Women in the Missouri House of Representatives must do what? Are we now to have the fashion police guarding the doors to the chamber?
Again, Missouri made national news and not for a good reason. The House Republicans want to take more choices away from women. It’s not just decisions concerning family planning and their health, but now it’s about covering one’s shoulders and arms on the Missouri House floor.
House Rule 98 was originally sponsored by Rep. Jonathan Patterson, R-Lee’s Summit and passed by the Republican super-majority. It regulates women’s clothing worn while on the House floor.
But not before Rep. Ann Kelley, R-Lamar, amended the rule so that women would be required to wear blazers, jackets, cardigans or knit jackets. This resulted in the “Great Floor Debate.”
The House rule states that women must be dressed in business attire, whether they are wearing a dress or a blouse and slacks or skirt with proper shoes or boots. That means any clothing a woman wears must cover her shoulders, arms and feet while she is conducting business on the House floor.
Punishment for not following the dress code is not stated, but it could mean the refusal to allow that person on the floor to conduct the business of the people or to be “gaveled down” when trying to speak in the chamber.
The GOP is dictating what is appropriate “business attire.” State Rep. Raychel Proudie, D-Ferguson, said in chambers that she “spent $1,200 on a suit, and I can’t wear it in the people’s house because someone … tells me that’s inappropriate.”
A friend of mine owns a small boutique and told me that business appropriate attire for women includes dresses and blouses that have three-quarter or half sleeves or no sleeves at all and makes up about 30% of the business-style clothing she sells.
Gardner-Webb University says that business attire for women does not require a jacket and includes sleeveless dresses. The website indicates that formal business attire is a full suit with jacket. But I have sat in many a “formal” business meeting where the men would remove their jackets and loosen their ties during the session without “punishment.”
Business News Daily reports that “since an employee’s performance can be linked to how they feel about their appearance, employers are giving their staff more freedom to wear what they want. As a result, ‘business casual dress’ has become commonplace in many businesses.” The report states that 79% of U.S. employers prefer casual business dress codes.
OK, there are similar rules for men in the Missouri House, but they were not amended. And no one is looking at a man’s clothing to decide if the jacket, bolo tie, shirt or shoes comply with the code.
I don’t know why, but this is starting to sound like the obscene treatment of women under the Taliban. The Taliban requires that women must wear the hijab “correctly” and requires women to cover their faces and bodies with specific burqas. Punishment for not following the “law” could be imprisonment.
The implementation of the Taliban “dress code” and the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in custody in a Tehran jail for failing to wear her hijab correctly resulted in some of the largest protests against the Iranian government since the extreme religious right took over the country.
The GOP will tell you that they oppose extensive government oversight and rules, yet that is exactly what they are doing in the Missouri House chambers.
It is ironic that super-conservative U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia would not be allowed on the Missouri House floor wearing her trademark sleeveless dresses. She would be forced to cover up.
About one-third of the state House members are Democrats. Twenty-six percent of the House is made up of women. The Democratic Party is represented by 52 members in the House, with almost half being women. Of the Democratic leadership, three of the four leaders are women.
The same cannot be said for the Republican Party where only one of the six Republican House leaders is a woman.
I am afraid this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. I wonder what else the GOP will restrict women from doing?
Rules concerning how women cover their bodies are found in the holy books of the three Abrahamic religions. It is Christian nationalists and MAGA Republicans who are stressing these anti-feminist rules, that somehow it is a woman’s fault for being too provocative if she shows her shoulders, arms, hair or feet.
As my father would often ask, “What’s wrong with this picture?” But his language would be a bit saltier.
David Rosman is an award-winning editor, writer and professional speaker. He is the Missouri State Director of American Atheists and a bi-montly columnist for the Columbia Missourian.