Plato would also agree about the importance of natural fibers.
When I was still professor-ing, only a few co-workers commented on my cute outfits. The rest of ‘em gave me the kind of looks that said, “If you spend that much time worrying about your appearance, you can’t possibly be thinking deeply enough.”
It’s particularly tedious when academics buy into the old “you can’t be smart and attractive” adage. Never mind that teaching requires you to stand in front of an audience all the time. Lesser minds might think this is a reason to look your best, but what do they know?
Anyway, Plato will back me up when I say that there is nothing wrong with dressing attractively.
In the Symposium Plato/Socrates/Diotima says that admiring beautiful people is one step towards appreciating Truth and Beauty. Mind you, you can’t just sit there ogling people and call yourself a Platonist. You’ve got to keep striving until you can appreciate the Beauty that isn’t physically obvious, the infamous inner beauty, and then, finally, universal Beauty in and of itself. The ogling is just a baby step. (So FYI, Megan Fox, looking hot isn’t enough to justify your existence).
I figure it goes both ways: if others can use external beauty to work towards understanding inner beauty, why not help them along by translating your own inner beauty into something visible? My inner beauty, for example, dislikes ruffles and often expresses itself in blue.
This is why What Not to Wear is, like, totally Platonic. Stacy London is one stringent Platonist, refusing to accept anything less than the best version of the person she sees. As she always emphasizes, it’s not about kowtowing to Vogue magazine and its imbecile stick figures; it’s about being your best you. Plato would be down with that.
Supposedly smart people are masters at expecting, nay, insisting that people won’t judge you by your appearance, mostly because they’re positive that they can’t be swayed by the demons of worldly attractiveness. (Yet, I must add, these are the same ones targeted — successfully — by hot students who need to jiggle their way into an “A-”). This supposed apathy towards the external world is really just an excuse for judging people who do care about clothes.
When I was teaching, I felt constant pressure to dress as a “serious” (i.e. unattractive) academic. But I never saw the problem with looking good and being smart. And hey, I had Plato on my side.
Some days, I think it really did come down to choosing between my awesome wardrobe and my job. It was an easy decision, though. My clothes won. By yards.
UPDATE: Dr. Shiraz (who would now like to be known as Dr. $hiraz) left me this note after I posted:
You’re spot on. I’m just loving this post and can’t wait to pass it around to my colleagues. Keep writing!
Thanks, and thanks for commenting! I think this is a pretty common experience, but the problem is that no one is going to admit they’re guilty of judging by appearances.
What boxified morons would dare to tell you how to dress as an academic?! Fuck them (pardon the Greek) – and never apologize!
To be fair, no one said it outright, and I think many of them didn’t even realize what their faces were doing. Also, that kind of reaction isn’t just academics; I’ve gotten it across the board. I think it’s a weird form of sexism, where if you have any sort of figure (not even scantily clad, just there at all) people feel they have the right to take you less seriously. It’s annoying, though, because it basically comes down to your boobs giving you less authority.
Here is how to dress for lectures:
Eddie Izzard was always one of my favorite teaching inspirations; I felt that if I had to stand in front of audiences, I wanted a sparkly lame suit too.
Love this one, I can totally relate!
Yeah, I think it’s a teacher thing across the board. There’s some weird Victorian standard that applies, like teachers should be covering up their ankles and wrists or something…
I just discussed the Victorian standard idea the other day. I’m tattooed and going back for more (suck it school!), so the constant battle for me is how to ‘look good’ with a 3/4 length sleeve wardrobe. My choice entirely. The conversation always heads the philosophical direction–what’s the difference between a meaningful tasteful piece of art on my arm and the same image framed on my classroom wall?
Not that I’d go sleeveless in the classroom (armpits in the wild…Yikes!) but not having to wear a hoodie during the summer months while stopping into work would be nice.
Yeah, I know a lot of teachers with tattoos, and that is popular debate. It’s obvious that having tattoos is becoming far more acceptable in the outside world, but it seems like standards in education are a century behind. Seriously, though, you’d think it would show the kiddies you were not to be trifled with… I don’t see the difference between a tattoo and art myself, nor do my friends, but they’re not going to bare their arms until after tenure.
