<p>ek - so true! I’ve often wondered how the administratrix on “House” could possibly do her job in stiletto heels and with that much anatomy on display, then remember she played a law student/call girl on the West Wing. Type casting, I suppose.</p>
<p>I work in a government office with a public window. When certain women are staffing the public window, the sight reminds me of the red light section of Amsterdam, where people display their “wares” in shop windows so customers can see what’s available.</p>
<p>Then the 30 something’s who display this wardrobe don’t understand when they get lecherous comments.</p>
<p>I read not long ago that Hillary Clinton shocked DC when, as a new Senator, she showed some cleavage on the floor of the Senate. (awkward sentence - was the cleavage on the floor, or was HC?) and she never repeated the wardrobe gaffe. Conservative dress is the norm, I guess, in DC. I feel sorry for the kids whom just don’t get it.</p>
<p>Not exactly practicing what she was preaching…</p>
<p>However, it is likely that a dress code that does not have exploitable loopholes will be seen as too strict by most, or so overwritten that people have a hard time remembering all of it. For example, you’d probably have to write quite a bit to have an enforceable dress code without loopholes to avoid both too tight “painted on” trousers and too loose sagging trousers (and then people will complain about the “trouser police” selectively enforcing the rules, or people trying to find loopholes, etc.).</p>
<p>I’m required to dress nice at one of my jobs. Many of us are constantly working in the stacks and get all sorts of dusty. So we’re wearing nice clothes and working in dust. </p>
<p>Oh we as student assistants are also allowed to wear tennis shoes. So, business clothes, tennis shoes, lots of dust. Makes loads of sense.</p>
<p>I remember when I first started at my work… we are very ‘lax’ when it comes to dress code… a bit better now then years ago, but still pretty ‘lax’. There was a girl whom I started with who was overweight… I wouldn’t say obesely overweight… but overweight enough that low cut, skin tight shirts where your tummy pops through the bottom probably weren’t the best of options to wear to work. One of the managers actually said something to her and made her put something on top of it. She didn’t have anything to wear on top of it so the manager loaned her a button down sweater. They were about the same size. The girl was offended because she saw a ‘skinny’ girl wearing the exact same shirt. Only difference being, on the ‘skinny’ girl - the shirt wasn’t bad at all. It wasn’t low cut on her, her stomach wasn’t hanging out, it wasn’t skin tight, etc. She was ready to march to HR and tell them that if one girl could wear that shirt without covering it up, then she could too. I was just amazed that people don’t realize the difference.</p>
<p>Their rule is cover the 4 b’s - back, belly, breasts, and butt.</p>
<p>When my 21-year-old was in middle school, I wrote a letter to the editor for the local paper about the sad state of girls’ fashion choices. One observation was that fashion moved very quickly from daddy’s little girl to daddy’s little hooker (yes my husband was mortified I said that). These young women have been wearing spaghetti-strapped, black lace covered outfits since before puberty. Maybe they just don’t have any idea what business “business casual” is referring to.</p>
<p>I still remember the day my very attractive high school English teacher wore a green vinyl skirt, and one of my more advanced classmates actually wolf whistled at her from the back of the room. Funny the things I remember from HS. </p>
<p>My point is, maybe it is worse now, but it is not entirely new.</p>
<p>Or choose my desk in front row (we had the large, two-person desks but used by a single student) to sit on in miniskirt and pumps and deliver her Latin lecture. </p>
<p>The girl was offended because she saw a ‘skinny’ girl wearing the exact same shirt. Only difference being, on the ‘skinny’ girl - the shirt wasn’t bad at all. It wasn’t low cut on her, her stomach wasn’t hanging out, it wasn’t skin tight, etc</p>
<p>There was a local high school that had a similar problem. skinny flat-chested girls could “get away” with wearing stuff that the more endowed or chubbier girls couldn’t…and there were complaints. Many of the complaints just weren’t valid…the skinny girls weren’t showing anything.</p>
<p>Cleavage needs to be covered in school.</p>
<p>Now…proms…that’s another story…the girls let the girls really hang out then!</p>
<p>Actually, I could use some advice on this one. One of my direct reports is in her mid fifties. Good at her job, quirky (endearingly so), single, lonely I suspect. Most of the time she dresses modestly, even frumpily. But about from time to time she will appear in a shockingly low cut blouse and a bra that jacks her mostly bare and jiggly breasts up around her earlobes. It’s impossible to ignore or have a businesslike conversation at close range. I have never spoken to her about it as I know she’d be mortified and none of our colleagues have ever asked me to address it. (we dont have a dress code.) And yet I feel it is both unprofessional and exposes her to ridicule whenever it happens. What you you do?</p>
<p>I think that a general announcement in writing to EVERYONE addressing a variety of clothing rules might work…and don’t distribute soon after she dresses like that…</p>
<p>I don’t see any harm in including a few things that haven’t been a problem…like “see thru” tops, slits up to the thigh, etc…then she won’t feel that she’s been targeted.</p>
<p>But about from time to time she will appear in a shockingly low cut blouse and a bra that jacks her mostly bare and jiggly breasts up around her earlobes. …Welcome to CC !! I look forward to future posts ! Fauxmaven</p>
<p>That’s a terrific idea, m2ck, thanks. Of course, if it goes out to the entire division I’ll need buy in from my male counterparts on the management team who may balk at reeling in the charms of some of our young and lovely research assistants. I’ll keep you posted.</p>
<p>When my D was in middle school back in 2000 and the warmer weather of early spring was arriving, the new femaile principal sent out a dress code notice. It said, among other rules, that spaghetti strap tops and leggings were not allowed and that, if Brittany Spears showed up, even SHE would have to comply!</p>
<p>Earlier this year, D’s HS banned the leggings/yoga pants with top look. I suspect that the total ban came because some of the teachers were sporting the look. Good thing. It was difficult when D wanted to wear a short dress with leggings that I thought was really a long top with leggings, and D would say “But Miss __ wears leggings with a top that doesn’t even cover her bottom.”</p>
Funny the things I remember from HS. </p>