Exactly seven days from today, I'll be in Saskatoon rubbing shoulders with scholars-in-actuality, being elected the student liaison for Small Society (hopefully!), and giving a paper.
Between now and then, there is only one challenge that I need to surmount. This challenge doesn't concern the paper that I'll be giving (I've finished writing about 60%), or my travel arrangements (the plane tickets are already booked), or my accommodations (I'm going to share a room with a friend of mine).
The challenge that I need to surmount concerns my lack of clothing.
It isn't that I don't own business attire, but that I don't own summer business attire. I only wear business attire when I teach and I only teach during the winter months, so all of my business attire is winter business attire. And despite numerous trips to numerous stores, I have failed to unearth clothing that will be suitable for this conference.
It is apparently too much to ask for clothing that fits me, is the right colour, is the right price, and, most importantly, is opaque. Why, might I ask, don't clothing designers design clothes for women that are not see-through? It is utterly impossible for a scholar-wannabe to present a paper in a respectable fashion when her fashion reveals not her intelligence, but her undergarments.
My frustration is only compounded when I note that clothing designed for men is never as ludicrous as that designed for women. Society does not expect men to wear 3/4-length sleeves, low-riding pants, or heels. Men's shirts are always opaque. And while I recognize that ties can be bothersome, they are not nearly as bothersome as panty-hose.
Clothes do not only make the man. They also make the woman.
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