A cold impression
Well, I guess women at work don’t need to see.
Wearing glasses at work has become an emotive topic in Japan following reports that some firms have told female employees to remove them.
Several local news outlets said some companies had “banned” eyewear for female employees for various reasons.
Among them, some retail chains reportedly said glasses-wearing shop assistants gave a “cold impression”.
If they’re women. Only if they’re women.
I’m going to make a wild guess that it’s not actually a “cold” impression the chains are worrying about, but something more like a “clever” impression. Glasses remind us of reading – so obviously that’s a total turnoff and a waste when it’s a woman. Nobody wants to see clever women. Ew.
The discussion has echoes of a recent workplace controversy in Japan over high heels.
Actor and writer Yumi Ishikawa launched a petition calling for Japan to end dress codes after being made to wear high heels while working at a funeral parlour.
The movement attracted a stream of support and a strong social media following.
Women should look slightly dim and slightly hobbled.
Ah, I was hoping to work this article in somewhere. This just came across an IT Women news group yesterday. Women must be WARM: https://hbr.org/2016/07/to-seem-confident-women-have-to-be-seen-as-warm
Maybe the Japanese read it too?
Oh, and don’t forget not to interrupt: https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/what-counts-as-a-rude-interruption-depends-on-your-gender-study-confirms.html
I beg to differ – but only with the slightly part. The dim might be slightly dim, but it might be a lot dim, because a woman who is trying hard to see something often looks similar to a woman struggling to understand something. And if I didn’t have my glasses, I could not safely do my job, because my vision is around 20/600 without correction.
As for slightly hobbled, high heels (when I was in a situation where I had to, or perceived I had to, wear them) left me more than slightly hobbled. Not only was it difficult to walk correctly in them (though I did manage to look like a stride, it is still very challenging, and requires relearning how to walk, essentially), but they are so structured that by the time you go home, your feet don’t work right until they recover – and by the time they feel better, you are shoving them back into those damned heels.
cazz – that was one of the constant complaints against Hillary Clinton – she isn’t warm. She’s cold. Trump is cold, as cold as they come. Hillary is an oven compared to Trump. But Trump is a man, and cold is good in a man, because it means he’s an intelligent, thoughtful, take-charge sort of guy who won’t take guff off anyone.
The problem is, people want women who will take guff from men…and bake them cookies.
iknklast – yes – one must act like their grandmother, look like their first crush and yet still shine as a tech, else you’ll get stuck taking notes in the meetings and doing all the documentation and wind up as the last to get their hands on new technologies.
A gross generalization, I know.
What I really want to know is, do trans women have to live up to the same standards?
[…] cazz pointed out this Harvard Business Review article. […]
Noooooooooo, of course trans women don’t have to live up to the same standards – they are (everybody sing) – WIDENING THE BANDWIDTH OF WHAT IT IS TO BE A WOMAN.
I would say it isn’t “else” so much as “and”. You do all that, you still get asked to take notes, make coffee, water plants, and stand at the back of the line for promotion.
It’s probably not JUST the ‘dim’ angle, mind you–male customers also prefer to be able to force eye contact, with women, which is harder with glasses, even untinted reading glasses (the eyes behind them can be hard to lock onto). So the guys aren’t just wanting the women to look dumb, they want to engage in flirting in a business environment–kind of like the ‘smile’ rules that a lot of stores try to force on their female employees.
Japan’s also a little bit weird in general when it comes to glasses, . Glasses are a common component in making anime and manga characters attractive. There’s even a term for it (メガネっ娘).
Japan’s honestly just a bit weird in general.