In-flight pornography has been in the news this week, with United sending its flight attendants to special training on how to handle passengers onboard who decide to watch porn.
I have my own in-flight story relating to this subject matter.
Man “Discreetly” Watches Porn On My Flight
I wasn’t going to dedicate a separate post to this, but the man sitting across the aisle from me on my recent TAP Air Portugal flight from Frankfurt to Lisbon was watching porn on his phone.
In all my years of flying, it was the first time I’d ever seen another passenger watch hardcore porn. I was just going to casually mention it in my trip report.
We each had the row to ourselves and he had noise cancelling headphones on. He was leaning against the window and for most of the time, his phone was pointed toward him and out of my eyesight.
The only reason I noticed it is because he got up to retrieve his phone plug from the overhead bin and kept the phone in his hands.
After a while he got up to use the lavatory…
….and stayed for awhile.
Anyway, he wasn’t bothering anyone and it felt a little childish to rat him out to a flight attendant…
“Ma’am, Billy was watching pornos!”
Still, pretty sad that he felt the need to do that in a public place. I also have no idea if the guy sitting in the row behind him became a spectator.
It was easy enough to look away: that’s what I did. That’s what I’ll continue to do.
But in light of United’s new flight attendant training, I’m wondering what the appropriate reaction would be.
TAP doesn’t have wi-fi, so this must have been downloaded content–it’s not like a content blocker would have helped here.
What To Do If Your Seatmate Is Watching Porn
While I do not think pornopgrahy is appropriate on an airplane, I do think there’s a difference between my situation and a seatmate sitting directly next to me. Had I actually been captive to it, I would have told him to turn it off and immediately involved a flight attendant if he refused.
Why? Because it distorts sex and is not edifying. I’m not calling for a ban on porn (as if that would be possible). I’m just advocating for self-control, which obviates the need for so many laws and restrictions. An airplane is not the place for that…
If you do choose to watch porn, don’t do in a public setting in which others are exposed to it. Goodness knows my son is exposed to enough already. I don’t want him stumbling on porn at age three because he happens to be in the wrong airplane seat. But I don’t want to see it either. Keep your sexual fantasies to yourself, please.
CONCLUSION
Save the snowflake comments. I’m not traumatized by the incident. In fact, I wasn’t even offended in the sense that nothing much comes as a surprise anymore on an airplane.
But I don’t think it is Taliban-esque to ask people to refrain from watching graphic porn in a shared space. Even if you believe that others should just deal with it, why would you be so selfish as to offend others over such a trivial matter?
When I was a kid traveling as an unaccompanied minor to see my grandparents, a man was looking at Playboy magazine, including the nude pictures. He put his magazine inside the airline magazine and held it a little close to himself but I noticed it. The passenger on the other side of me was Mrs. Brown, a 30-ish year old woman from New York. I chatted with her a little so that I wouldn’t have to see the nude pictures.
Mrs. Brown took me to an agent and all 3 of all when to the gate for the connecting flight at which time I said “goodbye” to her, never to see her again.
I expect more from Matt and I expect EVERYONE to keep their morals to themselves.
I’ll take a seat mate discretely watching porn anytime over the entitled child with a iPad/tablet playing games and/or videos with the volume on high and no headsets/earbuds. If only parents would extend some discretion and manners for other passengers.
Snowflakes- melt away.
Agreed on that.
Then there are all the horny guys looking at scruff and other male dating apps on the plane and the picture albums that go with each profile.
“Jejune” seems to be a favorite word of yours, but your usage doesn’t indicate that you know what it means. I would recommend that you stop using it altogether.
Jejune means juvenile; immature; childish. I used it in the correct way. And yes, I do like that word.
I wouldn’t describe reporting the porn viewer a “jejune” action or even “immature.” Perhaps it can be considered a synonym for “juvenile” or “callow,” but I think you are missing the “insipid” or “banal” aspects of its meaning and find it a fancier way to say “petty” or “childish.”
Ok, you convinced me on jejune.
But I used it to describe myself, had I tattled on him – not to describe my seatmate.
I expect more from Matt and I expect EVERYONE to keep their morals to themselves.
Jejune only means juvenile in the sense of being simplistic, unsophisticated, or ‘not intellectually nourishing.’ The word does not simply mean childish or immature.
(Not to be overly pedantic, but I finally got the chance to put my humanities Ph.D. to some use…)
Nice. Which porn movie have you acted in?
‘Jejune’ that might be a good title.
“Go Scrooge Yourself”
Get it, good boy? Or is that one over your head?
Sorry debit, that was very jejune of me…
No worries nathan. But only guys with PhD work in porn. Get it?
+1
Possibly (probably) permanently priapic Portuguese porn-fan. Harmless.
Slow news day, huh?
It’s an interesting topic.
Women shouldn’t be ashamed of how beautiful god made them. Men shouldn’t be ashamed of admiring how beautiful women ate, regardless how they do the admiration.
I seldom admire how a woman eats. To the contrary, women can only lose points with respect to how they eat, perhaps by eating with their mouths open.
Or with their combs. -Sen Klobucher
What would irritate me the most is the selfishness of tying up one of the lavatories on a plane.
On a flight to Hawaii I has a person sitting next to me reading soft core gay porn on his kindle. He was an older man (70s) who had the font set to giant so that he (and everyone around him) could read it. Also there were a couple points in the flight where he fell asleep while reading it. Must not have been that exciting. My girlfriend was traveling with me and we found it more humorous than gross.
You sure do run into all sorts of folks on airplanes.
*cancelling
*leaning
spell check!
Fixed. Danke.
For the record, TAP does have wifi. Just came off a flight last week that had it.
On the A330neo, but not on narrow body aircraft, to my knowledge.
Can’t believe people worry about what other people are quietly doing on their own phones…
“worry”?
Try again.
Its amazing you are aware of what someone else do and enjoy while it doesn’t involve you even the tiniest bit.
Putting it into writing however…. You are very sure that your readers are the nosy type. Hahahah…..
Instead of devoting a piece to it he should have just emailed it to Debit. He’s the only one here that seems interested in the airplane porn.
Only if it involves you and a goat fathiss. I have a feeling that will be a big hit. You and a goat going at it.
I dare to say this post is sounding very Ben Schlappig-esq – whine whine whine – I generally read this blog for the travel pieces and the less entitled , Krug bashing , omg how dare the FA not now who I am attitude – but meh this one is up there
And I apparently can’t even spell – blame the Krug on my 15 hour flight – *know
I think your take is spot on. It does not belong in the shared space that is an aircraft cabin. Period.
@ Matthew — What should one do? Same thing as if your seatmate is chewing tobacco or vaping — ask the person to stop and/or ring the FA call button if necessary. The Queen wouldn’t tolerate this crap.
That’s why I love the Queen!