Why We Need to Stop Dressing Professionally
I have been working on this post for two weeks and doing research for it for almost a month. But every time I sat down to write it, the words that came out were so preachy and ranting. I would basically rant and vent for two pages before I realized that what I was saying was not going to be taken seriously or wouldn’t have anyone looking at what I was saying for any of the right reasons. All I was going to do was attract boomers and other conservatives about how wrong I was and comments on how Millennials and Gen Z don’t want to work or want to make everything a problem. Until I saw a Tik Tok by a creator I follow, Christina Stratton, who was able to perfectly sum up what started all of this for me. In a recent Tik Tok she said, “Whenever people tell me that something is unprofessional I always ask them like is it immoral? Or is it offensive? Or is it just that you’ve accepted a norm and think that I should accept it too?….. I feel like I have made a lot of concessions in the way that I present myself in order to be accepted and taken seriously.” She goes on to talk about how if her choice to wear a certain thing to that event will impact her career and people’s ability to see her intelligence then she probably doesn’t want that job anyway. Her account is @christinastrat and I highly encourage you to go and take a scroll through her account. But the way that she said this, perfectly encapsulates and boils down to the point that I have been trying and failing to make for the past few weeks. I intend to explore this whole idea of dressing professionally, why it’s something that seems to be so important, and why it’s a concession we make.
I can relate to Christina’s plight here; women who are more feminine or “girly” are looked down upon for being less than. We are supposed to be less smart, less driven, and overall just less valuable because femininity is seen as a weakness and a joke. Most of my childhood and adolescence were spent trying to be less girly. As much as I love to be outside and get dirty, I equally love dresses, florals, and having my nails and makeup done. But since I was a ballerina my whole childhood and adolescence, I did my best to be as not girly as possible to balance out the intense femininity in ballet. Now that I am 25 and looking at jobs in the adult world, I am so angered by the dress codes, the professional attire attitude, and the phrasing of “no bright makeup”, “no bright colored clothing”, “no opened toe shoes”, “shoulders cannot be shown”, and so much more. It takes the dress codes of high school to a new level and so much is assumed about us based on how we dress. Haven’t I already made enough concessions? If it is not immoral or offensive, then why does it matter?
Now, to head off some of the comments I know I am going to get on this post, I want to clarify that I am not advocating for clubbing attire in the workplace. I am not saying that we need to show up in the tiniest bralette tops and jeans so destroyed that they are barely held together. But here’s the thing: even if we did do that and I was advocating for that, would it impact people’s ability to do their jobs? Or would it just impact people’s perception of their ability to do their jobs?
This is not to say that there aren’t certain jobs that don’t need a specific uniform, but these jobs need the uniform for reasons that have nothing to do with a company’s optics or perception. Medical staff, construction workers, fitness teachers, and many more wouldn’t be able to perform their jobs safely or effectively if they were required to wear professional-style clothing. But on the opposite end, some jobs require a certain level of professionalism that doesn’t quite make sense. Like teachers for example. Especially in elementary school when children are messy and have fewer boundaries when it comes to that mess, teachers should not be required to look nice and presentable in the classroom daily. Jeans and a top should be more than acceptable, especially since young kids do not care what professional dress is or how their teachers look. Our society has placed such a high value on how people look and it has become an issue for everyone but white, cis-gendered straight men.
Indeed has a whole page on the importance of dressing professionally, and to be quite honest, most of it is very trivial and pointless. These are outdated ideals that we still allow since the people who decided on these ideals as the acceptable standard are still in corporate power. Some of the things on this Indeed page are to make a good first impression since the first thing someone notices about you is your appearance, to communicate that you take your job seriously and are not a slacker, to show you deserve respect, to represent your company well, and enhances your credibility. Are you noticing a pattern here? All of the reasons they list for why dressing professionally is important are reasons that truly have nothing to do with the way someone looks. All of those things could be determined by speaking to someone in-depth, by watching how someone performs at work, and the quality of the work that they do. I have done some of my best work in sweatpants, but according to this, that would then mean that I am not a good employee, worthy of respect, or that I am not a credible person. None of that makes logical sense when you say it outlaid, but one of the biggest issues here is that this is all deeply rooted in classism.
Classism is an issue in this country for a lot of reasons, but we tend to place value on people based on how they look and also ascribe their intelligence and worth to how they look. How often do we as a society look down on people who are unhoused or low-income? Because they are maybe less clean than those of us who are privileged enough to have a facility to engage in personal hygiene? We judge the brand of clothing they wear, the quality of the clothing, if they shop second-hand or not, or even something as simple as they don’t put a lot of value in the way they look. A person’s look or style or the clothing they wear has nothing to do with what is in their head and what they are capable of. So by these standards or ideals, anyone who does not conform to this particular norm would be seen as less than and not capable. This also adds a race element since so many people of color have been railroaded in this country and end up living in poverty more than white people.
