Dresses with the tail poking out

Written by

Ophelia Benson

in

Always be sure to minimize it. The Scotsman:

Civil servants are being made to feel ‘uncomfortable’ by a colleague who arrives for work dressed as a cat.

The male staff member is believed to identify as non-binary and is said to wear dresses with the tail poking out of the back of the dress.

I really doubt that the civil servants feel just “uncomfortable”. I bet they feel irritated if not furious. Jobs are jobs; they’re not playtime at nursery school. Jobs are about the job, not the fascinating inner life of a selected few of the employees. The workplace is the workplace, not a bar or a pub or a park or one employee’s living room.

A second insider, who works at Victoria Quay, also confirmed the person’s choice of dress. They said: “The issue seems light hearted but, actually, staff were uncomfortable but felt they couldn’t express opposition to this form of dress because we are encouraged to be kind and open-minded, especially around issues of identity.”

No, the issue doesn’t seem lighthearted, at least not if you think about it for longer than five seconds. It seems intrusive, insulting, childish, self-involved, tiresome, and bad.

The Civil Service Code states that staff must “always act in a way that is professional and that deserves the confidence of all those you deal with”. The rules extend to clothing and appearance.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “All civil servants are required to dress appropriately for work. The dress described in this claim would not meet that requirement.”

I should think not. Work is not the same as a costume party.

Comments

6 responses to “Dresses with the tail poking out”

  1. Piglet Avatar
    Piglet

    If this is true*, just imagine what would happen if an actual woman showed up to work wearing a dress with a cat tail poking out the back. She’d be laughed out of the place. Certainly nobody would be too intimidated to tell her she looks ridiculous and unprofessional. In any case, it really does give the lie to “we are terrified for our lives, using the men’s toilet puts us at risk of being outed” doesn’t it?

    *I admit I’m slightly sceptical because of those “schoolkids using litter boxes” stories which turned out to be about teachers having an emergency toilet bucket in case of a school shooter lockdown.

  2. Artymorty Avatar
    Artymorty

    @Piglet,

    The furry and “pup” cultures are very real, and they’re very much emboldened lately to push other people’s boundaries.

    They show up at gay men’s bars and bark and growl and pant at the other patrons, it’s fucking awful. They’re almost all “non-binary”, a significant number of them are severely autistic, and the majority are clearly not gay men at all — you can tell this latter part because they bring their little polycules of very young, insecure “non-binary” straight women along with them to gay men’s spaces. The women bring blankets and sit on the floor, right in the middle of the dance floor, huddled in groups, like it’s a kindergarten. They look frankly terrified. No wonder: the costumed men pick them off one by one to be taken to the semi-private back room, the one where sex takes place. I am absolutely not joking. No one can stand them, but few are willing to speak up.

  3. Piglet Avatar
    Piglet

    Artymorty: oh, I completely believe you’re not joking – it’s just that in current-era the most insane bullshit stories do the rounds.

    That whole club scene sounds both grim and sad, and a long way from the furries I’ve known personally who keep it to their own conventions (at least one had a pretty high security clearance). I’m a bi woman who’s always had gay male friends, so we’d go clubbing when I was younger, long before the hen parties invaded, and it was unsaid but obvious that backrooms were off-limits. I can’t imagine what would have happened if women sat on the dance floor with blankets but I’m imagining 10 seconds of withering sarcasm before security escorted them out. How is this happening?

  4. twiliter Avatar
    twiliter

    Sounds like self infantilization is becoming more normalized. Where are the psychologists when we need them. Isn’t the point of human life progression to mature into adulthood? I don’t know. All I wanted when I was young was to be an adult with all its autonomy and freedom. Maybe that’s not a thing anymore. It all sounds so pitiful. I surely don’t get it.

  5. Ophelia Benson Avatar
    Ophelia Benson

    “10 Seconds of Withering Sarcasm” would be an excellent title for something.

  6. Francis Boyle Avatar
    Francis Boyle

    One of the weapons in the Piranha brothers’ inventory, perhaps?

    But I’m definitely adding it to my list of “bad” band names.

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