DRESS CODE
I see there
is a big hoo-haw in the US Senate over the relaxing of a long-standing dress
code.
It brings me back to my College Fraternity days.
Our
House had a dinner dress code which required a tie and jacket in the dinning
area during meals. I don’t recall for
sure, but I believe pants were also required.
This code
went back to the old days of snotty wealthy ass-hats being the only people who
went to college. In the 60’s, only two-thirds
of college young men were snotty wealthy ass-hats; still the dinner dress code
prevailed.
Of course,
the other one-third, at least in our House, rebelled.
Surprise, I
was one of the one-third. I admit to
being an ass-hat, but I was not that snotty and was less wealthy than many others.
It is easy
to challenge a dress code. In those days our house rebels would don wrinkled shirts matched with a clip-on gravy-stained poor
taste tie and a cheap ratty sports coat.
Dress codes
are a joke.
Recently I
attended our annual reunion with these now less snotty, less ass-hattery, many
still wealthy Fraternity Brothers.
At our
Friday dinner, I wore a nice button-down shirt with a nice sports jacket and
tie.
I was over
dressed.
I was given
a friendly fraternity BOS (bag of s___) over my attire.
A dress code
like many laws or rules in society is just a “legal” way to enforce generally
accepted standards. It does not need to
be strictly enforced except to subvert egregious behavior.
Show up to a
function in your underwear and you may not be allowed entry.
“Sorry sir,
we require everyone to wear clothes…it is in our by-laws.”
This rule
should not be needed, except there is always some jerk who cannot meet normal
minimal standards of decorum.
The alternative
to a dress code is social banishment. If
you dress like a clown, you get treated like a clown. You are ignored, you are marginalized.
Acceptable
attire can’t be legislated. Any code can
be mocked, especially if it is antiquated, much like wearing a clip-on gravy-stained
tie back in the old fraternity days.
We don’t
have rules against picking your nose in public, that behavior is patrolled by the mutual disgust of your peers. If
behavior or “dress” is unacceptable, society has ways of dealing with such
behavior.
If an
elected US Senator chooses to legislate dressed like a clown, he should not be
stopped by any rule. The “rule” should
be unwritten common sense. The consequence
of “weird“ behavior should be censure, lack of respect, ineffective legislating,
and ultimately a loss in the next election.
If a Senator
can legislate effectively and be reelected while dressing like Uncle Fester, it
is no gravy off my clip-on tie.
