If it seems that the new dress code for Montana’s state legislature is a throwback to the days of Mad Men, it’s because it’s a throwback to the days of Mad Men.
Montana has never been known as a black-tie place. Governors wear cowboy boots and bolo ties, and people joke that a tuxedo is a pair of black jeans and a sport coat. But this winter, when lawmakers arrive at the State Capitol, they will have to abide by a new dress code: No more jeans. No casual Fridays. And female lawmakers “should be sensitive to skirt lengths and necklines.”
Republican leaders who approved the guidelines say they are simply trying to bring a businesslike formality to a State Legislature of ranchers, farmers and business owners that meets for only four months every other year. But the dress code has set off a torrent of online mockery, and is being pilloried by Democratic women as a sexist anachronism straight from the days of buggies and spittoons.
“The sergeant-at-arms could be standing there with a ruler, measuring hemlines and cleavage,” said Jenny Eck, a Democratic House member.
Ms. Eck said she was leaving a health care forum in Helena, the capital, on Monday when one of her Republican colleagues peered at her and told her that he was glad to see she was dressed appropriately.
“It just creates this ability to scrutinize women,” Ms. Eck said. “It makes it acceptable for someone who’s supposed to be my peer and my equal to look me up and down and comment on what I’m wearing. That doesn’t feel right.”
Yeah, commenting on a female colleague being dressed appropriately isn’t creepy as hell or anything. Republicans sure like to re-live the “good old days” whenever possible, when women were “dressed appropriately” and stuff. Why don’t you find that cute new young page and swat her ass hello while you’re at it, guys.
Jesus.
japa21
Waiting to see how Zandar’s stalker attacks him for this one.
Belafon
@japa21: It’s obviously a racist hit piece because only white men care about skirt lengths.
Punchy
/quickly scans intertoobs for qualifications to be sergeant-at-arms, compares to current CV
japa21
@Belafon: Damn, I bet you are right on target.
BGinCHI
You let women get away with jeans at work, the next thing you know they are going to want to wear blouses during pr0n.
Bobby B.
Every place I worked in had that kind of dress code. Are legislators above “the law” or beneath “the contempt”?
Librarian
It’s part of the GOP obsession with symbolism. It’s ok to start illegal wars and torture and other evil shit, as long as you’re wearing a suit and tie while doing it.
Citizen_X
Once again, right-wingers take everything that is actually cool about red states, and fuck it up.
Face
Ms. Eck, while you may view your fellow GOPers as your peers, welcome to 2014, where your GOP colleagues certainly don’t/won’t/never will view Democratic women in the same way.
Naivety is strong in Montana.
scav
Anybody grab a set of male legislator’s photos and post them in a fashion-page matrix for knowledgable public critique? A rating and measurement of manboobs and paunch is probably far overdue, especially as they are claiming to represent the very best of Manly ‘Mercan Western Cowboy Perfection Incarnate.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@BGinCHI: Spew warning next time por favor.
On a lighter note, the completely unoriginal but totally appropriate title to the sports dude of our local rag:
I no longer watch but I can read and cackle.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Not creepy. Bullying.
BGinCHI
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I’m just trying to Win the Morning.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Bobby B.: In this case above the law. It’s a crime everywhere, federal level on down, to interfere with a sitting Congressperson “performing or en route to performing their duties”. No matter their state of dress or undress.
Frankensteinbeck
Yep. Beware the Boy’s Club mentality, which creates a semi-reasonable sounding rule that can be ignored for men and exploited to constantly judge women on their sexuality. It’s rather like Stop And Frisk.
scav
@BGinCHI: Morning Sickness. Are you trying to announce something? Younger sibling or book?
Lavocat
What I love and find most amazing is the complete and utter lack of self-awareness.
I’m sure they would all profess to being non-sexist men, but, that women simply need to know how to dress.
And who better to tell women how to dress than a mansplainin’ man!?
I’m sure they feel that if someone thinks their attitudes are sexist, then THAT PERSON must be a sexist.
It never ends with these morans.
BGinCHI
@scav: I finished the new book a few months ago. Looking for a new agent now…
Mike in NC
Just part of the ongoing GOP program to return the country to the 1950s. To be followed by mandatory school prayer and segregated drinking fountains.
mai naem mobile
Who gives a shit? I am so sick and tired of this shit that just distracts from whats important. Makes me wonder in what way some corporation(s) are planning on screwing the Montana taxpayer/resident (fossil fuel raping of Montana land?) that we are discussing this.
scav
@BGinCHI: Congrats are indeed in order then! Much rather it be the book as your physically producing the other option in-house (as it were), while scientifically exciting, traditionally carries worrying portents.
Frankensteinbeck
@Lavocat:
Human psychology is fascinating. I doubt seriously many of them thought consciously about harassing women, but the legislation sounds good to them. That feeling they get when they comment on a woman’s clothing must be righteousness and propriety, not lust or cruelty, right? And they don’t know how women feel. If told, it wouldn’t make sense to them because they’re unwilling to put forth the effort (and it is an effort) of empathy. So it must be women who are unreasonable, a thought that also feels good.
EDIT – I just realized I described everything Bill O’Reilly ever says or does.
sharl
OT: Comrade Mary, if you’re reading, I need an official ruling. Is it just because I have been absurdly influenced by SCTV’s McKenzie Brothers, or is Wab Kinew‘s voice and on-air manner the Most Canadarian Thing ever?!? I’ve been listening to him on Q – he has been one of several temporary hosts since Jian Ghomeshi was sacked for sexual harrassment and abuse, and general gross pervitude – and I like the way he conducts interviews. Quite different from what I’m used to hearing down here in Murika.
