The right to bare arms

But unlike us, some very powerful women in the USA have recently been up in arms about it (just as well they are covered), causing the Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan to undertake to review and perhaps even modernize the archaic dress code that bans female sleeveless wear, unless a jacket or sweater is worn on top, and also open toed shoes. The rule is that men must wear suit jackets and ties in the House and the speaker’s lobby, and no sports footwear.

The revolt started on social media and heated up pretty fast, going viral. Then the TV channels picked it up and a week later Paul Ryan was forced to address the matter.

The irony is that Washington DC is blisteringly hot in the summer months and women, like here, are forced to carry jackets for two reasons: firstly, so as not to expose their innocent God-given, over-worked arms to weak-minded men, and secondly, not to lower the tone of the august institutions of democracy or quagmires of bureaucracy by showing off such functional things as upper limbs. In Washington, 14th July was dubbed “Sleeveless Friday”.

Reuters reported as follows, Democratic Representative Jackie Speier circulated a flyer urging women lawmakers to wear sleeveless dresses on “Sleeveless Friday” …. Republican Representative Martha McSally noted she was wearing an outfit that violated the code as she ended a speech in the House chamber on Wednesday. “I want to point out that I’m standing here in my professional attire, which happens to be a sleeveless dress and open-toed shoes.” Then, Democratic Representative and only woman to have served as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted, “These unwritten rules are in desperate need of updates.” So, it is not even a law but a hangover from when men dominated that place and all such places and it has taken women a long time to feel secure enough to challenge it. I wonder how come legs escaped similar opprobrium? But if men invented such silly rules for women they certainly were not easy on themselves. At receptions and other events in TT I often fear that some slightly unfit man would pass out from the sweatbox that is his dark, lined, part synthetic or part wool (both make you hot) suit, buttoned appropriately, and set off by a silk (keeps you warm) tie with its own layers of fabric and tucked under a shirt collar that itself comprises several layers of material. A man’s shirt also has long sleeves with thick cuffs and his poor feet are hot like stones in tall socks and perfectly closed, lined shoes, preferably laced up to the near ankle.

To manage those unhealthy personal conditions derived from the uncompromising dress code that is seldom relaxed, men have invented two unlikely facts that are very costly: 1) That centrally controlled air conditioning cannot be adjusted to increase the room temperature; 2) Electronic and digital equipment require the temperature in buildings to be as cold as Iceland.

That is why every single official or commercial building in this country is so over refrigerated.

To stop bare-armed women complaining about the icy temperature indoors they created the silly dress code to keep us warm.

I don’t like conspiracy theory but this one appeals to me.

Car Insurance Update – Beware! A “new for old” and/or “loss of use” benefit in your comprehensive policy must be renewed each time you use it. If you get hit three times that could total several thousands of dollars in extra premium annually.