Monday
Feb062006
T-shirts in the Capitol
Monday, February 6, 2006 at 3:00AM
By Ellen Ratner
The day after the State of the Union speech, the newspapers and TV news shows were filled with the stories of the arrest of Cindy Sheehan wearing an anti-war T-shirt and Congressman Bill Young's wife being asked to leave for wearing a pro-war T-shirt. My first reaction was that no one should wear T-shirts in the Capitol.
If you have ever walked through Washington, D.C., during the tourist season, you will see T-shirts, short shorts, lots of stomach showing on people who have too much stomach to begin with and other assorted eye invasions.
As I was writing this, I looked through an old scrapbook with photos of American life taken between the 1920s and 1950s. At one point, I had to put the book down in amazement as I saw how different we, that is, our ancestors, used to look. It wasn't only that the smiling young people looked thinner and somewhat healthier – they were thinner, as has been documented by many recent studies. And despite being a much poorer country – dress was plainer and simpler – we nevertheless seemed neater people, better turned out and much more certain of the line between public and private space.
This line between public and private spaces has now become completely blurred. It only adds to the torrent of vulgarity that already overwhelms so much of our society. What I saw in those photographs of crowded downtown streets, office interiors, on airlines, in the dining cars of the Pennsylvania Central Railroad, standing in lines at movie theaters – in short, public spaces – were Americans dressed appropriately. Sorry, Charlie, but there's just no other word for it.
The pictures of people in their homes or grilling in their backyards, on vacations, or watching television, in short, private spaces – dress was somewhat more relaxed – T-shirts, shorts, cutoffs, blue jeans and sandals during warm weather. Yet photos of the same people taken in slightly different circumstances – in public spaces, on the street, shopping in stores, hailing a taxi – reveals completely different outfits.
Women were usually in dresses and occasionally wore slacks (but much more formal than what passes for "slacks" today); blouses, yes, but never T-shirts; open-toed in warm weather but never sandals – not on a public street. And men wore suits, often ties to places that, today, would never see a coat and tie – ball games, "casual" restaurants and almost always when traveling. Even when not in ties, men were much more conscientious about appearing in public spaces than they are today.
And if the line was bright for adults, it positively glowed for children. Shined shoes, collared shirts, cuffed pants, pressed dresses, cotton blouses – it was simply understood that how one's children dressed was a reflection on the parents.
Today, 40-year old mothers waltz around in public wearing Britney Spears jeans that might have been painted on while their midriffs, for better or worse – usually the latter – are exposed for all to see.
Middle-aged fathers have their own midrift problems as bellies bulge beneath loose T-shirts over jeans that James Dean would have been ashamed to wear. Tattoos and body piercings have proliferated on both sexes and all ages, and our cities sometimes remind me of those secret islands depicted in swashbuckling movies where pirates gathered to party and divide the loot.
What gives? On the right and left, so-called libertarians have actually elevated this species of bad advice to a political doctrine.
But one culprit – and this might be a shock to my more conservative readers – is the no-conscience nature of American corporate culture. After all, it's not congressional liberals putting slutty clothing for girls and "hip-hop" fashion for guys into American mall windows. And it's not Howard Dean who is cranking out televison's garbage and degrading, violent and misogynist music on CDs. And oh, yes, I can hear the whining now – "but they're all liberals." Really? Well, they're all liberals the way Jack Abramoff was all conservative – yet somehow his money wound up in lots of pockets.
Now for the clincher: The other culprit is you. That is, those of you who are parents and who complain about lower standards, yet can't seem to enforce higher ones on how your own children appear in public. And frankly, why should your kids appear any differently than you do, if you happen to be one of those 40-year-olds who insist on dressing like a poorly dressed 16-year-old? After all, it's your money that's being spent to fatten the profits of clothing companies who sell brightly marketed garbage that, at the end of the day, is nothing but garbage.
Most of you know and probably agree with me about what the real costs of blurring public and private spaces are – a decrease in civility. I see young people showing up for job interviews wearing "flip-flops" and with resumes containing so many spelling errors that a cat walking across the keys could have typed them.
Are these things unrelated? I don't think so. They are all of a piece. I don't have an answer for changing the world, but maybe it starts with a clean, ironed, properly fitting collared shirt.
