Apparently, this was enough to force the senators unanimously A resolution passed on September 28, 2023 requiring men to wear jackets, ties and slacks in the Senate.
As a fashion historianI’ve heard this tune before. It’s the same song that college administrators sing In the late 1950s, women wanted to wear pants to campus cafeterias.I can hear the chorus of confused office managers wanting to ban polo shirts in the early 1990s, like Casual Friday Revolutionized people’s work attire.
People experiencing these changes often view them as devolution rather than evolution. One conservative came forward, using terms like “respect” and “tradition” to protect previous dress standards. They may be able to block the shift, as the Senate appears to have done. But time and time again, their efforts to regulate clothing failed.
“Brainless” student bare legs
Shorts, in particular, have a history of causing outrage.
The Shorts Protest of 1930 Led more than 600 students to the hallowed steps of Robinson Hall at then-all-male Dartmouth College to protest the obnoxious dress code that banned athletic uniforms in campus buildings.
Editor of the student newspaper challenges readers “Bring out your most prized possessions—whether they be fitted or old flannel” so that men can “slouch in the supreme pleasure of complete freedom of the legs.” Students wore old basketball jerseys, tweed walking shorts and newly made cutoff shorts.
It’s more important than campus rules. It’s about freedom and self-expression. The story was picked up by the Associated Press and reported nationwide. Princeton University Student Paper Harvard also reported on it, and Fox News also appeared to document the events of the day.
The old guard’s counterattack was immediate and vitriolic. “famous Boston clothier” sat down and wrote a letter Declaring to universities that the “average American student” is “the most brainless student in the world” and that “if they don’t have brains to make themselves famous, they have to use their legs.”
Conditioning the female body
Women have also decided to join the shorts game. Beginning in the late 1920s, the shorts worn by women in public became the subject of heated debate for more than 30 years.
Social critic, boyfriend and fashion writer try Set parameters to “when” and “where” This dress is ready to wear. Shorts are prohibited during church services, but not at informal social events. You can’t wear them to the cafeteria for dinner, but you can wear them for lunch.and some country clubs in the 1930s Let women wear trench coats Go to the tennis court and cover your shorts.
Time passes and men and women continue to simply… wear shorts. 1955, Esquire confirms to readers”, “Now you can wear shorts for exercise and informal business anywhere the weather is hot, and no one will bat an eye. “
Pants pushed back
For decades, written and unwritten dress codes also prohibited women from wearing trousers in formal settings.
College deans, headmistresses and human resources managers have established dress codes that explicitly prohibit clothing or restrict it to certain areas. Etiquette writer explains that slacks “insults a man’s sense of aesthetics” and only applies in one situation: when “you’re roughing it up”.
Despite this, women still wear many styles of pants.
In November 1970, San Francisco Chronicle reporters studied an article about a maitre d’hotel who refused to seat a woman in a pantsuit at a fancy restaurant. At one place, the owner explained to her: “If we accept one woman who wears pants, we must accept them all”. Others cited “etiquette” and “etiquette” as reasons for refusing entry.
The criticism surrounding Schumer’s decision sounds a lot like complaints about female politicians wearing pants. In 1993, Senators Carol Moseley-Braun and Barbara Mikulski Wearing their pants to the Senate.
The first female sergeant, Martha Pope, didn’t kick women out; Written clothing rules modified Designate a pant suit as appropriate business attire.
Independence and individuality
As clothing standards changed, what people wore in public became ground zero for discussions about new ideas about race, class, and gender. For the most part, wealthy white men are the arbiters of “fit” and “unfit.”
For over a century, fashion has dramatically transformed from a top-down regulatory process to a means of personal expression. Former Miss America Bess Myerson at a fashion show celebrating the nation’s 200th anniversary in 1976 tell the audience”, “Our clothes and lifestyles complement each other, reinforcing our independence and individuality. “
In 20th-century America, she declared, fashion was not “the uniform of caste or class, as it was in the many ancient lands from which our people fled.”
Whether written or implicit, dress codes only have meaning when enforced. To me, the idea of regulating what adult professionals wear is outdated.
When John Fetterman wears athletic shorts in public, I see him leveraging his personal identity and political brand.Although suppressed anger and susan collins jokes about wearing bikinis In the Senate, fashion emerges from culture, and culture is dynamic.
Cultural forces are almost impossible to fight back.
Deirdre Clement is an associate professor of history, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
This article is reproduced from dialogue Licensed under Creative Commons.read Source article.
Svlook
