Do you ever find yourself thinking about stuff only to realize that something you had witnessed months before has just now sunk in?  It happened to me within the last few days, and it gave me another reason to be angry at the world. 

I’ve been bitter about lots of different things through the years.  Most of the time these things come out of nowhere and then go away as I find myself caring less about them or I just cease to think about them, but this particular issue has bothered me since I’ve been a teenager, and everytime I think about it, it pisses me off, regardless of if it effects me at the moment or not.  I’m talking about the almighty “dress code”.

 We run into the dress code in many different places in American society.  When I was a teen in school, we had a what I would consider to be a reasonable one for the most part.  Basically, according to those rules, we couldn’t wear shirts with offensive language on them, images depicting violence, drugs, tobbacco or alcohol, and our clothes pretty much had to cover our asses.  Whatever…  two years after I graduated from high school, kids could get sent home for not wearing a belt and everyone had to have a collar on their shirt, with it tucked in.  It was a pretty extreme change from the way it was, and I still feel to this day that it was an uncalled for move on behalf of the school. 

Move on to the corporate world…  corporations are the worst when it comes to the dress code issue.  Some things I can understand, like the uniform for instance.  When a company asks you to wear a uniform, they usually do so with good reason…  to be able to easily identify their employees.  In places like retail stores for instance, it’s hard to tell the difference between employees and customers unless the employees have some sort of identifiable image, and a uniform, be it a shirt and pants or even a nifty name tag helps customers find help when they need it.  In places where certain clothing rules are in place to keep people safe, I can also understand the need…  for example, wearing hard hats in construction sites.  You want a lawyer to wear a suit? 

Whatever. 

I understand that certain clothing is appropiate in certain situations, but what I can’t understand is the need for other types of restrictions we place on employees in the corporate world.  In this day and age, we’ve effectively eliminated the ability for people to express themselves through most types of fashion by setting up guidelines for everything from how you can wear your hair to the types of “acceptable” jewelry.  This is unacceptable!  If anyone can give me a good reason why something like an eyebrow piercing or long hair on a man is offensive, then I’ll happily shave my head and let it grow back in its natural color, but the fact is that there isn’t a good reason for it at all.  A piering for instance might cause irritation to the person wearing it, but that’s their problem, just like it was their choice to wear it.  You might not like my hairstyle, but if I’m happy with the way I look, wouldn’t I be a happier person all together?  Restricting these types of things is just another way to control employess by breaking their will, and molding them into someone else’s idea of what our society should look like.  What bullshit!

Probably the biggest complaint I’ve had about dress codes is that they are sexist in most cases in the way they are put together.  There’s one set of standards for men and another for women.  (I currently work for a company that has a dress code that is the same for men and women, so this isn’t an issue here, but this has rarely been the case in my experience.)  The problem with this is that it creates discrimination between the sexes.  For example, many companies will allow women to wear one or more pair of earrings, while men are told they cannot or can wear only a pair.  Companies like to tell men that they cannot grow their hair past a certain length, while women have virtually no restrictions on their hair.  Sometimes you will also run into situations where the clothing standards between the sexes are extremely different.  When it comes down to it, people need to realize that it’s unfair to set these kinds of standards for their employees.  I should be able to not only share the same hair and jewelry standards as those set for the women in the company I work for, but they should have the same opportunities as the men as well.

What exactly got into my head that prompted me to get so ticked off about this issue this time? 

When I was at a previous employer, I witnessed an odd scene that shouldn’t have taken place.  There was a kid there with a moderate length haircut whose hair was a bit on the curly side.  He always showed up to work early, always kept his appearance neat and was one of the hardest workers we had.  One day the manager that oversaw our department came up to him and gave him a hard time about his hair, basically stating that it was getting too long.  The kid came back a few days later having received a haircut.  Was his hair violating some sort of company policy?  No.  In fact, another member of management had longer hair than any of us, with his hair being shoulder length, still being within the guidelines of the company’s dress code. 

And that’s what pissed me off…  a perfect example of unfair company policies in action, or at least the unfair use of interpretation of a policy that is stupid to begin with.

If I supossedly live in a country that was founded with the idea of its people having the right to express themselves, then why is it that we allow our own people to take away these rights for others?  At the rate we’re going it won’t be long before we have no freedom left at all.

As a sidenote, I would like to point out that an obvious reply to this would be that you don’t have to work for these companies, you can work for yourself, and that you have the right not to work at all if you choose.  I’m aware of that…  there’s no need to restate the obvious.  The majority of us work because we need a way to pay our bills, and not all of us are have the privilege to work for ourselves.  Still, we shouldn’t have to give up our rights just so we can look the way someone else wants us to.  Think what you want…  it’s still wrong.