The day after the State of the Union speech, the newspapers and TV news shows were filled with the stories of the arrest of Cindy Sheehan wearing an anti-war T-shirt and Congressman Bill Young's wife being asked to leave for wearing a pro-war T-shirt. My first reaction was that no one should wear T-shirts in the Capitol.
If you have ever walked through Washington, D.C., during the tourist season, you will see T-shirts, short shorts, lots of stomach showing on people who have too much stomach to begin with and other assorted eye invasions.
As I was writing this, I looked through an old scrapbook with photos of American life taken between the 1920s and 1950s. At one point, I had to put the book down in amazement as I saw how different we, that is, our ancestors, used to look. It wasn't only that the smiling young people looked thinner and somewhat healthier – they were thinner, as has been documented by many recent studies. And despite being a much poorer country – dress was plainer and simpler – we nevertheless seemed neater people, better turned out and much more certain of the line between public and private space.
This line between public and private spaces has now become completely blurred. It only adds to the torrent of vulgarity that already overwhelms so much of our society. What I saw in those photographs of crowded downtown streets, office interiors, on airlines, in the dining cars of the Pennsylvania Central Railroad, standing in lines at movie theaters – in short, public spaces – were Americans dressed appropriately. Sorry, Charlie, but there's just no other word for it.
The pictures of people in their homes or grilling in their backyards, on vacations, or watching television, in short, private spaces – dress was somewhat more relaxed – T-shirts, shorts, cutoffs, blue jeans and sandals during warm weather. Yet photos of the same people taken in slightly different circumstances – in public spaces, on the street, shopping in stores, hailing a taxi – reveals completely different outfits.
Women were usually in dresses and occasionally wore slacks (but much more formal than what passes for "slacks" today); blouses, yes, but never T-shirts; open-toed in warm weather but never sandals – not on a public street. And men wore suits, often ties to places that, today, would never see a coat and tie – ball games, "casual" restaurants and almost always when traveling. Even when not in ties, men were much more conscientious about appearing in public spaces than they are today.
And if the line was bright for adults, it positively glowed for children. Shined shoes, collared shirts, cuffed pants, pressed dresses, cotton blouses – it was simply understood that how one's children dressed was a reflection on the parents.
Today, 40-year old mothers waltz around in public wearing Britney Spears jeans that might have been painted on while their midriffs, for better or worse – usually the latter – are exposed for all to see.
Middle-aged fathers have their own midrift problems as bellies bulge beneath loose T-shirts over jeans that James Dean would have been ashamed to wear. Tattoos and body piercings have proliferated on both sexes and all ages, and our cities sometimes remind me of those secret islands depicted in swashbuckling movies where pirates gathered to party and divide the loot.
What gives? On the right and left, so-called libertarians have actually elevated this species of bad advice to a political doctrine.
But one culprit – and this might be a shock to my more conservative readers – is the no-conscience nature of American corporate culture. After all, it's not congressional liberals putting slutty clothing for girls and "hip-hop" fashion for guys into American mall windows. And it's not Howard Dean who is cranking out televison's garbage and degrading, violent and misogynist music on CDs. And oh, yes, I can hear the whining now – "but they're all liberals." Really? Well, they're all liberals the way Jack Abramoff was all conservative – yet somehow his money wound up in lots of pockets.
Now for the clincher: The other culprit is you. That is, those of you who are parents and who complain about lower standards, yet can't seem to enforce higher ones on how your own children appear in public. And frankly, why should your kids appear any differently than you do, if you happen to be one of those 40-year-olds who insist on dressing like a poorly dressed 16-year-old? After all, it's your money that's being spent to fatten the profits of clothing companies who sell brightly marketed garbage that, at the end of the day, is nothing but garbage.
Most of you know and probably agree with me about what the real costs of blurring public and private spaces are – a decrease in civility. I see young people showing up for job interviews wearing "flip-flops" and with resumes containing so many spelling errors that a cat walking across the keys could have typed them.
Are these things unrelated? I don't think so. They are all of a piece. I don't have an answer for changing the world, but maybe it starts with a clean, ironed, properly fitting collared shirt.
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