Dress

“Dress for the job you want, not for the one you have.”

presentation =/= identity

pink used to be a boys’ colour and blue was for girls

men wore high heels and hose to show off their calves

dinner jackets: the uniform of the bourgeoisie

women soloists can wear whatever colour gown they want, as long as it’s floor length; men wear suits and usually stick to black (unless they’re queer)

no shoulders, no cleavage, no calves

women’s dress clothing is made of thinner, cheaper material than men’s; why is this?

why don’t women wear dinner jackets?

women are expected to remove noisy heeled shoes and jewelry, to forgo perfume (especially in an orchestra pit); why is there a cultural expectation that they wear these things in the first place?

is the goal with a dress code to ensure uniformity? in which case, remove gendered restrictions. put everyone in dinner jackets or in black shirts and trousers

or is the goal to uphold tradition? in which case, traditionally, before 1950, orchestras consisted of men

perhaps one reason why audiences attend classical music concerts is the theatrical element, and it might be disappointing to see the musicians in plainer clothing

but what matters first and foremost is the quality of the performance and the level of interest of the music being performed

many jobs have a uniform; the musician’s uniform is perhaps one of the only ones that appears to value how it looks over its function (and there are companies that make sports-like performance wear, and none of it is inexpensive, which brings up the point that musicians don’t earn very much on average and yet the amount of money we’re expected to spend to continue to work is rather a lot)

if the dress code specifies gender, like so:

men: dinner jacket, black shoes, black socks

women: floor length black dress and black cardigan OR black trousers and black dress shirt, black shoes, black socks

then what do I wear?