Wearing shorts sluttish, dress code hinders creativity?

I read with much interest regarding an article in MyPaper dated 14 Jan 2009, reproduced above regarding the dress code and how it goes against the spirit of encouraging "creativity and critical thinking". Strangely after reading the article I was a tad supportive of her exertion. Freedom to choose what to wear, not being restrictive in clothing because one will "wear more solemn" clothing for the next forty years appeals to me. You see I also love to wear non-formal clothings. I go nearly everywhere in slippers - Orchard Road, market, shopping mall, beach, etc. It gives me the convenience and the freedom and saves time! Hence I can understand the writer's sentiment. Why restrict when the future is already restrictive with all the formal wear and neck tie. Furthermore, as a guy, I definitely will not mind girls wearing shorts and spaghatti - feast for the eyes!

But with a deeper understanding of what the university tried to do with its dress code, my feeling for such micro-wear (haven't reach nano-wear stage yet, sigh), and my sentiment change. No I do not agree that wearing tank-top equal prostitution. No doubt most if not all prostitute wear micro-wear; but to equal prostitution with micro-wear I think is unfair. Micro-wear can be elegant if it is worn at the appropriate occasions eg wedding dinner, annual D&D, or even a shopping trip down Orchard Road. But then again it depends on what accessories are used with such micro-wear.

My agreement with Joy Fang ends here. Freedom seems to be the catchword these days. Freedom of speech, freedom of choice, blah, blah, blah. But people forget that with freedom comes responsibility. Responsibility towards yourself, the people around you and in this context responsibility towards your lecturers. What do I mean by responsibility towards the lecturer? It simply means showing respect to your lecture and the University. And this is done by dressing appropriately for the occasion. Lectures and (especially) tutorials are formal occasions and hence deserve a certain dress code aka formal clothing. By not wearing formal clothing, this give the impression that there is no respect for the lecturer and what the lecturer stands for. I am sure Joy Fang will agree with me that micro-wear can hardly be anywhere near formal.

It is strange that in these days and age, with people getting more educated, commonsense seems to be lacking. Previously, people generally know how to dress when they go for lectures, outings etc. But nowadays, there seemed to be no distinction between formal and informal wear. Now we have all-occasion wear - the same T-shirt or shorts can be used to go to market, shopping, movie, university, hospital, banks, etc. Some people just forget about the plain commonsense to wear appropriately. Hence this leave the university with little choice but to give a gentle reminder (which is such a commonsense thing, that is absolutely unnecessary).

The university is a place of moulding the young. If not wearing appropriately is not frowned upon, how is the younger generations to know that there is such a thing as appropriateness and courtesy. Already the current generations are deprived of such guidance because of changing social circumstances where 2-pay cheques, domestic helper and paper chase is the norm; all unfortunately did not prepare one for life's challenges. If the university do not remind the students about the dress code, then how are they to distinguish between formal and informal wear? To those who say that it is such commonsense that formal dress code is needed in the office, I will point out that once upon a time, going to lectures meant wearing shirt (not Ts), longpants and shoes for guys and blouse and skirt or pants with shoes for the girls. It was also commonsense then but somehow commonsense disappeared.

So you see, what the university is doing is not to restrict "creativity and critical thinking" to quote the author (although I still cannot figure out what critical thinking has anything to do with wearing micro-wear) but just to give a (gentle?) reminder on apropriate dress code.

In case you are wondering, I do not wear slippers or shots when I attend lectures or attend functions in my children's schools.