ask.

Don't even get me started on those teenage girls who were wearing pajamas on board planes a few years ago. Arrrggggghhh.