I blame the patriarchy

[Major Nikon]

[font color="black" size="6" face="bold"]Sweden lifts shorts ban for male train drivers after they wear skirts in protest[/font]

Male staff on some of Stockholm’s commuter trains who wore skirts to work in protest have emerged victorious after their employer lifted a ban on wearing shorts, transport company Arriva said on Monday.

Around 15 male train drivers and other workers last week wore skirts on the suburban Roslagsbanan train service to circumvent the shorts ban, saying temperatures inside the carriages could reach 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) on a sunny day.

“We received so many suggestions from our staff, and we listened to them and decided to change our minds on this issue,” Arriva spokesman Tomas Hedenius said.

“We’re talking to the union and looking at how to do this. Our aim is that they should receive the (uniform) shorts this summer,” he added.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/10/sweden-lifts-shorts-ban-for-male-train-drivers-after-they-wear-skirts-in-protest/

[libodem]

1. What ever works

The protest achieved the goal. How we dress still seems to give definition to who we are. I remember hearing dressing tips for women to have a successful job interview.
It relates to the shorts for men. So there is a point. What we were told is that a woman should wear a dress or skirt to a job interview because wearing pants would be equivalent to a man wearing shorts to an interview.

Sure it is sexist, but that seems to be the current cultural perception of proper dress. Good on those men for challenging current cultural perception and forcing a new dynamic for comfort and acceptance.

[Warren DeMontague]

2. Everyone should be able to wear shorts in the damn summer. I don't care who.

Another one of myriad reasons I can't stand the East Coast. People are way too hung up on things like shorts.

[MrSlayer]

3. It a safety hazard to wear shorts in construction.

Its not allowed on any union or OSHA job. Can you imagine a welder wearing shorts?

[Warren DeMontague]

5. Okay, barring safety concerns.

Everyone else.

[MrSlayer]

8. Then I agree.

[libodem]

4. Slighly off the subject...

But are you old enough to remember when girls HAD to wear dress or skirts to school. Even on snow days we could only wear pants under our dresses and took them off for the classroom. It changed in the '70's and we could wear jeans to school. It was a major breakthrough.

Now kids can wear shorts to school if they are longer in length.

Employees certainly should be able to, as well, especially if it's 95 degrees.

[Warren DeMontague]

6. Yep. Slightly OT- a very big fight I had with my wife, back in the early days of our relationship...

She had been based on the East Coast for a while, I was coming from a West Coast mentality. We did a 3 day weekend in Vegas. It was, maybe, 105 degrees. We were going "to dinner", and I wanted to wear shorts because, again, it was 105 degrees.

She had a fucking FIT. "People don't wear shorts to dinner. To dinner! Harumph harumph harumph"

Yeah, so you know what happened. I put friggin' pants on, miserably, and we went out to "fancy dinner" and every single fucking person in the place was wearing shorts, including the staff.

I'm like, look, you need to leave the East Coast on the East damn Coast.

[libodem]

7. Glad you got through that

We are all products of our environments to some extent.
I'm relieved that some dress codes have relaxed for both sexes.

[opiate69]

9. That's one of the things I loved most about Vegas..

Going into the fanciest restaurant I've ever been in, in our grubby "walking around town" clothes, and asking the tuxedo-sporting Maitre'D if we needed to go up to our room and change before eating, and being told "of course not, Sir."