Originally Posted by Roadkill

So, I've changed my mind on this--it's NOT harmless, it's a gradual and insidious degradation of respect for the profession. It's like telling rascist jokes then turning to those of the targeted race you just demeaned and saying, "Hey, lighten up man it's just a joke!", or patting a female pilot on the head and saying "How's my little lady-pilot doing today? Feeling up to hand flying the big stick with the boys?" or some such crap, and then claiming it was just light-hearted humor. It creates a culture of acceptance of demeaning behaviour, and sets an expectation in the minds of the listener that it's ok.

When our safety video shows rampers too lazy to jog over for a late inbound; flight attendants too fat to fit down the aisle without bumping all the pax; flight attendants hitting on the rich first class pax; managers working for 3 years at the company and talking on their cell phones about how they're taking us to bankruptcy and bailing with millions; and maintainers pencil whipping repairs and guessing about them instead of referencing TO data....
... when we make all THOSE jokes too, THEN it will be OK to make a light-hearted "just a little humor man, lighten up francis!" joke that pilots press a "FLY" button as part of our job..