Darling pigeon Maud sent me this link from the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Oy vey. Or maybe even, “Oy gevalt!!” PeaceBang is TRYING TO MAINTAIN HER COMPOSURE, HERE. She doesn’t usually talk about academic community, but she knows she has lots of Higher Ed types reading this blog, so here goes.
*steam coming out of ears*
Let me try to handle this diplomatically.
(Enjoy watching me fail!)
I have no idea what the author actually wears to school, so I am assuming the worst. Let’s just assume the worst together, shall we? Let’s use this as a Teaching Moment. Science Prof writes,
I ignored that advice as well, and yet here I am: a reasonably (by my own definition) successful, midcareer, tenured professor who would never be mistaken for a businesswoman.
Why do I always ignore well-meant advice about my wardrobe?
I think it is a combination of not believing that changing my style is a critical issue, and not wanting to believe it. Perhaps there are career opportunities that I have missed owing to casual attire, but it is hard to feel much angst about that because I am so happy in my job.
First of all, I presume that Science Prof is oblivious to what her concerned colleague is too polite to tell her, which is, in part, “Honey, I am only putting myself in this uncomfortable position because I think you are an embarrassment to our department and do not represent our profession in an appropriate manner. I’m hoping that you’re not socially clueless enough that you’ll miss the deeper level of my message.”
But Professor Oblivious, Ph.D., missed it by a mile. Like so many self-serving sloppies, she makes this about self-differentiation, individual freedoms and (UGH) COMFORT. Because of course personal comfort is the most important social value known to humankind.
If only you chickens could see how high my eyebrow is raised right now. Also, my lips are pressed so firmly together you can barely see that I even have lips.
Let me tell you something, Professor Oblivious. If an elder colleague has to take you aside to run a fashion intervention, you can be that she represents a larger community of people who think you’re dressed inappropriately for a day of teaching. Step up your game. I notice in the commenting section that lots of folks write about the general sloppiness of academes, like that’s a rational defense. “Oh, hey, we’re all looking skanky so what’s the big deal?”
The big deal is self-respect, O Brainy Ones. The big deal is that your mystique as an educator is based partly on how you look when you deliver your genius to the students who are paying good money to attend your classes (or, you know, their parents are). Do you respect education? Then look it. We all know and accept the archetype of the Messy Professor with the run-down heels and ancient tweed jacket but why perpetuate a cliche? Especially if you’re a woman? What, are the sciences so revered in our culture that any science professor should show up to transmit knowledge looking like she could comfortably go from lecturing about quarks to a frat kegger?
There’s one more thing I’ll say before I stop ranting. Looking like a slob undermines your authority with students. Students have every right to look at someone who doesn’t know how to dress herself and conclude that she’s just not… very …smart.
I’m really happy in my job, too. I don’t think that gives me license to show up at church on Sundays wearing jeans. Dressing with care and some aesthetic sense isn’t always connected to professional advancement. It’s a simple matter of respecting yourself and others.
Wow, you go ALL CAPS by Sentence 3! With steamy special effects! How entertaining! My apologies to your blood pressure.
Wrestling with the demon of my resistance to your dismissal of “(UGH) COMFORT”, a lightbulb went over my head that you’re not actually preaching DIScomfort, you’re — I think — preaching Not Solely Comfort, or Thou Shalt Not Make Comfort a False Idol. But also Thou Shalt Not Make Fashion a False Idol, yes? Am I thanks to this sudden epiphany understanding the Good News of BTFM in a revelatory and salvific way?
And your final paragraph — oh, snap — er, I mean, AMEN!
Perhaps I am sensually desensetized, but I have never understood why “real” clothes are perceived as uncomfortable. If they FIT you right, they’re comfortable — skirts, trousers, buttoned woven blouses, dresses with zippers, proper undergarments…Love them all. And I do NOT have an “easy-to-fit” body, have struggled with being short, shortwaisted and overweight since I was 10, so I’m not onoe of those mythical women for whom designers create. You are on point, PB – grown-up women wear clothes that are appropriate and fit!
