There are some things that seem too stupid to have really happened (see: Donald Trump’s existence), and this latest news story is just one of them.
The Brussels Free University just gave their graduating students one more major life lesson before sending them out into this dumb world. A lesson in basic bitch sexism. In a mass email ahead of their June commencement ceremony, the college instructed their female medical students to wear ‘a nice low neckline’ for the event.
You can just picture the creepy middle-aged man hunched over the keyboard in a darkened office, typing N-I-C-E really slowly, with one hand.
Except, the dean of the medical faculty, Marco Schetgen later said it was ‘likely’ a woman who sent the email, proving internalised misogyny is alive and well in 2017.
EXTRA EYE ROLL.
The leaked email – that Schetgen also confirmed was definitely ‘not a hoax’ because you would totally assume it was – read:
‘From an aesthetic point of view, it is preferable if young women wear a dress or a skirt and a nice low neckline.’
At the end of the message he/she/moron added as an afterthought:
‘Of course, ladies, this advice is not obligatory.’
If you’re wondering, men were just told to wear a suit because obvs.
I know, I know. It is really tempting to just laugh at stuff like this. It seems sort-of silly to be upset about clothes, when there are many more terrible things happening in the world (again, see: Donald Trump). But that doesn’t mean we should let shit like this go. Because this does matter. It matters because it’s another stark reminder of the different standards women are held to; how we’re continually told that our looks are the priority; another reminder that our role is to look decorative and appealing. This email could’ve requested formal attire or a uniform for the ceremony – which is fine and not the same thing – but instead, the female students were singled out and asked to sexualise their appearance. And it was done casually, because it’s still seen as a normal thing to ask of females. It told women who’ve worked for years – ALMOST ACTUAL LITERAL DOCTORS – that their ‘aesthetic’ still matters more.
The timing of it is the extra depressing part. That this message was given to women who’ve just done something so totally amazing with their brains. A moment where they should be celebrating and celebrated for their intellect, instead, they’re reminded that they still need to look a certain way. That women – young women in particular – are seen as decorative life wallpaper. Hey laydeeeees! Congratulations on all those years you’ve spent getting a Phd, but we want cleavage tonight, cool?
A panicked university eventually posted its ‘sincerest apologies’ on social media (after the story made it into a Parisien newspaper). They said: ‘It goes without saying that the instructions related to the clothing of young graduates are contrary to the values of the ULB and this faculty.’
And y’know, great, thanks guys, please don’t do it again. Nobody do it again. As one of the university’s own sassy students wrote in response:
‘No one has the right to tell you how you should feel in your skin. Nobody has the right to tell you how to dress. No one has the right to tell you how to play your role as a woman. No one has the right to take away this freedom that has been (and is still being) obtained with such difficulty.’
Yaaassss.
Follow Lucy on Twitter at @lecv
Hot Mess by Lucy Vine is published by Orion and is out now on eBook, only 99p