flip-flop fascism

I have always been a sandal activist. I brought this type of comfortable footwear to the Athenaeum, Trustee Meetings, etc. I even faced down a professor at an Ath Committee meeting about it. At college, it was about all that any administrator could say to me. "Got your sandals on, I see." (Except DOS. They rock.) College is great because you aren't getting paid, you are paying (or more precisely, being paid for). That makes you the boss, in my book.

Jobs, however, are different. At school I am not the boss. At my old job, I had to wear a tie. A tie doesn't bother me, as long as I can wear flip-flops. Couldn't do that either. But I could deal, because you can make the argument that wearing flip-flops is too casual with a shirt and tie.

At my new job, this is not the case. Teachers wear ripped jeans and t-shirts to class. And so when my boss tells me that slippers are too casual, I want to say that we should not allow ripped jeans or t-shirts. Or even that everyone needs to wear their uniform, which is a chilled out gray suit. I'm pretty sure however, that not one teacher would approve of that decision.

But I think it gets back to culture. While almost all clothing is considered fashionable and perhaps more than casual, it seems that footwear might have a decided message to it. I think I may be straying too far away from that foreign teacher ideal that my administration is shooting for. I'm not sure what the connotation of the flip-flop is, but I have a feeling that the middle/upper class with their long pinky nails and fear of the sun may not like it.

No matter. Since entering the real world, I have become a little less headstrong [read wimp, pragmatic, smart, whatever]. Sandals are not what is important in life. I think. I'm not positive, though.


P.S.--I chose fascism only because it was an alliteration. *wink*