Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Men in Suits again

Nick wrote a post last week entitled Men in Suits. He said, "I'm forever bemused by those line-ups of politicians, every one of them in their obligatory suits, except for the more informally dressed women. The chance of their all being honest, principled and conscientious is practically zero, yet there they are in their mandatory uniforms, trying to convince us otherwise."

He reminded me of an incident that happened some years ago when my children were still in secondary school. I was part of a prayer group that met to support the school, and when a number of Christian teachers were told about the group, they suggested that we met on school premises with them. That sounded like a great idea and so we went along.

At that time we had in our church a team of young people volunteering for a year. Part of their remit was to go into schools, do assemblies, take RE classes, put on concerts etc. they asked me if they could come along to a prayer meeting and introduce themselves to the teachers.

Now one of boys had long hair and another had a variety of piercings; when they asked the teachers about going into the school, one of the deputy heads present - a man who was also a local lay preacher - said, 'Oh, no! What kind of example would you be setting if we allowed you to stand up on stage in front of our pupils?'

I was so stunned I didn't say anything - which was just as well as I don't get mad often and I can't express it 'pleasantly'. One of our volunteers was very gracious and didn't push it, but simply prayed generally for the school.

But I couldn't believe that a 'man of God' would have judged on outward appearance instead of considering the example of service, humility, dedication and love of God that the team would have been demonstrating. I suppose he, in his tired wrinkled suit, would have preferred someone like the politicians that Nick mentioned in their smart suits with their false tongues.

Daughter was a polite, quiet, caring A* student but we got into battles with the school over her hair colour and skirt length. She was a credit to the school but they wouldn't see that. Both sons attended the school but chose to go elsewhere to sixth form college. Where individuality was appreciated.

I stopped attending the prayer group soon after that.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sadly most people do judge by appearances.

Furtheron said...

where I work the dress code is generally "smart casual"... i.e. shirts with collars and smart trousers not jeans (except on Fridays whcih are acknowldeged as dress down days)...

However in all the recent changes people have come in smart suits for interviews - often with their current boss. I don't get it, they know you already and know that tomorrow you won't and the organisations culture is not a neck tie and suit culture so why bother? Odd.

Most interviews the person is principally judged in the first few seconds though so is it all in the suit? I didn't wear one and still got the job... :-)

nick said...

How crazy that long hair and piercings are considered a bad example. Of what exactly, being an individual and expressing your own personality? Surely the deputy head was a splendid example of intolerance and narrow-mindedness?

And what's the problem with hair colour and skirt length, unless the skirt is totally indecent? Funnily enough, the dress code for schoolgirls here in Belfast is extremely short skirts and nobody ever questions it.

Thanks for the mention, by the way!

Anonymous said...

Whatever happened to "judge not, and be not judged?"

NitWit1 said...

Ironically, I am in politics on local city council. Council is comprised of 6 individuals, currently 5 men and 1 woman-myself.

Only one man comes to meetings in suit, tie-the works. He is crooked, a name dropper, uses people, doesn't attempt to pay his debts, and drinks heavily with other men's wives with similar problem. He dreams up schemes to bring attention to himself; the expense of the schemes ends up being paid by others.

The rest of us dress causally, although I occasionally wear a blazer.:)

Puss-in-Boots said...

As you may remember, I used to catch the train when I was working. One afternoon, I boarded the train which, as usual, was pretty packed. I happened to be standing by a couple of guys who were sitting. They were long haired, really rough looking young guys, but they both stood up for another woman and myself and offered us their seats.

As far as I'm concerned those young men could teach a lot of so called gentleman a thing or two. It's a shame people judge others so quickly...

Ole Phat Stu said...

The uniform is worn to constrain the person wearing it. (Gandhi)

BTW,
Those things Xian priests wear, are called 'dog'-collars because they put them on backwards ;-)

Liz Hinds said...

That's true, amanda.

Some of these big organsiations have experts to judge on people's handwriting, dress sense and haircuts, don't they, furtheron?

He was, nick.

Hulla, who knows?

That's interesting, nitwit.

It is a shame, puss.

Is that really why theyr'e called dog-collars, stu?