I am so glad I found this delightful post. I belong to a Philosophy Club (here in rural southern England) and last summer we needed to hire a new tutor. Two of us volunteered for this task. I advertised at our nearest University , and both of us interviewed. We chose a man who turned out to be excellent. Later the two of us admitted to each other that we had picked him on the basis that we like the shoes he wore when interviewed.
It turns out that our tutor lives with a fashion designer who considers him to be her ‘muse’.
Sadly, he is now going to a teaching post in the USA.
That is a great story! Shoes do tell you a lot about people, I think.
I’d hope your tutor does well. The conservatism of departments varies between universities and disciplines. Classics, unfortunately, is one of the least fun, but philosophy seems to have gotten on board with the modern world. Also, I’d say men get a free pass on the fashion issue, much more so than women.
Thanks for the comment!
Good post! Luckily, I work in a job where people pretty much wear what they want everyday, and no one really thinks anything of it. I’d hate to be in that position–just because I imagine that I’d be wearing too much structured clothing or something.
Also–have you ever seen the original British version of ‘What Not to Wear’ with Trinny and Susanna?
Or Gok Wan’s ‘How to Look Good Naked?’
I’ve seen quite a few episodes of the original WNTW, and I have Trinny and Susannah’s books. I like their style a lot but they sometimes seem to indulge in a bit of body-hating towards themselves! Stacy London has admitted to having an eating disorder while working for Vogue, and I think this gives her a slightly more compassionate approach.
Oddly enough, I was in London in 2009 and caught the conclusion of How to Look Good Naked. Gok Wan was awesome, and I was blown away by the show and fact that a Classics major won (I just don’t see either happening in the US). I only wish the winner’s idea (that a warning appear at the bottom of digitally manipulated fashion photos) had caught on!
Great post…it makes me happy to know that other female professionals feel the same pressure to downplay being attractive. I HATE the suits we are forced to wear, but I have been looking at Ann Taylor and Express stuff. (These companies make suits that are somewhat cute.)
Ann Taylor and Express are definitely good. I’m also a big fan of Bluefly — this jacket, one of my favorites of all time, was about the only thing that kept me going some days. Bottom line: if you feel fabulous, no one can argue you out of it!
Ann Taylor – great shirts and little black dresses in various colors. Express – great pants and jeans. Zara – great everything, including stuff for the men in your lives. I am extremely picky on shoes and purses though. Any suggestions?
I’ve always liked the look of Zara but never lived anywhere where there is one, or good stores in general. Hence the internet thing. Shoes I’m not good on because I have big-ass feet. I hit DSW and look for the size 10 Steve Maddens and cute Aerosoles. I know a lot of people like Zappos, though? And I’m the worst at bags — lose things too easily when I switch, so tend to be very minimal. But my usual online haunts have both shoes and bags (Smartbargains, Bluefly, Haute Look — the latter sort of annoying, watch out for its return policy.) There are a lot of bags, some of them hideously expensive, but some not!
You know what is worse than the academic world when it comes to dress codes? The corporate world. I did some work as a paralegal at a law firm and came to appreciate the freedom of the academia. True, there were some restrictions in the academia – e.g., I was frowned upon when I went to my lectures in my Pilates workout attire (I did it anyways – it was clean). But oh my god – at this law firm they had a rule against blue jeans, can you imagine??? So I had to pull out my gray and black jeans, stuff them into over-the-knee boots (to hide the jeanhood) and wear a SHIRT over it all. Hideous!
No, I actually can’t imagine a working life without blue jeans. That was my one comfort in teaching!
Awesome. Thanks for sharing :]
Kelly
http://www.PaperExploits.wordpress.com
Thanks, Amanda! Yes, DSW and Zappos. My husband shops from Zappos (motorcycle things). Will write more later…
This post is awesome! Looking cute at work is such a boost! Except when I have to change into scrubs
Manufacturing regulations don’t let personnel in the facility to wear jewelery . . . save for a wedding band or a medical bracelet, and I have neither. Not saying that I wish I had a medical bracelet, ha–just that it really is sad to not be able to accessorize. But I guess there are worse problems.
