Air crafting: Corporate mandate and Thai female flight attendants' negotiation of body politics

Abstract

© SOAS 2016. This article explores the body politics of Thai female flight attendants, starting with the ways in which corporate mandates, training, and management seek to shape a standardized model of Thai female beauty. Workers are expected to comply with these mandates and some go to great lengths to conform. On the other hand, there are bodily practices which are outside the realm of these mandates which flight attendants also engage in, as they are not entirely complicit with management's directives. Ultimately, the body politics of Thai female flight attendants lies at the nexus between corporate image, national ideology, and notions of gendered labour.