This is awfully interesting, as she points out in the article that perceptions and expectations are vastly different in different fields. Her example of the suit for an engineering professor could be contrasted by the swooshy skirts and bangles of the anthro professor. My 2 anthro profs dressed respectively like indiana jones fell out of LLBean, and rigoberta menchu goes to India, but they always looked good. Add to that the variety of expression in the very self-expressive environment that is a student’s world, and some strong differences in taste between generations. All that to say that if we *don’t* assume the worst, it’s easy to imagine her hearing not “you look a mess,” but “You are dressed inappropriately if you don’t look like me.” She was probably still wrong, but I would be annoyed/suspicious too. [That’s a good point — she may just have a different style. I assumed not since she didn’t seem to be able to articulate anything about her attire other than that it was “casual” and “comfortable.” Since she hasn’t thought about image or attire in a serious way, I’m assuming that she’s not rocking Rigoberto Menchu or Indy Jones, or anything but thrown-on comfy stuff. – PB]
I think the professor doth protest too much. I work in a technical school known for the quirky manner of its students, and you could say that anything goes. Except it doesn’t, really. The *students* can wear what they like, as can certain people who are perceived to be invaluable to the institution. But we live in an age of cost-cutting and department cutting, and with the focus on the cost of higher education that scrutiny is not going away. As a friend of mine says, “Reality changes faster than the perception of reality,” and very few of us are so valuable to our institutions that we can afford to look and act as if we take our jobs for granted. [YES! – PB]
One of the comments on the article mentioned that some remarks about clothing choice can be construed as “sanctioned harassment,” and it has been my experience — when I was younger — that someone might feel entitled to run fingers over a silk blouse or touch an article of jewelry. But I think that for the most part, a colleague who is giving some feedback on appearance is passing along an important message from the rest of the world. [YES AGAIN! – PB] No one has to dress like the Talbot’s catalogue or Vogue or even What Not to Wear. As someone who spends a lot of time in engineering labs, sometimes Business Casual emphasizes the second word because of heavy machinery, dust, and sparks. Also, I commute by bike most days, so don’t picture me in cashmere and Leboutins.
But I think there’s a difference between functional dressing and “I can scruff out and don’t dare tell me not to.” As a commenter mentioned above, when we talk about professional clothing we’re not talking about a corset and stays. Most days I wear dress slacks that are mostly a polished-looking fabric with a touch of Spandex — highly bike-able (for a short commute). With a little folding practice, it’s easy to fit a blazer or nice sweater and some accessories into a bike bag. So comfort and convenience are not the issue.
It seems to me that the idea that we deserve to be as sloppy as we like is profoundly *not* egalitarian. It’s saying, “We have the privilege of a cushy job that we can’t be fired from, and we don’t have to play by the same rules as everyone else.” [AMEN! TELL IT!! YES!! – PB] Most people I’ve met from non-dominant cultures take great pains with their appearance, and a few have told me that they’re mystified and turned off by dress they perceive as inappropriate or sloppy. [I’m all worn out from cheering this comment. God BLESS ya, Cauliflower. You’ve done it again. – PB]
What Mary Cauliflower said, especially about people from non-dominant cultures.
I didn’t send it to you because I didn’t want you to have a stroke. Im generally a corporate-styled professor. I find that as a black woman and as a woman [folk generally experience me in that sequence] it matters much more what I wear than what black men and other men of color and white women wear. There are cultural permissions, for example Indian women who wear saris or punjabis have a nearly universal cultural exemption. Some black women I know wear African attire professionally, but they are professional polished pieces, not raggedy hippy daishikis.
As black women our bodies are claimed as public space on a regular basis. There were comments in my tenure review (student contribution) about the fit of my clothes on my voluptuous body – my words and that particular report was oral, but it found its way to me.
The prof is the piece is rolling in unexamined privilege. And some other stuff. [LOL and AMEN. – PB]
Mary Cauliflower said it perfectly. Here’s the thing: the standards of appropriate dress are so broad (and so low) in the academy that if someone had to take her aside, it means she’s gone beyond creative and comfortable right into “I slept in these clothes” land.
