For your amusement, and no other reason, I offer this small polemic essay, which I was required earlier in the quarter to write. I enjoyed it, and hoped you might too! Find this post and others on modesty at The Modesty Blog Carnival at Is This Modest. 🙂
Pardon Me, Your Underwear is Showing
Forgive me for pointing out the obvious, but shouldn’t anyone who can hold a job also be able to tell the difference between a skirt and a slip? A blouse and a bra? Trousers and tights? How is it that women today attain professional status without being able to distinguish between workwear and underwear? Like the proverbial emperor, they have been hoodwinked by enterprising clothiers; nevertheless, their colleagues see their nakedness.
That women enjoy men’s ignorance is demonstrated by their indifference. If a male co-worker declared her “cami” not a shirt, today’s professional woman might respond condescendingly that it is the style these days. Or perhaps she’d just smile, pat him on the head, and ignore the comment altogether.
Seemingly some basics of interpersonal communication are being overlooked in many offices. Clothing conveys a message. Many men, and not a few women, do not speak What Not to Wear. Professional women wearing underwear as business clothing run the very real risk of being misunderstood.
Guys, why not just be honest? Walk right up to that colleague and say, “Excuse me, did you know you forgot your shirt?”
Ladies, at least have the decency to be embarrassed when you realize you’re not wearing any clothes.
While definitely true, I would shudder at the PC consequences of any man
going up to a co-worker and remarking about her underwear. 🙂 The reason
you can’t get it published as a regular article is that so much editorial content
is tied to advertising. Print journalism isn’t doing well and they want to hold on
to all the advertisers they can. Since those advertisers are selling these very
items….
Many years ago a fellow I knew had an article rejected by a city magazine. He’d
been published by them before but this article was about a country music station
in the city. They bluntly told him, take a look at our ads, we don’t sell to them and
we don’t want to. The ads were mostly for upscale items and services. They further
thought the subject of the article would alienate their present advertisers who wouldn’t want to be associated with it.
My husband used to run a dairy farm and store and tried to get them free publicity through news outlets. He found he had to change the content of the story to suit
their advertising aims.
BTW, there are many religious periodicals and while you would be
preaching to the choir, I think one of them would be happy to take it.
Don’t forget the Orthodox Jewish ones like what Chabad publishes.
I’m wondering what “professional status” means to you?
I haven’t seen women in my large city in the more traditional professions (law, medicine, accounting ,architecture, engineering) who do not know the difference b/t trousers and tights. It’s mainly the entry-level positions or service-sector jobs where I see young people a bit shaky about what is clubwear vs workwears. And the occasional techie who is a bit goth or punky.
Also, there is a small subset of women who are entirely aware of what they are doing, and are using what power they have to achieve an effect,
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Thanks for the link and for the great article!