By Ryhaan Shah
I had occasion to write before about those infernal dress codes that seem to multiply just to harass and aggravate the general public. The codes do not just emblazon our public service offices – try taking a passport picture in sleeveless attire. No matter once the photograph is cropped just your neck and a bit of your shoulders are showing but the photographers enforce the “law of sleeved dress” as if our lives depended on it.
Who made these rules that our arms, legs and toes are either highly erogenous zones or such horrors to public servants’ eyes that they must be covered up when we stand before them to transact our – the people’s – business? Why do we taxpayers allow ourselves to be bullied in this purely nonsensical manner?
I first wrote about my run-in with these dress codes in a letter to the press years ago. I had gone to the National Public Library to donate some books only to be refused entry by a burly female guard with gaping buttons that exposed her undergarments. But I was the one that was badly dressed because my floral, tropical frock had “fine straps” and these were taboo according to the code. I have never set foot in the library again.
I will use that example as a comparison to my experiences in civilized countries. I had worn that same dress just weeks before to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan and had stood in awe before the original “Water Lilies” by Monet. That moment was much more sacrosanct than entering our public library and no one cared about my dress because the museum has no such silliness as dress codes.
I have had occasion to go to public libraries in Florida where everyone in those cool, air conditioned spaces are always in breezy tropical wear: flip-flops, shorts, strapless frocks, and even bikini tops. No one bats an eyelid. There, officials are more concerned that the public – however dressed or undressed –borrow books and read than they are about pronouncing on the length of their skirt.
If you feel that the security guards at our gates have no discretionary powers and are forced to follow the rules, think again. Here’s another gem on our dress codes. When I was the GTV Manager, the station was visited by officials from the South African Broadcasting Corp, one of whom was a white South African woman. We were scheduled to pay a courtesy call on President Janet Jagan and the lady turned up in a pretty sleeveless frock for the occasion. I said nothing.
It would have been embarrassing to have tried to explain Guyana’s backwardness to her and, anyway, I was curious as to what would happen because just weeks before I had turned up for a meeting in just such a frock and was told in no uncertain terms that I could not enter the compound because my dress had no sleeves.
The male official I was scheduled to meet sent me his jacket to wear. I wore the jacket in the guard hut then took it off as soon as I exited the hut. That such silliness satisfies the dress code proves its silliness.
But what did the guard do about the lady visitor in her sleeveless frock? Nothing! He smiled and waved her though with nary a word. They save their sadism entirely for us locals who they push around with much officious authority because they have been given such unlimited powers – by whom?
But sanity prevails amidst the madness and Commissioner Trevor Benn of the Lands & Surveys Commission must be commended for his commonsense approach to the dress codes. He has stated that to turn people away from paying their bills to the cash-strapped agency because they are wearing slippers or sleeveless shirts would be “foolish”.
Now that the GRA has also removed the dress code, other Ministers, Commissioners, and Department heads should follow suit.
There are situations, occasions, and events that do require socially accepted and appropriate attire – weddings, funerals, parties – but for Government to demand that the public must have a wardrobe change from their regular, everyday clothes just to pick up a library book, or to look after business at government offices is simply ridiculous.
I do not know who has been appointed Guyana’s “fashion police” but I am appealing to First Lady Sandra Granger, who wears sleeveless dresses to many official functions, to use her influence to rid the country of this nonsensical aggravation.
Please have those dress codes removed.
