heretyk@abnjh.UUCP (S. Heretyk) (02/08/84)
Betty Lehan Harragan has an interesting chapter on dress in "Games Mother Never Taught You". Basically don't dress sexy, buy shoes you can walk in (foot crippling shoes have been a favorite method to keep women in their place), buy clothes with pockets (get rid of your pocketbook), and save your perfume for night when it can perform its function of making you a desirable sex object. Sometimes it's hard to find a blouse that you can't see through - how can women be respected if they walk around showing off their underwear? Also high collar blouses are in style which look nice under a jacket as opposed to open collars. Also it makes a replacement for a tie - as do necklaces (not funky ones). On women wearing ties Betty Harrigan states "Never wear a man's tie. Never, never, never. A man's tie is a penis symbol. No woman with any self-respect wants to walk around advertising 'I'm pretending I have a penis'" Shelley Heretyk
ecs@inuxd.UUCP (Eileen Schwab) (02/09/84)
Red Sonja (?) has reported an inverted U relationship between
dress and perceived competence. I have noted the beginning of
this curve, but not the end (probably because I don't go 'all
out' in dressing).
When I first began teaching (large intro psych courses),
I would wear pressed slacks, shirts, and a jacket or vest. When I
received my evaluations, most of the complaints concerned my appearance
(Some concerned my NYC accent, and a few concerned teaching
effectiveness). The students complained about my lack of makeup, nail
polish, and styled (curled) hair. They objected to the fact that I
wore pants rather than dresses. They complained about my socks <I
would have sworn I never wore the electric pink ones! |-)> and shoes.
I was shocked and infuriated.
Nevertheless, I changed my appearance. I began to wear suits,
heels, and a bun. Upon checking around, I learned that several
female professors had similar evaluation experiences.
NOT ONE male professor did. This included males who wore well-broken-in
blue jeans while teaching. It still makes me mad.
/\
/V V\ Eileen Schwab
/ ^ ^ \
\______/ "Some like it HOT!"
aeq@pucc-h (Jeff Sargent) (02/14/84)
A friend of mine works as a "consultant" for the Computing Center here. (A "consultant" in this case is one who sits in a little office at one of our sites and answers questions from users who need assistance using the computers.) Alternatively, here is her definition of "consultant": consultant n. [From con "to defraud, dupe, swindle," or, possibly, French con (vulgar) "a person of little merit" + sult elliptical form of "insult."] A tipster disguised as an oracle, especially one who has learned to decamp at high speed in spite of the large briefcase and heavy wallet. Anyway, she sent me the following and asked me to post it to net.women for her (since consultants are not yet allowed to post to the net): --- Begin article I have noticed an inverted u relationship for the amount of goodies (i.e. cosmetics, drees) I have and the way the users relate to me ( relate used to be a perfectly good word before the 'pop' psychologists got ahold of it). When I am dressed and 'made-up' as I am today (no make-up, jeans and shirt), the users seem to think I'm just another user, and not, as we say in the business ' an authority figure'. When I put on a bit of the Clinque (trdmk Estee Lauder....I'm not planning on wrinkling thank you) and got up a notch on clothes (cords, reasonable sweaters, that sort of thing), all of a sudden they recognize me as 'the consultant'. However, (especially if I'm team consulting) if I take it one step further, then most of the users think I am 'the consultant's girlfriend' and won't approach me. There appears to be a constant relationship between make-up and perceived ability at the computer to a certain point, which then becomes a negative relationship ( as make-up amounts go up, perceived ability goes down). I haven't seen a similar relationship between the male consultants, and lets say, mode of dress.... There's a paper in here somewhere.... --- End article Any responses may be posted to net.women (anyone here can READ news) or mailed to (I think this works): Red Sonja ...pur-ee!pucc-k:afo