Mirko Fischer, the man who was forced to move from his seat next to his pregnant wife because it placed him next to an “unaccompanied minor,” recently reached a settlement of about $5,000 with British Airways, which he donated to an orphanage. Mr. Fischer said he was humiliated by the forced move, and complained that the policy was discriminatory, stating: “It is sex discrimination. I want this policy to be substantially changed as it is a matter of principle. Women are not treated like this.”
BA is defensive about the policy, which treats men as a danger to children, but was “pleased to have settled the matter.”
As a child, I flew next to men unaccompanied, and neither I nor my parents ever had any anxiety about that. It is likely the case that the full-scale demonization of men that began in the 1990s has affected popular perception, leading to these restrictions, which were never seen as necessary in the past. The institutionalized hatred and distrust of men in the Anglosphere resembles a case of mass hysteria, if not full-blown psychosis.
