Dress Code (The Mean Girls of Morehouse)

I’ve been working for the same company for 9 years. When I started we didn’t have a dress code and I work with a handful of white, some black folks and shit load of niggas, so you already know them niggas took full advantage of the non-existent dress code. We had women wearing tights, short skirts, halter tops, short shorts and some more shit. Men weren’t any better wearing jerseys, tank tops, baggy jeans, sweatpants, do-rags and fitted caps. Honest to God truth it was a lot of days I walked into the office looking like I was about to move a few grams of coke rather than sitting at desk at Fortune 500 company.

The first quarter of last year they installed a dress code; no shorts, T-shirts, hats, sweatshirts, sweatpants, tank tops, etc... Pretty much if you’re a guy you can wear jeans with polo shirts, button ups or sweaters and women could wear skirts and dress below the knee, blouses (what the fuck is a blouse anyway like exactly define blouse), polo shirts, sweaters and button ups. I was heated. I mean how the fuck are the powers that be going to come out of the blue and tell me I got to change my entire wardrobe up? I been here 8 years, wearing what the fuck I want. How I dress doesn’t effect how I do my job. I stare at a PC for 8 hours plus a day, I could do this job just as well if I was doing it in my boxers. I was writing letters to the union, arguing with union reps and just over all just had a fucked up disposition about the whole ordeal.

Then one of my friends told me if I don’t like it I can always quit. I could give up my benefits and my 6 figure pay then run down to DTLR and fill out an application. There I could wear all the T-shirts and hats my heart desired; I’d even get a discount on it. But I would benefit much more by staying with my current employer and just conforming to the newly added dress code. I was heated but he was dead on.

Today I was reading “The Mean Girls of Morehouse” (and article on Vibe.com) about this group of disgruntled cross dressing students who feel they are the focus of the new dress code. For those who aren’t familiar with Morehouse it’s an all male HBCU and Dr Martin Luther King Jr. graduated from there, it’s like the black Yale. My friends Slick, Panama and Lou also graduated from there. So I’m fairly versed in what it means to be a Morehouse man. In today’s culture it’s damn near fucking impossible to go anywhere and not run across a gay man, consequently, it’s only safe to assume that there will be a great deal of gay men at Morehouse and there is nothing wrong with being a gay Morehouse man. Since 1867, Morehouse has been building the image of the Morehouse man but that man never had a dress on, carried a purse or wore high heels. Do I believe Morehouse is wrong for issuing a dress code that prohibits men from dressing as women? Fuck no. Do I believe the cross dressing males have a reason to be mad that the dress code was changed seemingly to target them? Fuck no. At the end of the day the cross dressing males have more to gain conforming to the newly instilled system than Morehouse has to lose. Maybe one day the Morehouse man will wear a dress, but it won’t be in the near future. The cross dressers got some press (hell they even got me to write this blog) but it won’t top being able to say you’re a Morehouse man any day gay straight or transgendered.

Sometimes you have to swallow your pride and see the bigger goal
Jean DeGrate has spoken