There are some jobs where you want people to take you seriously. Surgeons, lawyers, and even politicians dress a certain way because they want to ellicit your trust. Despite all the talk about inner beauty, the truth is what you wear matters to people. It effects how people respond to you. If that were not true we would not laugh at movies scenes like the one when Bridget Jones shows up dressed like a "tart" after the "Tarts & Vicars" party is changed to what looks like a traditional English tea. We laugh because we know that no one is going to take her seriously dressed like that. The same way no one took her seriously in her former publishing office.
I have had several encounters like that recently. Like the assistant down the hall trying to pull her best sexy librarian impersonation, wearing some crazy fishnet/intricate flower dot pattern hose with high-heeled oxfords or like the guy who works for the bank in the tie with the miniature giraffes on it. I just cannot take you seriously if that is the way that you are going to dress. No, you cannot sell anything while you are walking around with a paisley stripe down the front of your button down shirt. No, you cannot make suggestions to me about anything work related while you are wearing a shirt that allows me to see your bra because we clearly are not in the same line of business. (My job requires me to keep my underwear under wraps. Silly dress code!)
I cannot take a man seriously while he is wearing pants so tight on both his ankles and his manhood that I am left to wonder how in the world he got in and feel deep concern for whomever has to help him get out. I cannot take a woman seriously with that ridiculous silk neck bow that is the what one movie called the equivalent of wearing a "limp penis" around her neck. (In all fairness, I generally just hate bows. I hate them even more so on grown women. It takes a comical turn when worn by grown men.)
To bring the point home, I would like to recount my experience at the bank yesterday. I walked in and stood on line about 3 people behind a female police officer. I was bored and the line was going slowly so I started to look around at the other people in line. There was nothing particularly interesting until I got the police officer. She had on a really nice watch. I was feminine and shiny and kind of fancy to be wearing with her uniform, but not distracting. She clearly had on makeup and had put her ample weave up in a clip. None of this really detracted from her authority because being a police officer should not mean an end to you being a woman. Her uniform was a little tight, but whatever. I, too, have put my work pants in the dryer a couple times.
Then she looked up and I really saw her face I saw that she had on the most ridiculously long and heavily mascaraed fake lashes I had seen in a long time. They were a cross between one of those cartoon cows and a stripper at breakfast. That did it! She had lost me. You cannot enforce the law on me when you look like you just got through working "The Champagne Room". I was considering seeing if the uniform came with a boom box, if you know what I mean. There are just some jobs that you cannot wear your night before face to work in the morning and she clearly has one of those jobs. I mean I saw woman from another office earlier wearing varying shades of blue eyeshadow (which I quickly realised and made a mental note is really only a "going out" color) and even though I felt a desire to explain that a day to evening look did not mean that it lasted all day until you went out in the evening I did not feel like it lessened her authority. It just let you know that she was up for a good time. On second thought, maybe it did lessen her credibility as well. Oh, well.
The point is- dress appropriately for what you a doing. It is for the good of everyone!
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