Thanks. And it’s true, some days you need that boost to get by. Maybe you should just claim you’re married…
Thank you for this! Once, when I was a TA, an older professor gave me some excellent advice: Figure out what kind of teacher you are and work to do your best at being that kind of teacher. Now, I suspect that she was talking about pedagogical modes (are you a lecturer? A techie?), but I took it in a much broader sense. So, what kind of teacher am I? I am a petite young female who loves clothes, punk rock, and stupid jokes. I am outgoing, not at all formal, and prone to oversharing. I love what I do and I love my students, and if I feel like rolling into class in jeans and flip-flops, I do. This all works out because I, in your words, own it. I am confident both in my knowledge of the material and in the fact that I know there is no professor on campus who will work harder to help his or her students learn. Plus, I think I’m damn funny. My students quickly figure this out. I am a total ham, and I think my ability to perform keeps my students engaged. When I was younger, I kept trying to be more formal, more “professorial”, more authoratitive, but it read so artificially that I only undermined my credibility. It also kind of sucked the joy out of the classroom because I was always trying to not be myself. Now, I just say hell with it – I am who I am and if I have to change that, I’ll find another job. My students learn a tremendous amount, my student and faculty observations are stellar, and many students follow me from class to class even though I’m known as a hard grader. I have found that you don’t need to worry about authority if you have confidence because authority will follow confidence.
I just re-read this and realized that I sound really obnoxious. I got a bit carried away in my “you go girl” mood. I’m not quite as self-congratulatory as I come off in the initial post.
Hey, cut it out right now — don’t ever apologize for being confident. Your “obnoxious” is some blowhard male prof’s standard way of existing, so you may as well turn it up to 11.
Yay punk! And for me the only downside to being funny and stylish was the whole “not fitting in” thing, which had ramifications on the job market. Sincerely hoping your situation is better!
As someone who runs a cosmetics and skincare website for academics, and who is also a devoted WNTW fan, I think I love you. Why have I not found your blog before?
Cosmetics? Academics?! The feeling is mutual! And why didn’t I think of that?!
It’s funny to me when folks claim that dressing badly, or sloppily, or carelessly, is somehow less of a decision than dressing well (and by “well” I mean–with character, with enjoyment). I mean, let’s be thoughtful about this. Very, very few of us are so consumed by Thinking that we lose all self-consciousness. As you yourself have mentioned, good teaching IS performance; some play one sort of role, some another, but we each decide, and spend time deciding, what face to put on. Clothing is costume, it’s adornment, it’s pleasure!–it’s one of the simplest and easiest ways to get into character, teaching character or not. It’s about making creativity and enjoyment of our plain old human beings, whether it’s frumpy or sloppy or punk or couture. Or, at least, it sometimes is, and imho, should always be. Dress to celebrate. However that feels for you. Yes! (Urm, I’m a new fan, prof myself, and TOTALLY thrilled about your blog, can you tell?)
‘Clothing is costume, it’s adornment, it’s pleasure!’ Couldn’t have said it better myself, and I don’t know why you can’t be smart at both clothing and (e.g) astrophysics. And thanks for reading and being thrilled — please come back often!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Alisa T. Jackson, AK. AK said: @highheeledprof Not superficial in the least — have written about this: http://bit.ly/ec4ZWH. Love WNTW! [...]
Nice post! I like your attitude. I look forward to reading more from you
Just found your site, and this post makes me think you might be amused by: http://www.academichic.com/
I’m not into clothes, but it’s more of a money issue for me. Though, I prefer simple neutrals because I am totally into accessories!
I do like Academchic. And as one friend suggested, anyone who has to teach should get a clothing budget so they’re not trying to look authoritative in Old Navy flip flops.
Eh, I kind of like the whole not having to look super sexy thing that comes with academia. I only wish that (like the male professors) it would be appropriate for me to wear hiking boots every day after tenure. Now that would be something to look forward to. Really, it’s the shoes that kill me. I accept everything else about the clothes. But I would rather be in jeans and a T-shirt.
Nobody has to look super sexy, and I totally agree that jeans are the best. I’d be perfectly happy if there were a genuine acceptance of variety in academia or anywhere else. But as it stands, not so much.