Academic

Should Male Faculty Wear Suits and Ties--and Wrinkle-Free Shirts?

By propertyprof

File this one under: things people are talking about.  Case Western Reserve University Law School Professor Erik Jensen has an op-ed, A Call for Professional Attire, over at insidehighereducaion urging faculty to upgrade our appearance.  He says of faculty:

Instead of being role models, we?ve convinced everyone to slum. As clothing theorist Nicholas Antongiavanni explains in The Suit: A Machiavellian Approach to Men?s Style, ?[M]any came to believe the protestation of academics that taste was nothing but a fraud perpetrated by the great to keep down the people."

I think you'll enjoy Jensen's essay, no matter your views on this, ah, pressing issue (ha, ha).  There's a lot to think about here--in terms of how we comport ourselves, the respect we show ourselves and others.  Now, whether respect is shown by physical appearance is an issue on which there can be some disagreement.  Why should my dress be set by what people on Madison Avenue think?  (Or do I sound too much like Anne Hathaway in The Devil Wears Prada?)  Heck, I've worn the same style of wire-rimmed glasses for the last twenty-five years.

Moreover, I think there are lessons in here beyond whether we wear a tie or not.  For instance, we should think about the example we set for our students in modes of analysis and how we treat those around us.   We model all sorts of behavior; I think our fashion sense is one of the less important lessons, though I understand that probably a lot of other people disagree.

Now one question: does anyone really think that it's faculty who've set the standards for students' dress?  ("We've convinced everyone around us to slum.")  Come on.  If that's true, faculty are a lot more powerful than I've observed in my years as a teacher--and as a student. 

Only once has a student imitated my dress (and that was when he dressed up as me for Halloween)--cardigan sweater, wire rim glasses, white button down shirt, even powdered his hair black.  Basically, the whole deal.

Alfred Brophy

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on March 17, 2008 (boomark / email).