Come on down California Assembly Majority Leader Charles Calderon, a Democrat, for being a prig or a pig (take your pick):
While mercury soared to triple digits Wednesday, Assembly sergeants-at-arms began notifying women that a new policy requires them to wear a coat or sweater to enter the chamber.
The new policy is squishy, unwritten and still developing, but the goal is to fill in the gaps of a longstanding rule requiring visitors, credentialed media and legislative aides to wear “appropriate business attire” on the Assembly floor.
“This is the chamber of the Assembly, this isn’t a barn,” said Ronald Pane, Assembly sergeant-at-arms.
For years, Assembly guards had not rigidly enforced the “business attire” rule, but Majority Leader Charles Calderon, D-Whittier, recently began a push to spruce up decorum in the 80-member lower house. […]
Assemblywoman Lori Saldana pointed out that short sleeves, cap sleeves and scoop necks have become the norm in women’s professional attire trends. The San Diego Democrat said female lawmakers already conform to an unwritten agreement to avoid sleeveless dresses and tops.
“I’m old enough to remember when I had to wear a dress to school,” Saldana said, “so when I heard this could be happening again my response was, ‘Do we have to break out the burqas?’ “
You’d think with all the problems California faces, the sight of a woman’s bare shoulders in the Assembly Chamber would be the least of their elected representatives concerns. Thank you Mr. Calderon for reminding us that male sexism is a bi-partisan problem. And Representative Saldana, don’t worry I doubt burqas will be required considering the anti-Muslim sentiment running rampant in America this month. Veils on the other hand ….
Why not parkas?
Parkas are only business attire in Palin World.
And for D. Cheney as representative of the U.S. at an Auschwitz commemoration.
Or does it even matter? Prolly not, at this stage. Shoulders? Bare shoulders? This country is fucked in the head.
Sorry. Link added.
Also here:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/08/26/99688/california-taliban-no-bare-shoulders.html
And this clown is in a position of power, why?
Go Lori. I knew her and worked with her for many years. No milquetoast here. And she full well knows that long sleeves are the least of California’s concerns.
Yeah, well, she could have chosen a comment that did not insult Muslim women who choose to cover, couldn’t she?
True. Although I feel certain she didn’t mean the insult. She’s Hispanic and has taken her own insults over the years.
Well, that’s just it. Remarks like that roll reflexively out of people’s brains and off their tongues without the application of any kind of thought or judgment, and without raising a single eyebrow from the listeners, who equally reflexively not in agreement without stopping to consider what it is they are agreeing with. This is a clear sign of they way Muslims (and Arabs, many of whom are not Muslims) are viewed as fair game in the U.S. If anyone made a similar remark about Blacks, Latinos, Jews, or gay or disabled people, for example, you can bet they’d be called out on it, but repeat ignorant, insulting stereotypes about Muslims and Arabs and it is accepted without thought or question.
The fact that she didn’t mean to insult is part of the problem. It bespeaks, among other things, a level of ignorance about Muslim women (and women in general) for which there is no excuse. It’s along the lines of comments I hear all the time about the way Muslims (men, presumably) “dress their women”, as if Muslim women do not dress themselves, but must be dressed by others, and as if they are not also Muslims who make their own decisions about how they will observe their religion.