Never underestimate the ability of Men’s Rights Activists to get worked up over the most ridiculous nonsense.
I found the meme above on the Men’s Rights Australia Facebook page, accompanied by this explanation:
Women are allowed to wear whatever they like to work, including sleeveless tops, short skirts, and even thongs. Yet if a man were to wear sleeveless tops, shorts, or thongs you can be sure he’d be sent home from work or even fired. In summer men have to suffer in the heat wearing trousers, long sleeve shirts, and tie. Feminists claim they also care about inequalities facing men so why aren’t they fighting against this? -ms
YEAH FEMINISTS WHY AREN’T YOU FIGHTING AGAINST THIS TERRIBLE INJUSTICE, WOMEN NEVER HAVE TO WEAR ANYTHING UNCOMFORTABLE OR AWKWARD AT WORK 0h wait
Note: I should point out that the “thongs” being referenced aren’t the ones that ride up your butt, but rather are the ones you wear on your feet and that are also called flip flops, at least here in the US.
BONUS MEME: This isn’t a Men’s Rights meme, obviously, but it literally made me laugh out loud.
Apparently the best way to fight communism is to do nothing while the oceans rise. I guess the Communists have their secret bases on the Marshall Islands?
I’m reminded of this legendary toilet paper ad.
A spectre is haunting the bathroom — the spectre of really really scratchy toilet paper.
The woman could be wearing a longer skirt or pants and some long sleeves or a jacket, and you know the men would be complaining about how she’s dressing too prudishly and should loosen up and show more skin.
I welcome any man who feels oppressed by their work attire to try a day wearing a short skirt and high heels.
Two words, dudes: thigh sweat.
For those Mammotheers who, like me, were initially surprised at the problem of people wearing thongs to the workplace, allow me to remind you that “thongs” in Australia mean “flipflops” and not the naughty underwear.
I wish you hadn’t clarified that, as it was giving me very strange ideas about Australian office dress codes.
Where I work, a man showing up with a tie would probably be stared at. The men these days tend to wear polo shirts in many work situations, and t-shirts in a lot of them. Suits usually mark you immediately as administration or as someone born before WWII. Meanwhile, a woman showing up without a bra is probably in trouble. And flip-flops? Where do women wear flip flops to work, except in places where the attire is totally casual, in which case men can wear them, as well?
Short skirts, on the other hand, often have one of two outcomes. They can (1) get you promoted; or (2) keep you from ever being promoted. If (1), it usually means you aren’t being thought of as competent but as a body. If (2), it may mean that they somehow think legs and brains are for some strange reason incompatible.
Hell let men wear what the women wear, once they see how much more that tiny little shirt cost compared to their sleeved one & the fact that tiny skirt was probably 4 times the price of his pair of pants he’ll be falling over himself to wear a pants & a shirt. Womens clothes are not cheap in Australia.
My favorite part of moving to the USA from Australia was unlimited refills on drinks & all the clothes I could buy. I am shallow I admit it.
I’d send that guy on the right home because it’s clearly a mannequin.
Mind reader over here knows exactly what women want! How wonderful! I want to wear a pair of fucking jeans and a Star Wars shirt to work on a Wednesday. Can I do that? With my magical powers of womanhood?
With the sleeveless sorry it makes me think “so you even lift bro”
I’d send him home because he has his top button fastened even though he isn’t wearing a tie. Scandalous.
But remember, it’s totally feminists who complain about trivial stuff.
I think you could only wear flip-flops to work if your office is DIRECTLY ON THE BEACH.
Last time I worked in an office, I wore short-sleeved shirts all the time in summer without even the merest whisper of complaint. Unsurprisingly, because it was perfectly normal.
Anyway, if women are forced to wear long sleeves, how will MRAs and PUAs be able to assess her wrist circumference from a discreet distance?
Thanks for that note, David. I was already wondering what kind of weird office this guy worked at where they had a policy on G-strings.
That being said, where, if ever, does this happen? I’ve never worked anywhere that enforced a dress code, let alone one as stuck in the 1950’s as this meme is. I mean, there were reasonable limits for professionalism, but I can hardly imagine anyone being fired over it.
Is he wearing a bra?
