I’m usually a fan of Joanne Wilson (AKA The Gotham Gal), and I appreciate so many of her posts and the conversations she starts on an array of topics (not to mention the glorious food pics and recipes!).
But I cannot get behind this one on “professionalism.”
What Happened to Professionalism? https://t.co/ARytiBRwTK
— joanne wilson (@thegothamgal) March 15, 2022
“This past week I went to a new doctor’s office in LA. . . . She knew her shit, but I couldn’t get past the outfits. Those outfits made me question the doctors’ knowledge . . . .As we begin to re-enter the workspace, give some thought to your outfit. There is an old saying; clothes make the man. Well, clothes make the person. Dressing in a certain way can shape your behavior and how you perform. Think about how you feel when you do get dressed up…very different.”
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Full disclosure: As I write this article, which began as a super-casual thread on Twitter (incidentally), I am wearing my favorite ratty hooded sweatshirt and positioned – lying on my belly, on my couch – in my most productive work-from-home position.
First of all, that old saying, about how the clothes make the man has always rubbed me the wrong way. Clothes – obviously – do not make the man. The person on the inside makes the man. You can dress him up in fancy clothes, but so what?
Clothes are intended convey a certain expertise or experience or intelligence or social standing, but all this is – when you get right down to it – is playing dress-up. In fact, clothes do nothing more than convey what the wearer intends to convey, no matter whether that is an accurate or inaccurate depiction of the person underneath the suit.
Personally, I’ve always been in the George Michael camp on this one:
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Cries for “professionalism,” like cries for “civility,” often just seem like cries to preserve a status quo that certain people are more comfortable with.
Using clothing as a short-cut to assess a person’s value also opens us up to underestimating or misjudging the intelligence and capability of people from different cultures or different socio-economic groups, who are less rich, less white, or who like to – gasp – dress casually.
“Those outfits made me question the doctors’ knowledge.”
My reaction to this one is “Too bad. You might just miss out on a great doctor.”
Clothes and other cultural or social status symbols can also be used as signifiers of who can (and cannot) be in the “in” group. I’d rather strip these barriers away as much as possible.
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None of this is to say that I don’t think there is a place to call for “professionalism.” But I think of professionalism differently. I don’t think any part of it is connected to the clothes people wear, their hairstyles, or whether they have tattoos or piercings.
Rather, it’s based on how they treat you and whether they pay attention to you. If you’re in a meeting and the person you are meeting with isn’t focused on you because they’re on their phone posting on Twitter or texting their friends, that is a professionalism problem.
But as for the way we dress, I personally love wearing my comfy sweatshirt and shorts. That doesn’t make me dumber or less effective as a lawyer, writer, or person.
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This post has been republished to Medium.
Photo Credit: Shutterstock