It is worth noting that there are disciplinary differences. A biologist running a lab needs to be in something like chinos and rubber soled, lace up shoes. But that’s well on this side of the “I slept in these” bright line!
Amen to what Rev. Dr. Gafney said. Even though I’ve been a big girl all my life, it is amazing how people feel it’s ok to talk about how I look in ways they wouldn’t talk about my white female friends. And don’t get me started on public perception, black women, and their hair.
I think there’s a fine line (or — dare I say it? — an actual contradiction) between loving our bodies as they are: overweight or bony or short-legged or whatever… AND veering toward uncomfortable in order to look professional. PB, you have preached both sides of this issue. For example, I would probably never wear Spanx or any kind of underclothes that “hold everything in” in order to look more put together. Okay, I have a tummy that sticks out. I wish It didn’t, and I don’t especially like seeing myself from the side. But I don’t want to have a stomachache from wearing constricting undergarments. So I wear clean, well-cared for clothes that are in colors and styles that look good on me… and my stomach sticks out. Oh well, at least I’m comfortable. (And I look okay, too.)
My husband is a computer science prof at a respected university. He’s an alpha male in his field, and, despite his brains, has little or no innate sense of style. (I’ve been working on that for almost 30 years–he’s better, but not great!) However, even he figured out that he got better teaching evaluations from his undergrads if he wore a tie to class pretty consistently. Not a suit, just chinos and a button down shirt and tie.
Perhaps the female science prof should try an experiment–dress like a grown up for a while and see if perceptions change.
I began dressing professionally for exams in my major field as an undergraduate, the same semester I started to entertain graduate school as a live possibility. It was a way of saying to myself: Someday I’m going to know this material well enough to TEACH it, and on that day, I’m going to be wearing something like THIS. I’m sure it helped my level of confidence, and consequently my performance, especially after pulling an all-nighter of last minute cramming.
Obviously female science professor doesn’t feel the need for the confidence-boost of dressing the part, but as someone who is writing a column of career advice for early-career academics, it seems to me that she’s doing her audience a disservice by suggesting that that wardrobe doesn’t, or at least shouldn’t, matter. It doesn’t just affect how others perceive you; it affects how you perceive yourself.
Funny; I was just thinking the other day, perhaps because I am just starting to re-read Shakespeare’s history plays, about the three women professors I had the spring semester during which I took the required Shakespeare course (for English majors). 1973; all the profs were probably in their mid-30s. Shakespeare: kind of frumpy in boring dresses or skirts and blouses and low-heeled loafers. I zipped through those plays and wrote my papers as fast as I could. American history prof: dressed like we did on our better days: kilts and sweaters and dark opaque tights and clogs. I didn’t think of that class as a serious one. Chaucer prof: elegant dresses in beautiful fabrics, polished high heels, well-coiffed hair. To do this day, I adore Chaucer.
Kind of interesting, isn’t it? [It is. But not surprising. The origins of the word “glamour” connect to the practices of magic. She enchanted you with the enchanting Chaucer. – PB]
I’ve read Female Science Professor’s blog for years, and she would blow a razzberry at us all, I’m confident. She is a full professor in a competitive science field, at a big research university, with a thriving lab, and recently she’s been named to an administrative position. All of this means that She Has Succeeded As A Professional. Also, as I read her blog post, she is not at all saying that dressing appropriately is unimportant — merely that dressing “just like me” (whoever might be speaking) is not the right standard to use, lest we narrowmindedly dismiss people who don’t.
Respectfully, I see a lot of jumping to conclusions based on very little data in this commentary and comments. “Professor Clueless.” “Professor Oblivious.” FSP would instantly dismiss such ad hominem criticism.
For the record, I dress very nicely at all times, especially for class. My university is stylish, I live up to it, and receive many compliments on my appearance. This isn’t sour grapes.
[Thanks for writing. I think what I should be clearer about is the fact that don’t actually have any deep assumptions about FSP as an actual person. As you say, I have no real idea how she appears, based on the little bit of data she provides. My response is to her general theory — and the opportunity it gives me to speak to her attitudes. – PB]