On Getting Dolled Up

[howeird]

Over on renovationsf, there is a debate raging being politely engaged in about what one should wear to the Hugo Awards ceremony. The elephant in the room is that it is way easy for women to toss an evening gown into their carry-on than for a man to pack a three-piece suit. Or even a suit jacket. I'm posting this here because over there it's bound to draw major league shrapnel from the otherwise progressive women's rights-ist folk.

I don't know what I'll be wearing, or if I will even be going. I do know I will not be bringing a suit jacket to the con.

I am not invested at all in the Hugo awards, such things being 100% subjective with no qualifications to vote other than buying a membership in a WorldCon. This does not mean the nominees and winners do not deserve the prize, it just means that each year it's a crap shoot.

For example, if you walk into the Fanzine Lounge, you will see hundreds of issues of dozens of zines. There is no way, short of doctoral-level research, that anyone can read all the ones which come out each year, analyze them for quality, and rank them or their individual contents. And any twelve people who attempted it would come up with different rankings.

But enough of "do the math".

I was brought up in the suburbs of NYC, and whenever we went out to eat or to the movies, I was made to wear a suit and tie. All the men there were dressed similarly. Live theater might require adding a vest. Opera needed tux (women wore furs).

When we moved to Seattle, our first trip to a movie in a downtown theater we dressed like that. We were the only people in the theater who were. My sister and I were regulars at the Seattle Rep - students could snag last-minute seats for $2. There were some people wearing suits, but mostly not. From then on in, the only time we wore dressy clothes was to the opera.

I don't see the Hugos as equal to a night at the opera.

Comments

[howeird]

Yeah, it may never end. :-(