Shyheels

Duffel coat

Very interesting article. Certainly a welcome counterpoint to the other heels stories in the news this week. 

Ransack

It won't

Conflagration

Certainly possble. Social media makes it easy for anyone to achieve fame or notoriety with but a single post and no doubt plenty of people do just that. As to the attractiveness of women in heels and skirts that seems to be the point the feminists are railing against, as though attractveness was inappropriate in the workplace. It isn't or shouldn't be. As anyone with a lick of sense knows, male or female, looking sharp in the office is a big key to success. Ideals of attractiveness tend to be fairly steady through the years and while there may be sexual undertones to it, and elements of gender stereotyping, of both sexes, for the most part it is not about sex. We live in a visual culture.

Overlooked in all the feminist umbrage is the fact that corporate men are subjected to at least as much, possibly more, pressure to conform and appear a certain way - as cookie cutter executives dressed conservatvely in suit and tie, to all appearances the ideal loyal unflinching cogs in the company machine, the very incarnation of the 50s breadwinner.

Lime Juicer

I have the pleasure of working from a home office when I am not travelling which means I can wear whatever I like, usually boots, jeans and a jumper. I do not even own a tie.

Talk about dressing for work - I read a story today about poultry workers in the US who are obliged to wear diapers to work since they are not allowed bathroom breaks. Now that is nasty... Puts the kerfuffle about wearing heels into perspective.

Given all the negative publicity they've had the past 48 hours I expect they'd accept just about anything short of hobnailed boots...

I wouldn't be surprised. There didn't seem to be a lot of personal animosity there, just some jobsworth enforcing what amounted to a silly policy, one that apparently was not a policy in the office where she was being sent. 

Very few baseball caps in The City

Attar

You don't see that sort of thing in London, at least not in The City.

I understand that women face discrimination in the workplace, on many fronts and in many guises, and I deplore that, but by and large when it comes to corporate dress codes they have it pretty easy. In most offices - the overwhelming majority the traditional suit and tie, in sombre colours, are de rigueur for men. No option, ever, not even on the hottest and sultriest of days. The corporate equivilent of a burka. Women on the other hand can and do wear quite a wide variety of outfits to work, in pretty much whatever colours they fancy, and whatever best suits the weather. 

I believe they were within their rights as employers are allowed to set dress codes. The requirements can differ between the sexes as long as the standards are of equivalent degree of smartness. Somehow I doubt the company would feel that a man turning up in 4" heels would represent a similar degree of office smartness, or indeed any degree of smartness at all.

Hong Kong

Jaws theme

Omen

Furlong

Percheron

I like hearing about Jeanne Calment. I can look at the numbers she put up and consider myself still to be in early middle age. I'm not even halfway there yet!

Checker

Just back from an exhilarating bicycle ride through town and country - wonderful for being fit and healthy, and can also easily kill you. On bicycles, as in life, it is a matter of finding the right balance...

I recall reading where the world's oldest recorded human being, a French woman named Jeanne Calment, quit smoking at the age of something like 114. I guess by then the damage had been done. She lived only another eight years. Tragic. A life cut short by tobacco. 

Plot