Citizen_X
@Punchy:
After that attack in Ottowa? I think the main qualification for Canadian sergeants-at-arms is “be a serious badass.”
Mnemosyne
@Bobby B.:
Do you live in Montana? Dress codes are very regional, and appropriate work attire in New York looks ridiculously uptight in, say, Los Angeles.
When my husband and I visited Hawaii (Kauai) last month, he wanted an aloha shirt, but one that he would feel comfortable wearing on the mainland (Southern California). The clerk who sold it to him said something like, “That’s a nice one — that’s the kind of shirt men wear to work around here.”
kindness
Democratic women should show up wearing a Burka. That’s piss ’em off even by obeying the guidelines.
Roger Moore
@Bobby B.:
Which means precisely nothing, unless you’ve worked in a Legislature before, because different workplaces have and need different dress codes.
coloradoblue
@Mike in NC: “Just part of the ongoing GOP program to return the country to the 1950s.”
And then a return to 1919 (national suffrage/voting for women was 1920). Hell, there are repub women who think women shouldn’t have the right to vote. Then maybe a return to the 1850’s.
I don’t know how many women there are in Montana government but every one of them should tell these a**holes exactly where to go.
tamiasmin
“…a State Legislature of ranchers, farmers and business owners that meets for only four months every other year.”
There’s the answer staring us in the face: have the men meet in one year and the women in the other. Sort of temporal rest rooms.
Paul in KY
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Bad day for the Browns. Those Bengal players seem to get a real kick doing the Cash Money ™ sign.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
I’m reminded of a comment my father made about the dress code at his work: he had heard that to be successful you should dress like your boss, but he just couldn’t bring himself to wear flip-flops to work. Given who he worked for, I know that the essentials of the story are correct. He probably didn’t actually want to dress like his boss, but the idea that a boss at his workplace would dress that was was completely believable. It was a company where, when the founders were still actively involved in the business, employees were encouraged to talk about them by their first names rather than the last names on the business.
srv
@Roger Moore: My corps sales guys probably average $2-3K per suit. A director, at an area meeting my first day at work, threatened to fire me if I ever wore a tie in the lab again.
She was in warmups. It went downhill from there until the .com era ended and someone decided there should be minumums.
PurpleGirl
When I met N, he was wearing jeans and a regular shirt, no tie. His hair was long and loose. No one at the gathering believed that he worked for IBM until he took out his ID card. IBM has been known in the past for the formality of their employees’ dress. The key here was that N worked in operating systems research and didn’t have client content on an every day basis. Most of the researchers dressed the way N did. (Although when he met with clients or went to conferences he had several 3-piece suits and ties for the occasion.) OTOH, when I had an IBM Selectric and a repair contract, one of the repair guys (Lance) wore 3-piece pin-stripe suits. It often depends on if you have client contact or not.
Roger Moore
@srv:
And well they should. Ties do not belong in the lab, where they’re nothing but a nuisance. If you ever feel the temptation to tuck your tie into your shirt so it doesn’t dangle, you shouldn’t wear a tie in the first place. I’m the safety officer for my department, so I’m in charge of enforcing our dress code, and my big problem is with sandals. I keep telling people that it’s OK to wear sandals to and from work, but you need to change into closed toed shoes before going into the lab.
Roger Moore
@PurpleGirl:
It also depends on who the clients are. IBM sales and repair people were mostly dealing with office types who were themselves dressed formally, so it was important for the IBM people to dress similarly to blend in. A Montana state legislator is supposed to spend time talking with ordinary Montanans, which means they need to be dressed in a way that shows they understand where their constituents are coming from. If they think their constituents will prefer to deal with legislators and staffers who are dressed in Montana casual, it shouldn’t be up to some legislative functionary to tell them to do otherwise.
WereBear
@Roger Moore: I never mind obeying sensible dress codes. Wasn’t the bow tie invented for scientists and engineers, thus its geeky cred?
I’ve worked in NYC back when stockings and hair in a bun was required for women, and suits for men. But I’ve also worked in more informal places where dressing that way would make you look stupid and net a hostile reaction.
Which is what the idiots messing with the Montana legislature should get.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@coloradoblue:
Funny story — like several other Western states, Montana gave women the right to vote before the 19th Amendment was passed.
Ruckus
@Bobby B.:
My “dress” code for every place I’ve ever worked for the last 52 yrs except one was and is shorts and t shirt. Unless it is under 60 deg then long pants and a sweatshirt. And you know what? My work output is pretty damn good both in quantity and quality. A dress code that does any more than covers the naughty bits is bullshit. You’re shocked at how I dress? That’s your fucking problem.
Barbara
The range of weather temperatures where it is actually not too hot and not too cold to feel comfortable in a skirt/dress with pantyhose isn’t all that wide to begin with here in the southern mid west, and even narrower in Montana.
While doesn’t get sweltering hot there in the summer it does stay chilly far into the spring and start getting chilly again early in the autumn. Let me put it this way: when my cousin from Montana came to my son’s bar mitzvah in Ohio the second week of June a few years ago, she said she’d been in fleece before she got on the plane. Does that sound like to you that those women state senators and representatives are going to be at all comfortable?
Wag
Am I the only one who saw “Mad Men” and read it a “Mad Max” instead. I picutured the Speaker dressed as Humungous.
srv
@Roger Moore: Oh, I meant the kind of ‘lab’ in the PurpleGirl sense of the lab.
Visceral
@Mike in NC:
The sad thing is that both union membership and top marginal tax rates peaked in the 1950s.