Photo: Twitter
Where every day could be "wear your prom dress to work" day.
By Isaac Serna-Diez — Written on Jan 31, 2023
A House representative in Florida recently went to work like any other day at the Florida State Capitol in Tallahassee when she found a flyer being passed around the office.
Upon representative Anna V. Eskamani’s closer inspection of the flyer, she noticed that it was mandating a dress code — telling members of the House what was appropriate and inappropriate to wear.
The Florida House dress code says skirts above the knees and sleeveless shirts are inappropriate for work.
“ICYMI: This was dropped off at our office in Tallahassee,” Rep. Eskamani wrote in her tweet. “Since ball gowns are not mentioned I guess we can still get away with those.”
The photo she posted along with her tweet showed the laminated flyer that was supposed to explain “When Should I Wear This To Work,” and laid out several unique scenarios and outfits that were acceptable for those scenarios.
There were options for when you’re inside the chamber, simply inside the building, outside of the building, and a section for outfits that are never work-appropriate.
The first two sections — inside the chamber and inside the building — show no noticeable differences.
The two men in each section are wearing full suits and ties, while the women don either a pantsuit or business casual with long skirts and formal tops.
Being policed on your clothing at work or in general is one thing, but being policed on what you wear outside of your workplace is even worse.
Fortunately, the dress code for what to wear outside of the Florida Capitol building isn’t awful, and allows for more casual clothing — dresses with patterns or slightly unbuttoned shirts.
The real problem arises in the section that tells you what isn’t work-appropriate.
“Dress or skirt shorter than one inch above the knee,” the section announces. “Low-cut blouses or dresses. T-shirts with writing. Jeans with Holes. [Men's] shoes with no socks. Leggings for slacks.”
What you’ll notice from the image, is that nine of the 14 examples were all policing what women could wear — one example was a t-shirt, and another was a man without socks on.
In all of the other sections, the examples were split evenly, but in the sections telling workers what isn’t appropriate at all, it seems like they are much more blatant in pointing out that they want to police what women are allowed to wear.
Eskamani’s tweet was sent out simply to point out the absurdity behind the idea of sending out a dress code flyer — assuming people might not know that wearing ripped jeans to a government job is inappropriate.
That’s why she joked about her idea of wearing a ball gown to work since they claim you can “always dress up, but never down.”
Despite her jokes, many people took her seriously and insulted the Orlando representative for speaking out on something she found amusing.
Dress codes and violations have been a serious subject of debate around the world, especially how they mostly seem to target women, but Eskamani was likely just trying to poke a little fun.
Even if she was trying to make some greater societal claim about the morality of dress codes, she has every right to speak about the things she finds unjust.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Keep up with his rants about current events on his Twitter.