Shorts, Hoodies and The Five Pillars of Our Toxic Culture
How Congress's formal dress code perpetuates harmful beliefs
The story of our toxic culture and how it affects our current lives makes many people uncomfortable.
I understand.
Learning about these legacies has been extremely disconcerting for me at times as a white person. And not everyone wants to know. But believing it’s not true, defending yourself from those who are “woke,” or putting your head in the sand and ignoring it doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect you. Nor will it make it disappear.
This is on my mind because of the recent reversal to allow more casual dress in Congress. Spearheaded by Braddock’s own John Fetterman, who prefers shorts and hoodies to suits and ties (who wouldn’t?), Majority Leader Chuck Schumer set a guideline to relax the unwritten formal dress code and it was met with a fiery uproar that resulted in “suitable” clothing of a coat, tie and slacks clothing being codified as required dress on the Senate floor.
You may ask, what does this have to do with our culture and how is it toxic? If you want to know, read on. If not, now is the time to bail.
My perspective is that our culture is comprised of five major pillars: patriarchy, colonization, institutionalized Kristianity (Kristians with a K are those who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk), capitalism, and racism. They are inextricably linked. One cannot exist without the other, although in my opinion the foundation is institutionalized Kristianity.
Now before you come at me about Kristiaity being on the list by citing all the good that has been done from Mother Theresa to missionaries, let me say that I acknowledge the appearance of good being achieved.
What’s behind the appearance, however, is the erasure of hundreds, if not thousands, of cultures. What lies behind the appearance is murder in the name of God (e.g., the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials, Christian Crusades). What’s behind the appearance is the arrogance of believing “you” know what is best for anyone other than yourself.
The appearance just hides the truth – only helping people if they are willing to capitulate to your belief system. Forcing someone to adopt your religious beliefs in exchange for food and other things that lift them from poverty is transactional at best and at worst, intellectual, emotional and spiritual kidnapping. And no amount of whitewashing it with the desire to “spread God’s love” will change my mind about that.
Now back to the issue in Congress.
For starters, dress codes were created centuries ago to determine at a glance who was socially acceptable and who wasn’t. As you can imagine, this targeted oppressed populations like people of color and the poor, keeping them out of the rooms where decisions about their lives were made. It prevented them from getting mortgage and business loans. It kept them oppressed. That was the intention.
We’ve seen the trickle-down effect of toxic culture in other places recently with the young man suing Texas governor Greg Abbott and other government leaders for not upholding the CROWN Act that eliminates "discrimination on the basis of hair texture or protective hairstyle associated with race." The boy was suspended from his high school for having dread locs. Dread locs.
Why? Because his appearance wasn’t the “one right way.”
Now this toxicity has infiltrated Congress in a way that cannot be denied. If seeing John Fetterman speak on the floor wearing shorts and a hoodie impacts the meaning of his words, that is a you problem. And I encourage you to do some self-inquiry as to why that is.
What assumptions do you make about someone who wears shorts and a hoodie?
Go on. I’ll wait.
Here’s a few words to get you started: disrespectful, ignorant, stupid, dangerous, uneducated.
Chances are they are the same types of assumptions you make about someone who wears their pants low. Or likes short skirts. Similar assumptions to the ones made about certain kinds of sneakers or clothes from a thrift store or someone with missing teeth. No matter the specifics, it all comes back to one core belief: they are less than.
I’m not preaching from any kind of pulpit here. I have made those same assumptions a million times. I still do sometimes. The difference is that I explore the “why.” Every time it happens. This is the only way to decondition the mind from the societal brainwashing that impacts us all, especially if we’re white.
And if you think it doesn’t affect you, you’re wrong. Perhaps it’s not a huge deal now. But to continue on this trajectory means all but the few who have the means to protect themselves will be targeted at some point. If you’re black or Jewish, it’s already a daily lived experience. If you’re disabled in any way, an immigrant, a member of the LGBTQ community… I could go on.
Trust me. You cannot even begin to imagine the ways these pillars affect your life already.
Are you constantly striving for a “better life”? Do you get defensive if someone has a different perspective or opinion? Do you believe there is only one right way to express your spirituality or raise a family? Do you live and die by the binary – male/female, right/wrong, with us/against us? If you answered yes to even one of these questions, you now have proof. If you dare, you can learn more in this PDF.
The truth is that you are living according to systems and tenets which you had no say so in creating. Think about that for just a second. And if that troubles you in any way, spend a few minutes exploring the ways we, as white people especially, have internalized these standards so that they are normal to us. You can do that at the web site of an amazing organization called Dismantling Racism.
It’s all tied together.
You can deny it. You can question it. You can try to ignore it. But for the love of future generations, please take a moment to explore whether or not I’m full of it by checking out the links in this piece.
Don’t let Congress’s soap box of “decorum” and “civility” fool you. This is about so much more. And you owe it to yourself and those who come after us to investigate. What you learn won’t leave you once you learn it. Eventually, it will require you to change.
Yes, change is uncomfortable. But it won’t kill you. If you’ve managed to change your life in any way – from starting to floss or eating less sugar to walking more or paying off credit card debt – you can do this.
I promise.
I’m a 60-year-old white woman raised on All in the Family and Good Times. If I can do it, so can you. That is if you want to.
P.S. Congratulations to Congress for finding a way to uphold the patriarchy while wearing the mask of feminism by not specifying dress requirements for women in the code. I don’t believe they did this for any reason other than not wanting to face the epic storm that would have surely erupted from women who have been dealing with the perpetuation of sexism caused by men dictating appropriate female clothing for centuries. Huzzah!
P.P.S. If you really want an education on how the five pillars affect your finances, I cannot recommend the class The Trauma of Money highly enough.
P.P.P.S. They have time to deal with dress codes this week, but not the very real potential of the government shutting down this weekend, which will force a lot of people to work without pay and unable to apply for unemployment. But don’t worry about Congress. They’ll get their salaries if the shutdown happens Sunday.
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