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ClothesMaketheLawyer 7 - 11 May 2008 - Main.ClaireOSullivan
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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? | | | To be fair, though, I have no real professional experience whatsoever, which I guess makes me totally unqualified to talk about professional etiquette.
-- JuliaS - 11 May 2008 | |
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Kate, I think my question may not have been clear enough. I'm trying to figure out why it is important to talk about the connection between class and clothing at all, when to my mind it is only a very small sector of the population that is even aware of the significance of fabrics, colours and collars as discussed in class. If the majority of people don't even know these rules, then we can't be held back by not conforming to them (unless, I suppose, we are interested in breaking into the ruling class). So they don't seem to contribute in any meaningful way to the rigidity of class distinctions (except at the very top) or the ability of individuals to move up or down in the socioeconomic strata.
Although- while I'm not particularly worried about wearing the "right" or "wrong" outfit to an interview, because I'm not convinced that it matters (for the reasons I gave above)- is it really fair to admonish people for wanting to be dressed appropriately? Whether or not we like it, dress codes exist in pretty much every job, and rejecting them seems like a fairly meaningless form of rebellion that could potentially result in the frustration of our professional goals.
-- ClaireOSullivan - 11 May 2008 | | | |
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