| | |
|
ClothesMaketheLawyer 14 - 12 May 2008 - Main.AdamCarlis
|
| |
| META TOPICPARENT | name="WebPreferences" |
|---|
I am having trouble understanding what is at the crux of the discussion, in class and in the comments on Mina's paper, about clothes and class. I see that we categorize each other according to socioeconomic status, based on our clothes. Yet, Eben observes that it is a rare law student who dresses properly for an interview (I, for instance, know next to nothing about suits, let alone the nuances of buttons and collars). So we can assume that many incorrectly attired law students are offered jobs anyway, and learn to dress properly for their respective jobs once they already have them. It follows then, that I wear will depend on what I do, and not vice versa. If I change jobs, my clothes will change. So if clothes are not a bar to raising one's socioeconomic status, but rather an indication of that status once attained, where and when does the relationship between clothes and class become important? | | | My problem with the answers I came up with was: if we assume that class is defined mostly by job, and we don't start "dressing the part" (because we don't know how to) until we already have the part, then clothes are not a bar, or a guaranteed entry, to any particular class. So it would seem that clothes bear very little on our ability to move within the social strata. But I may be making too much of that. What do other people think about this?
-- ClaireOSullivan - 12 May 2008 | |
>
> |
Class is not defined mostly by job. Certainly some jobs are dispositive, but many are not.
A big law firm hires you to make money off of your labor. They don't particularly care whether you went to Andover and have relatives who came over on the Mayflower. However, they will - as we all do - make instant judgments about you. One judgment will be about class. (How will this person interact with our clients?) This is based on more than clothing, but it will be the first thing noticed. It is true, perhaps, that initial impressions may wear away after months or years on the job, but it will likely take more than "dressing the part" to counteract initial impressions. Clothes may not be a bar to admission, but they are a powerful signifier of intangible characteristics most employers (for better or worse) seek in their future employees (and partners).
Quite possibly Kate is right and we should reject the formalities of dress. I think there may be two problems here (this coming from a guy who wears an undershirt and a black hoodie every day). First, you have to know the rules in order to break them as some will certainly matter more than others. In almost any conservative circle, one can get away with wearing a cheap suit that fits well, but likely couldn’t get away with wearing a cut away collar and a full-windsor knot tied so that the tie rests above the belly button. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do it; you should just know that you are breaking the “rule” when you do. Second, it actually has to be worth breaking the rule. If you, like Kate (and I put myself in this category as well) take great pride in how your dress reflects you as a person, then you may be more willing to take risks with dress as the consequences (not getting a job you think you want or going to a client meeting you were hoping to attend) do not outweigh the loss of autonomy. However, if you couldn’t care less about what you wear, then breaking the rules just to break them seems pointless.
Finally, this isn’t just about big law firms. When I hired teachers I looked very closely at what they wore to the interview. It told me a great deal about who they were as a person and how they viewed the job they were seeking. Certainly dress was not dispositive, but it was important.
-- AdamCarlis - 12 May 2008 | | |
\ No newline at end of file |
|
|
|
|
This site is powered by the TWiki collaboration platform.
All material on this collaboration platform is the property of the contributing authors.
All material marked as authored by Eben Moglen is available under the license terms CC-BY-SA version 4.
|
|
| | |