I stuffed notebook paper into my dress sleeves and got praised for being a “shero” on Twitter.
My sartorial improvisation began as a way to circumvent the rules of the House Speaker’s lobby. According to those rules—which are mostly known by word of mouth—women must wear sleeves in the narrow stretch of hallway outside the House chamber at all times.
I made it through the hall once before my plan was foiled. At that point, an officer politely informed me that, while creative, my paper sleeves weren’t cutting it.
She warned me that the dress code would be discussed on the floor that day, and that she did not want me to be made an example of. I asked her whether my knee-length, high-neck dress was professional. She said that it was, but that everyone, including staff and members, must abide by the dress code.
Several reporters looked on as I crumpled the makeshift shoulder covers and tossed them in the trash. I then made an attempt to enter the lobby without the paper sleeves, thinking maybe my dress would suffice. It did not.
I learned later that, while I lingered outside the chamber, men and women on the House floor were also being reminded of proper congressional decorum.
Though my plan failed, CBS described it in an article that more broadly captured the ambiguity of the dress code. This had unintended, though in hindsight perhaps inevitable, consequences.
The stunt ended up fueling an argument that the patriarchy—either that, or House Speaker Paul Ryan—was behind it all.
Here’s Vogue, side-by-side with a photo from The Handmaid’s Tale: “Not content with wanting to dictate what women can do with their own bodies, Republicans in Congress are now trying to dictate what women can wear.”
And Jezebel: “It really is truly something that the House wants to deny essential health benefits to women, including prenatal care, while simultaneously worrying themselves over the appropriateness of shoulders and toes.”
However, as noted by Jezebel in a correction, the “rules” are not new. They were in place years before Ryan, and existed under House speakers male and female, Democrat and Republican.
But just because they are old rules does not mean they are good rules. For one, slevelessness is not necessarily slovenly. The code could also do with some actual codifying—as CBS reports, it is difficult to find fleshed-out guidelines anywhere.
The Hill should be a setting where everyone, including journalists, dresses professionally. From this reporter’s point of view, that does not include sneakers or hoodies. It could, however, include easing up on the sleeves-and-jackets-only rule in the summer, when D.C. stews and sweats.
The Capitol building deserves respect. Preserving Congress’s traditions is doubly important. But as one presumably well-dressed Irishman put it, “a state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.”
