Miss Average Stewardess
This photo was recently circulating online and caught the attention of Snopes which verified that it's a real image. (Though I'm not sure why people thought it might not be real).
The image comes from the University of Texas photo archives. I've attached the news story that ran with it in 1948.
The image comes from the University of Texas photo archives. I've attached the news story that ran with it in 1948.
Long Beach Independent - Aug 12, 1948
Comments
How times have changed. I suspect very few flight attendants (no longer stewardesses) smoke, and the average age is way over 23. I wonder if the stewardesses lit up while on duty (smoking was allowed on planes until 1990).
Posted by ges on 04/06/25 at 11:54 PM
If the mensurations are correct, the average stewardess was underweight in 1948.
Posted by Yudith on 04/10/25 at 07:08 AM
@Yudith: a BMI of 19.5 is perfectly healthy.
Posted by Richard Bos on 04/12/25 at 09:12 AM
Richard, I used to weight 117 lbs for a height of 5'2" and I was below the minimum healthy weight in the BMI index chart. I cannot see how a girl of 5'5" weighting the same can be healthy, unless she was Twiggy.
Posted by Yudith on 04/13/25 at 07:09 AM
@Yudith: going by the definition on Wikipedia, your BMI is your weight in pounds divided by the square of your height in inches, multiplied by 703 because we're not reckoning in sane units.
For Miss Stewardess, that's (117 / (65*65)) * 703, equals 19.47. For you back then, it's (117 / (62*62)) * 703, makes 21.39+.
Again according to Wikipedia, she would be in the lower part, but not even near the bottom, of the normal range. You would have been just about smack bang in the middle of it.
Your nutritionist was lying to you. She was trying to pull you back into the crab bucket, and to sell you supplements. I hope you didn't fall for it. You women need to stop listening to the lies you tell one another about your bodies.
For Miss Stewardess, that's (117 / (65*65)) * 703, equals 19.47. For you back then, it's (117 / (62*62)) * 703, makes 21.39+.
Again according to Wikipedia, she would be in the lower part, but not even near the bottom, of the normal range. You would have been just about smack bang in the middle of it.
Your nutritionist was lying to you. She was trying to pull you back into the crab bucket, and to sell you supplements. I hope you didn't fall for it. You women need to stop listening to the lies you tell one another about your bodies.
Posted by Richard Bos on 04/19/25 at 10:41 AM
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests | Air Travel and Airlines | 1940s