My friend Katie talks at length about dressing professionally, but today I’m just going to riff a little about my own attire. It was, shockingly, a point of discussion at work once a few years ago.
So here’s me in typical work attire (I apologize for the weird photo with inset, but I realized the march photo was the only pick I had where my feet are visible):
I typically wear dark colored docker style pants, a button down short sleeve shirt, funky socks of some sort and a pair of Nikes. I have glasses, obviously, and I pull my hair back into a short ponytail. I wear my wedding ring, and if it is charged I wear my Fitbit (I’m bad about remembering to recharge it), but otherwise I don’t wear any sort of jewelry and I don’t typically wear a watch because I use my phone for time related stuff.
There are four criticisms I’ve gotten more than once about my attire:
- I wear my shirts untucked. That’s because I have a long torso and (prepare for spoiler) [spoiler] I’m fat. [/spoiler]. If I tuck in my shirt, I look like some sort of weird human puff pastry. I’m uncertain as to what is unprofessional about that, but hey, to each, right?
- I wear supportive sneakers. I was once what passed as athletic. I made a play I probably shouldn’t have and really, really messed up my knee. Ever since, I’ve had knee problems. I also have one leg that is slightly longer than the other because I broke my leg when I was five. So I have ligament issues/achilles problems. I cannot wear dress shoes and walk around doing my job all day. I tried for a campus visit once and the second day I was almost unable to move.
- I have an intense body heat. I always have. I don’t think it’s just because I’m overweight, but I’m sure that contributes to it. Because I get hot and a sweat like crazy, I wear docker shorts when it’s hot. Apparently this is a sin against humanity in the eyes of some.
- Apparently a hoodie isn’t a coat. That, of course, poses a problem for someone who owns like 30 hoodies and no other sort of winter coat other than a totally-intense winter parka style thing.
I share this partly to complain a little; I’m human like everyone else. I don’t enjoy heavy criticism. But there’s a larger point to my venting: I don’t think people realize how classist and body-image biased we are about how professors dress. And again, I referenced Katie above. It’s a totally different game for women. I don’t presume to say here that I think that’s not endlessly complex. But for men, there’s a pretty standard sense of what an English professor should look like (luckily for me I’m not that anymore, and most game studies and game design folks dress more like game industry folks than academics). But the shirt/tie/slacks with sport coat with elbow patches, wingtips and fine ivory smoking pipe look doesn’t work for a big person with joint issues who sweats like crazy.
And so this is my actual suggestion for people to consider. We should dress to do the job that we do. Now I’m not going to dress like a total slacker (if you know me on Facebook, you know that 90% of the time when I’m not at work I wear a graphic print T-shirt, shorts, a nice pair of sandals or sneakers, and if it’s chilly a hoodie). But my job is to teach, research, advise and administer. Having a tie on, a shirt tucked in, and dress shoes doesn’t help me do that better. Now being able to stand to walk around all day, not sweat through my clothes and look like I was drenched with a hose, and I need to be able to reach up to write on the board without my shirt coming untucked and showing people inappropriate flesh.
People use that cliche of “dress for the job you want.” I have the job I want. I’m going to dress for the job I do. If that offends people, I suggest they worry about a more important issue. Seriously. Don’t try to politely explain to me how I could dress better. It’s rude.