(UERJ -2004)RITUALS OF THE WORKPLACE: RITES OF ADO

(UERJ -2004)

RITUALS OF THE WORKPLACE: RITES OF ADORNMENT

In many respects, clothing operates as a kind of language, communicating explicit and implicit meanings. Just as linguists distinguish between "marked" and "unmarked" conceptual categories, we may distinguish between marked and unmarked work uniforms. Broadly speaking, marked uniforms are required in those professions that come into regular contact with extraordinary danger, filth or power over life and death - the clergy, the military, air pilots, the judiciary, medicine and health, cleaning and garbage collection - ¹as well as those who come into an unusually intimate contact with the domestic domain or other restricted spaces, such as postal letter carriers, electrical meter readers, or dishwasher repair persons. In many work domains, uniforms signal a degree of subordination. Police patrol officers wear uniforms, ²while detectives wear jacket and tie and senior officers wear standard business attire (except when on dress parade or at special occasions). Fast-food counter workers wear uniforms, while managers tend to wear business attire. Yet uniforms on the job are expected of even the most high ranked physicians, airline pilots, judges, military officers, and members of the clergy; significantly, all these professions have unusually direct contact with matters of life and death.

Those occupations and job types that do not require formally marked uniforms nonetheless are characterized by elaborate unwritten dress codes. Construction workers might be expected to wear blue jeans and flannel shirts. Certain professionals like academics or software engineers might often dress down in jeans, but will usually indicate their status through various subtle or not so subtle signifiers, from tweed jackets to expensive haircuts.

The large scale entrance of women into the professions since the 1960s has posed many ideological and aesthetic challenges to the dominant fashion system, yet many of the basic principles, associated with exclusively male executive office subcultures, have endured. Black, the classic uniform of the (male) medieval clergy, remains the preferred color for those who traffic in financial capital (such as bankers) or cultural capital (such as artists). Jewelry is still expected in most professional contexts to be muted and understated; even a male lawyer's earring should be subtle and tasteful. Getting dressed for work poses more political and symbolic challenges for professional women than for professional men. Most female executives must put considerable thought into skirt length, visible cleavage, coiffure and manicure. Professional maternity clothes, perhaps the most visible signifier of work-family integration, pose especially fraught fashion challenges for working women.

MARK AUSLANDER

http://www.bc.edu

 

"The large scale entrance of women into the professions since the 1960s has posed many ideological and aesthetic challenges"

"many of the basic principles, associated with exclusively male executive office subcultures, have endured."

The temporal reference expressed by the verb forms has posed and have endured is best analyzed as: