How do we know when wearing a specific outfit is or isn’t appropriate for boarding an airline’s business class? A South Korean DJ learned this lesson the hard way. According to an article published by the Australian website Dmarge, DJ Hwang So-hee, known as DeeJay Soda, was kicked off her American Airlines business class flight for wearing pants that airline staff considered inappropriate. She also claims she was intimidated into taking them off in public. The artist was coming back from JFK to LAX with American Airlines.
The incident happened because she was wearing pants with the inscription “F*ck you” all over the clothing. The pant was designed by a brand that sponsors the artist.
“I was forced out of the plane and was harassed to take off my pants in front of the flight crews at the gate. I have never had an issue with wearing this pair of pants before in my many months of touring in North America and they did not have any problem with me wearing it at the time of check-in nor when I sat down at my seat,” DeeJay Soda said on her Instagram account. She has over 4,3 million followers.
DeeJay Soda revealed that initially she entered the plane without any issues and was very welcomed by American Airlines business class crew members. She said that after boarding the flight, she was drinking in the airline’s business class when a staff suddenly approached her and took her off the plane with her belongings without any kind of explanation. “As I was escorted off the plane, they claimed that my sweatpants were ‘inappropriate’ and ‘offensive’ telling me that I need to take the next flight,” she commented.
Soda added that she had an important meeting set up in LA on that day, and she did not have other options but to fly to LA on that AA flight. “I pleaded to stay on the flight but was ignored by the staff and the flight attendants. I even offered to get changed but the request was denied. What happened next was horrendous.”
Then, in order to comply with the AA staff requirements and reboard the plane, she decided to take off her pants.
“With my broken fingers, I hardly ended up taking off my pants in front of the whole crew and standing half-naked while they still refused to board me on the flight. They even sarcastically commented that I could have taken off my pants earlier. When they finally let me enter, I put my pants inside out and finally sat down after an hour of delay causing inconvenience to the members of the flights on board. I was mortified and trembling in fear for the next 6 hours on my flight back to LA.”
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She added: “In my 8 years of touring, I have never experienced or been treated unfairly, especially in a country that is known for its freedom of speech and individuality.”