This article talks about how women (particularly if they're blonde) have been banned from serving the world leaders and instead have been replaced by 'more sober-looking men'. The man in charge of this decision 'wanted a uniformity to waiting staff'. 'Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad quotes
the director of the catering company, Hans van der Linde, saying: "If 20
gentlemen are serving and three platinum blonde ladies, then that spoils the
image. The personnel needs to act in as reserved a manner as possible, and you
can't achieve that by adding a couple of pretty, conspicuous ladies to the
mix."' And it seems even more people agree. 'Jean-Paul Weijers, director of the Protocolbureau, justified the all-male line-up, warning that women - whether in
little Delft Blue dresses or a more respectable get-up - would distract all
those blokes running the world and debating how to save us all from nuclear Armageddon.'
Tammi
Author Colin Joyce,
Tokyo, Publication title The Daily
Telegraph, Publication date Sep 16, 2004,Place of publication London (UK)
'Japanese women took a small step
forward yesterday when it was announced that imperial courtiers would be given
uniforms, like their male counterparts.'
I find it interesting how these articles are on opposite sides as to whether uniformity is good, yet both articles are very good examples of how uniformity can be seen and used as a way to single out people, and in both these cases a whole gender.
Tammi
These are interesting to read and consider different aspects to uniformity. I have never thought a lot about this area before, so it is something which is interesting to look into and read about.
ReplyDeleteIts interesting to see articles which show both sides of uniformity- usually we expect it to be something that's more negative however there's definitely an aspect of it that could be positive with people seeing it as a form of equal rights... Could be interesting to explore this further. Jessie
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