B737-800 Flight Attendant reported disagreement over the airworthiness of an aircraft with an unrepaired armrest in the Over Wing Emergency Exit row.

Narrative

When taking the plane over; the Flight Attendant (FA) told us that the Over Wing Emergency Exit row had an armrest that was taped into the upright position; and that the back; or elbow joint of the armrest was protruding into row 16 preventing the ability of a safe egress if we had to evacuate the aircraft; therefore creating an unusable exit. The Captain had already flown the plane knowing that the exit was unstable and not safe. We again brought it to The Captain's attention; he called the Mechanics; who arrived with speed tape. When I pointed out the problem he said 'if I fix it; it will take 5-6 hours and will have to be taken out of service; is that what you want.'. I said 'Yes fix it.'. He then went and spoke to The Captain who was or had spoken to Operations Control; and they all felt it was safe. We called for someone from inflight base leadership to come witness this since 6 Flight Attendants were all saying the same thing; that the plane was not safe in the event of an evacuation. Supervisor Person A came. I was speaking to her; letting her know how unsafe it was. All she was trying to do was 'hush' me so Passengers would not hear that Company was willing to put their safety in question. Person A; along with The Captain and allegedly Operations Control ultimately decided that the plane was fit for flying; however they asked us to 'block' the exit row from Passengers sitting there; which if the exit row is blocked then in the event of an evacuation there may have been an issue. We said 'if we block that row the plane has to come out of service' to which The Captain and decided to just have us 'not use row'.