Flip-flopping on equal rights

Here's an in-depth look at a vexing question: Are flip-flops damaging your career? While I'm self employed (and thus don't face such workplace pressures), I'm always intrigued by such cultural phenomena, but to my dismay, the article revealed a distinctly sexist bias:

An online survey conducted for retailers Old Navy and Gap found flip-flops topped the list of wardrobe items that college and high school students planned to wear to work this summer.

More than 31 percent of women said flip-flops were the single "must have" item for work this summer.

But many companies disagree.

"The dress code says no beach wear and flip-flops are considered beach wear," said a spokeswoman for BNP Paribas.

What about men? I mean, we're not talking about stiletto heels here. Lots of men wear flip-flops (at the beach or just "wherever"), and thus it would seem that any ban on beach wear would apply just as equally to men as it would to women.

Is there something I'm not getting? Surely there isn't a double standard for flip-flops?

Or is there?

Intrigued as I was clueless, I thought I'd visit the blogosphere's leading expert on the subject. Sure enough, the Manolo, he did not disappoint:

The Manolo’s internet friend the Miss Meghan she is, as usual, exactly correct. Unless you are working as the waitress at the beach cafe, or are the Jimmy Buffet, you should not be wearing the flip-flops to your place of professional employment.
I'm inclined to agree, but I'm still wondering whether there's a double standard.

Not that it matters to me personally (as I have no boss who can fire me), but I never wear flip-flops, and I don't even own them. But if I worked for a law firm and wore flip-flops to work with a suit, I'm just wondering . . . If they fired me but didn't fire women for wearing them, couldn't I claim discrimination? Better yet, suppose I walked into court that way. I distinctly remember a California lawyer who was threatened with contempt by a judge for wearing tennis shoes into court. But flip-flops? That might mean an immediate contempt citation -- for a male lawyer, that is. That's because such things are seen as inherently disrespectful when worn by men.

Not, apparently, when worn by women.

And not according to the Seattle school board, when worn by children:

The board voted Tuesday to drop a proposed flip-flop ban on grounds that it would be impossible to enforce.
Impossible to enforce? (Maybe for a school that thinks "future time orientation" is racism. . .)

Two anti-flip-flop board members changed their minds after hearing appeals from parents and students. The panel had taken a preliminary vote on flip-flops two weeks ago.

"I don't see myself how flip-flops are disrespectful," Board President Evelyn Castellar said.

I doubt she'd feel the same way if a male school board lawyer showed up wearing them, and that's because context still matters. It varies according to age, and according to sex, whether anyone likes it or not.

I've struggled with school dress codes and double standards before, and while they aren't the same (legally or practically) as workplace dress codes, the uproar over flip-flops worn by women is a tacit admission of a similar double standard. Inherently, I think there just is a double standard, and there's no getting rid of it. Hence the flip-flop division. On men, they're slovenly; on women, they're stylish. The difference lies not in the footwear, but in the difference between the sexes.

Of course, whether flip-flops are allowed and whether they're a good career move are two different issues.

I'm wondering whether it would be more "discriminatory" to not allow them at all, or to allow them, but engage in subtle discrimination against women who wear them as opposed to women who don't.

(Bad career moves lead to such subtle forms of discrimination.)

AFTERTHOUGHT: It occurs to me that my hypothetical example of a man wearing flip-flops with a suit might be overkill. Even in a less formal -- or informal -- workplace, a guy showing up in flip-flops is going to look like a slob or a jerk, while a woman wearing the same shoes won't. (Similarly, a waitress wearing flip-flops would be seen as "casual" and maybe "cute," while a waiter in flip-flops could very well cause patrons to lose their appetites -- even call the Health Department.)

There is nothing fair about it, and I don't want to spend time worrying about whether this is rational or logical. Please! Even if I wrote another essay, I doubt I could fully explain the intricacies of sex-based perceptions and judgments.

posted by Eric on 06.29.06 at 01:13 PM





TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://classicalvalues.com/cgi-bin/pings.cgi/3778






Comments

Flip-flops, on either men or women, are pool/patio/beach/weekend wear. Period.

They don't even qualify as "casual Friday"

I question the upbringing of any female over 16 who would wear flip-flops to work... REGARDLESS of how many sequins or crystals were glued on 'em!

Goodness, my Grandma Mildred...who adhered to the dresscode that one didn't shop downtown, or go to church, without being properly dressed including stockings, pumps, hat and gloves ... is spinning in her grave.

She was also seared into my memory the advice, if she knew my slip strap had broken, "You must mend that immediately. Think of how embarrassed you would be if you were in an accident and they undressed you in the ER and saw the sorry state of your underwear!"

:-)

Darleen   ·  June 29, 2006 04:08 PM

They're stupid in just about any case.

Real shoes were an enormous advance in civilization. The feet are one of the most sensitive and important parts of the human body, and they deserve all the protection we can give them. Only morons don't know this.

Billy Beck   ·  June 29, 2006 04:18 PM

Darleen, Billy, welcome! I think you're both right. I'm of two minds about flip-flops; if adults want to wear them (absent an employment rule) that's their business, but I think they're extremely tacky as well as dangerous for the feet.

I wouldn't, however, send a child if I had one to a school that let kids wear flip-flops.

Eric Scheie   ·  June 29, 2006 05:57 PM

Oddly enough, I think the only person I've ever seen wear flip flops to work is a man. He also had on cotton shorts and a tie-died shirt. And a beard that looked like it belonged on a member of ZZ Top.

Crazy software engineers...

silvermine   ·  June 29, 2006 06:37 PM

I've never noticed a double-standard or heard about one. Maybe its a regional thing - I'm in the Midwest/South

Adam   ·  June 29, 2006 07:24 PM

I have observed the astounding spectacle of flat-brained idiots roaring down the highway at eighty miles an hour on racing motorcyles, wearing them, and quite uncharitably hoped that reality would teach them the immediate lesson.

On the other hand, justice isn't about "chairty", so what the hell? To hell with it. If I came across the crash where one of these dopes was laying there with his feet scrubbed off up to the ankles, I would do my best to help, but I wouldn't feel sorry for him.

Billy Beck   ·  June 29, 2006 08:29 PM

I feel naked without steel covering my toes. I only have one pair of shoes and I've worn them every day, everywhere for the last 4 1/2 years.

Er, strike that. I do have one pair of dress shoes for the occasional wedding. But barring those..

Mick   ·  June 30, 2006 02:38 AM

I hate flip-flops. I can't walk in them for more than a block, and I don't want to see the toes of anyone older than five. I do prefer to work at places where such things are allowed, though, because it means no one's going to get on my case for wearing jeans and boots instead of a skirt and heels when there's 6" of snow outside.

I hate the double standard that says "cute casual" is OK for women's working attire because it just reinforces the old belief that women who work are not SERIOUS like men are--jobs are just to kill time until they meet Mr. Rich Man and never work again (and recent stats on divorce and poverty whould tell us how well that works out...). While I suspect that's true for anyone who shows up to the office in sequined flip-flops, it's not true of all of us.

Radish   ·  July 2, 2006 12:36 PM


March 2007
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
        1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30 31

ANCIENT (AND MODERN)
WORLD-WIDE CALENDAR


Search the Site


E-mail




Classics To Go

Classical Values PDA Link



Archives




Recent Entries



Links



Site Credits