One of India’s largest airlines is giving women the choice to sit beside women only, pitting the sexes against each other

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Imagine you didn’t have to sit next to anyone you don’t want to on an airplane. Would you choose babies — those wailing little things — people who hog both armrests, or snore, or perhaps the poorly socialized who, profoundly lacking in self-awareness, see their plane neighbour as a hostage they can hold a one-sided conversation with for five hours? All of the above? How about men? Any man. All men. Would you avoid them?

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One of India’s largest airlines, IndiGo, is now offering the latter option — women can pre-select their seats beside other women only. When choosing a seat, female passengers see available spots colour-coded in blue or pink — an option not viewable by male travellers. Western feminists have floated, in the past, a similar idea to mandate pink airplane seats, both to deal with “manspreading” and as a response to #MeToo. IndiGo’s CEO, Pieter Elbers, said the company has yet to analyze data on how the change has affected sales or customer satisfaction since it was introduced as a trial in May, but claimed that social media feedback has been positive. Men are OK with this insulting initiative? Really?

It smacks of Western liberal feminism, the same divisive,........

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