sapphire wrote:[T]he sheer ones are ... the ones that are the most acceptable in a business environment, especially if the woman is in management.
I might add that the dress code expectations for women in management are almost as rigid as those for men.
True.
Fortunately, the number of places where these rigid requirements are in place is slowly but surely decreasing, and even if it starts to increase, it's unlikely to reach the level of the 1950's and 1960's.
To respond to Bob's original post, which was about Hanes' management moaning and groaning about their market dwindling. My answer (to Hanes) was and is that a large part of this particular company's problem is their lack of imagination. They're doing the same thing that the major US automobile manufacturers did: not changing their way of doing business as the market changes.
I think there is (or would be) a much larger market for their hosiery, if they would add to their product line things like:
-- hosiery that isn't "business formal"
-- hosiery that fits other body shapes.
-- hosiery that doesn't fall apart after one wearing.
And now, to get onto my soapbox about women's fashion as a feminist issue:
There's a big asymmetry between men's business formal clothing and women's business formal clothing.
Men's clothing covers the entire body, except for hands and head and is in most places fairly loose; this covers any physical "imperfections", plus making the man look a little bigger. Women's business clothing usually exposes more of their body, especially if they wear a skirt with it. Blouses are usually more revealing (often sheer!), stockings (or knee-highs) are required to be sheer (requiring leg shaving.) In many places, high heels (the kind you can't really walk in) are required.
All these differences tend to display wonen as sex objects in a way that men's clothes don't. In other words, women in business settings are expected to symbolicly "put out" as a condition of participating as "equals." It all fits in with the rest of the double standards, which I won't bore you all by repeating.
To relate this to men in skirts: I came to this realization when I thought about how I might make a business suit for myself with a skirt. I realized that if I were going to be in a formal setting, there is
no way I would have a knee-length wool skirt like most women's business suits have. It would be inappropriately sexual. Maybe not exactly Chippendale's, but tending in that direction. And any leg that was visible would have to be covered with opaque socks, not transparent stockings.
(Maybe that is why there is so much resistance to kilts for men in the workplace. They're considered OK as "costumes" for men, or for casual wear, but they don't fit in with the sexual politics of dress in business environments where how you dress is important.)
-- AMM