Make up?
Heels?
Then how can he look professional?
I am all for having MRA’s wear what I wear to work. Skirt suits, blouses, bras, panty hose and high heels. And then read interminable think pieces about whether it’s appropriate to take the jacket off back at the office, because cream-colored blouses are sheer enough to betray a faint outline of your bra and maybe even your nipples if someone stares at your chest real hard. Which glossy women’s magazines assume male coworkers do, and it’s women’s duty to deal with the problem. “Like a professional.”
@Wwaxwork
Also, that man’s shirt from the picture? I’m putting in a conservative estimate of $200, seeing as how it’s probably from a big fashion house. It’s not like you’re going to find a button-down sleeveless shirt at your local H&M.
EDIT: Found the source. Showing just how conservative my estimate was, it turns out it’s a $350 Lanvin. Not really what you’d consider every-day office wear.
Where can women wear flip-flops to work? I don’t get it, these people would complain if women said it’s okay for guys to wear skirts if they want to, but at the same time they complain they can’t wear what they want to work.
I think ”damned if you do, damned if you don’t” is their strategy. You just can’t win, because they keep changing ”the rules” of the argument/their opinion.
Granted I haven’t worked in an office with a dress code in almost a decade, but I can’t imagine anyone getting sent home for such a thing. Maybe a quick “Hey, don’t forget to dress business casual” email or something. Office dress codes have sort of all been replaced with office scent free policies, I think. Although I think my upcoming position might have a dress code… Or the interviewers just liked to dress nice. I should probably find out about that.
Speaking of “thongs”. I only ever wore flip-flops to the office in my last month of pregnancy, and only because my feet swelled up so much, I literally couldn’t cram them into ANY shoes. Remarkably, one of my bosses had the gall to comment on my inappropriate footwear. Which I counteracted with a comment about the appropriateness of asking me to come to work in my ninth freakin’ month. But of course, MRA douchebros would say that women are privileged to be allowed to work while heavily pregnant, whereas no such courtesy is extended to men.
I am so damn envious of you guys who don’t have dress codes. I work for accountants, so it’s long-sleeve button-down and tie four days out of the week (yay for jeans and no tie on Friday).
That said, the professional dress code here applies to women as well as men. It’s mostly sensible blouses/skirts and pantsuits around here. I don’t know that any slut-shaming would go on if the skirt were too short or the blouses were sleeveless (just started in January, so haven’t seen how people dress in summer yet), but I doubt it, because people here don’t seem like assholes. I would imagine flip-flops would be frowned upon.
My last job was also at an accounting firm, and while our department had a business casual code, there were some issues with women wearing sweats or yoga pants to work.
Just some anecdotal data.
As for why feminists aren’t fighting against the tyranny of male dress codes, I dunno, maybe because they’re still busy working on the whole equal work for equal pay and birth control/bodily autonomy things?
I can wear flip flop at work every day if I want, and so do everyone, men and women, at my office. Dress code aren’t men-specific anyway.
I was a British Civil Servant for 20 years. People thought we all drank tea and wore suits. The sleeveless shirt might have colleagues wondering if the wearer was gay (unless he really was and everyone knew already), but neither of these would have resulted in being sent home.
And then they go into an air-conditioned office, where the thermostat is set at a crisp 68 degrees under the assumption that all employees are wearing pants and long-sleeved shirts, and it’s the women that are shivering and complaining. We have had many conversations about this in my workplace.
They should be glad this isn’t the 1930s, when men routinely wore ties, wool suits, and hats everywhere, even to baseball games.
Today is a “casual Friday”, so I’m the only person wearing a suit here. I’m usually the only person with a tie, too. I quite like formal clothes, especially three-piece suits.
I tend to wear a lot of dresses to work, mostly because I’m lazy and it’s just a single garment. I can get dressed in the dark! The dresses I wear look like, I dunno, this:
http://lechateau.scene7.com/is/image/LeChateau/345676_886_1_469x587.jpg
Here is a much longer dress, with sleeves, that would be utterly inappropriate for work:
http://lechateau.scene7.com/is/image/LeChateau/329539_114_1_469x587.jpg
Explain, wise and all-knowing meme maker.