Open Forum: On the Perils of Fashion

Megarita's first post on this blog was about the perils of caring about fashion as an academic.  In the early days of the blog, I wrote about why I blog under a moniker. Recently, we were contacted by a reader, Katie, who wanted to know more about our experiences concerning the perils of caring about fashion.  She is working on a thesis about academic feminist clothing and fashion, and came across our blog.  Megarita has already offered some of her insights about this.  I decided to offer some of mine and open it up to you, dear readers.

During my early years in grad school, an older colleauge took my work to task and then later asked me if I spent all of my time accessorizing.  In my defense, it was the first time I had ever tried to use quantitative methods in historical research and there was a bit of a steep learning curve for integrating statistical analysis into historical writing.  One of my friends, who is also very stylish, was told by her advisor that she and I were the most non-academic academics that he had ever known.  Another time, a former student wrote to me and told me that I was the hottest, best dressed, coolest TA he had ever had at Big State School and, even though he was sure I would shoot him down, he just had to ask me out.  One other instance I have to offer is the weird email that I received from a student about my boots.  I shrugged it off as a compliment, but without context, it seemed strange to me.

So let's help Katie out with her research.  Have you ever felt like your personal style has made your colleagues or professors take you less seriously?  Have you ever felt that it contributed to an awkward situation with a student?  If you are not an academic, do you feel that you are judged in your line of work for the way you dress?  Is your profession fashion friendly or fashion phobic?