The Chicago Tribune wrote a wonderful piece in 2021 exploring this idea of professional dress as both racist and sexist. They focus on the state senators and representatives who are pushing back on very rigid dress codes that only serve the white, cis-gendered men whom the dress codes were made for. They want to wear sneakers since they are more comfortable especially when standing for long periods. The women want more flexibility with different lengths of skirts and top cuts because they are being told their bodies are somehow immoral so they better cover-up. This article also curtly points out that these same people who were so uptight and worried about not changing the dress codes are the same ones who refused to impose mask mandates because it steps on people’s freedoms. Somehow making sure someone’s shoulders and knees are covered is not restricting freedoms though. There is this idea that when dressed a certain way it forces decorum and respect. Now I do not believe anyone is owed respect, I believe it is something that is earned, but even if that is not a shared belief this idea is consistently proven to not be true in politics. How often have we seen white male politicians belittle, yell at, and say truly condescending things to women and POC in these political spaces? How often are women and POC treated poorly and not taken as seriously in the workplace despite adhering to the dress code laid out by the workplace? And how often do white male executives use these dress codes against these two same groups to reprimand them in some way? It would seem as if these dress codes are not imposed to create a level playing field or to make the workplace a place of respect and decorum, but rather a tool for oppression. These things also become an issue when larger people are trying to dress professionally. I have saved many videos on my TikTok account for you all to peruse of women of many different races and ethnicities explaining how because they have bigger bodies they are often written up at their jobs for things they cannot control. For how the clothing available to them that fits in the dress code is not available to fit larger bodies.
In a lot of ways, the fashion industry and the idea of fashion, are tools to push people in certain directions; buy this expensive thing to look more powerful, wear these colors to appear more likable, don’t wear these brands because it makes you look cheap, and so much more. Dress codes enforce the idea that there should be some kind of clothing that is more professional than others. The fashion industry is just a massive gatekeeper to how people are perceived. A uniform or how someone perceives the uniform is just as big of an issue as what it actually says (The Atlantic). And even though it shouldn’t come as a surprise, bigger bodies and women of color are the ones who deal with the most scrutiny when it comes to what they wear and what they look like. All of these are tools to make women in the professional sphere feel less than because I know I am not the only one sitting here thinking about how men never get dress-coded. They don’t get in trouble for it in high school, and that transitions to the workplace when men can be more lenient in their clothing choices to work and not ever be told they are being disrespectful or unprofessional. Their bodies are not up for debate regularly or being told that they are somehow being too sexual at work because parts of their bodies cannot be hidden.
In the Vox piece I have cited, the woman writing the piece even explains that they all knew that if they were well-groomed and pretty, they would receive bigger payouts, better clients, and quicker promotions. “When the big firms came calling for interviews, we were advised to wear foundation, blush, a suitably demure lipstick shade, and suitably demure nails. (None of us could agree on what “demure nails” meant: only that any color called “Vamp Scarlet” was probably off the table.)” The piece goes on to explain how tricky it is to navigate the professional sphere as a plus-sized black woman because no one specifically says what the issue is, but that the way someone looks is unprofessional, or inappropriate when the same outfit is on a smaller, whiter body. There is so much evidence to suggest that dressing professionally and having these strict dress codes do more harm than good, but they are still being used as a tool to keep certain people from entering the workforce. Women of color, curvy women, women in general, and the LGBTQ+ community are the ones most at risk of being harmed by these rules and made to feel less than. How is one supposed to dress if they are gender non-conforming? The fact that we are so willing to just allow these arbitrary rules to continue is rather disappointing. Women are meant to be feminine in the workplace, but not too feminine and also not too masculine, which then puts a strain on those people who are gender nonconforming or gender fluid. This social construct of professionalism values white maleness above all else.
“Not to go all “anti-capitalist regime,” but professionalism is a tool of the elite to keep workforces “in their place” – and often, that place is defined in opposition to communities of color, queer culture, and the actual working class.” - Everyday Feminism. The writer of this piece details how this is not only a system hierarchy but also a way to get rid of people’s individuality, which seems odd since America is so focused on the individual. People are forced to get clothing they cannot afford and often will only wear at work and lose resources they may not even have. In some instances, people will even have to go into debt to get professional clothing. These spaces that require employees to dress formally or semi-formally are so focused on appearances and the way that the company looks to the outside forces, that it creates a culture of unattainability to most people. Even though time and time again it has been proven that professional dress does not have any impact on people’s performance. “Why can’t elected officials take me seriously in my actual clothes, being my actual self? Why do I have to dress a certain way just to interact with them?”- Everyday Feminism. A person’s merit and abilities need to be taken first a foremost before their appearance. This could also all go into the tattoo/piercing/ not natural colored hair camp but this post has already gone on long enough.
This issue is not as complex as people want it to be; this is a hierarchical structure that values straight male whiteness over everything else. It focuses on the white gender binary and doesn't make space for people who are anything other than white and male. It values the way someone looks as a way to determine their merit and ability to be respected when we need to be looking at the people who can do the job the best. Sexuality, race, or gender identity should not be taken into account when determining if people are fit for the job or worthy of respect (Breakthrough). Capitalism, white supremacy, and the patriarchy are all the culprits of so much wrong in this world and this is only one of the many ways it can impact our daily lives. If we ever want to truly achieve equality or freedom, we have to abolish these systems.
Madey
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Cover art by Avery Lynch