Here's the problem with Progressive Dems: I can't wear Xmas Sweater

or "makeup" to their events. I need to show up in "moth eaten faded sweatshirt" with 'FUCK BUSH...BUSH SUCKS' emblazoned on the front"...or if I want to be really cool a "plain sweathirt and jeans with some "obvious worn areas" on the knees or butt.

They don't want to accept me unless I wear the "Code Dress." I need to look really cool "downplayed."

But...what I wear seems to put me in the Repug Camp! I have some nice jewelry...I like to wear neat clothes...I like holidays and I wear high heels...but to go to "Progressive Dem Functions" I look "REALLY WEIRD!!!"

I think I must be a Repug? Or, that "Progressive and Other Dems" just don't get those of us who don't want to look like 70's Hippies? :shrug:

I'm assuming not.

Wear what you like and let anyone who makes a decision about you on based on how you dress alone go take a flying leap.

which I know many DU'ers will think is a "Limosene Liberal" post.

It will get into that folks who can only afford a sweatshirt shouldn't feel kindly to me who can afford a Christmas Sweater and jewelry. And the attacks will be that I'm "class concious" and so should just learn to deal that folks don't care about how one dresses if one is attending a dinner or function for a cause.

But, my reply to them is that ....how "I" dress shouldn't have folks stare at me or ignore me because I can go to Walmart or Target and buy shoes and a "Christmas Sweater" and I feel it shows "Respect" to folks if I try to look nice for an event.

Why should I try to look "downscale and downtrodden" when I grew up in poor areas way back where one always took out THEIR BEST to appear...so they wouldn't look "disadvantaged." :shrug:

:rofl:

That's what I was thinking too! :rofl:

I think your progressive friends need to reflect on what diversity is for a moment or two.

The Progressives here in NC are a pretty buttoned down crowd. Can't say I have ever seen a Fuck Bush tshirt at any of our meetings.

Been to a couple of Wake County Progressive meetings and gatherings. They arn't a bunch of wild eyed hippies thats for sure. Heck, they meet at the Academy of Trial Lawyers office building.

Devout progressives, all, but look at our clothes...No dress codes for this crowd. We like you no matter what you wear.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=160x15863

"Diversity." Thanks for the pix..

I don't have that here...but I can't stand "cold.......cold...ice and snow..." but maybe I need to think about this.

You know I lived in NY City/State, Connecticut and New Jersey for years...before I ended up back where I was born in the Southern US. And, I've got to say that the South has gone "Grunge" since I moved back...for Dems...because I didn't expect to feel "out of place" because I'm a "Progressive."

But...South is Repug with the Texas Diamonds and Furs and the Mainstream Dems wear the Christmas Sweaters and try to look nice where I am...but there's such a "CLASS THINGY" since I've been back...it's really hard to deal with where I fit in. And, I grew up here.. :-( It's all changed, though....and the Dems are not the Dems I grew up with in the South and the Progressives where I fit....I don't fit in.

I wish I'd been there.

You need to find new circles. I like holidays too and was raised not to wear profane T-shirts!

and something really "in your face" because where I am..(and I'm what Chris Matthews called a "Whacky Lefty") if I show up in what I really wear...I get looked on like a Repug Plant...

???????? I thought it was worth posting ...even though folks I love in my Progressive Movement here where I live and on DU will TRASH ME FOR MY POST!

I thought it was important to post it. I look and dress like what folks would say is Repug...but I'm NOT...yet..it targets me...:shrug:

"I look and dress like what folks would say is Repug"...that could be tux and tails or a "wife beater" (horrible name!) and filthy overalls. Both say 'repug' to me. Same goes with progressives. Best advice is to be true to yourself and stare back at em!

Even out here in bleeding heart liberal, decadent Caleeforny, we don't dress any differently than the conservatives, except that our T-Shirts might have anti-Bush slogans on them and their T-Shirts have way too much red, blue and white with stars, like they made them from a Fourth of July tablecloth. So dress the way you like and the hell with them. They need you.

catching that...it's true. BUT....that doesn't mean my post isn't addressing a portion of America...whose "cultural mores" support what one wears out to functions and how Dems can lose if they look down on those of us who do try to "look nice" because of the way our Parents raised us. :shrug:

I'm in the south.

Everyone dresses neatly and "looks nice"--no different than at other events I've been to where Dems and Repubs were together.

I guess you and I "Lex" just don't run in the same crowds. :shrug:

I've been to numerous Dem events here in the South and many people dress up. I recently went to an Edwards event and many of us were a bit dressed up.

We do not all look 80's grunge here.

I've lived all over NC, and in VA for the last six years, and Progressives I've known wear everything along the spectrum.

Protests and respect their rights to wear what they want to...but they would look down on me for what "I" wear thinking I don't have the correct credentials to be a Radial Left Wing Liberal...like they are.

:shrug: I am very "RADICAL" but "Traditional."

It's hard to achieve the balance unless I go and "dress down."

Then yeah, you probably were over-dressed for the march.

at...sheesh...so disagreeable....

I work every other Saturday, so for the past three years at our Saturday anti-war vigil on one of the busiest corners in our town, I'm out on the corner in full makeup, jewelry, and more often than not a suit.

My "hippie" friends think it's really cool and like the fact that it reflects the diversity of the anti-war demographic. (After they decided I wasn't FBI. :))

So put on your makeup and jewelry, wear your favorite shirt, and hold your head high.

Lipstick Progressives, unite!

simply to belie the outdated stereotype of "hippie protestors."

but it somehow missed in the presentation! Thanks!

Thanks for the tip...believe me ...I spit out my dinner on that one...it was SOOOO GOOD! :-)'s and a "tip 'o the hat" to ya'!

I like my jewelry, and my father always insisted we dress nice when we went somewhere and I haven't outgrown that. I have been treated as if I am not serious because of that. But as they said in The Big Chill, fuck 'em if they can't take a joke.

One of my Top-Ten favorite movies! Excellent taste, luv! (It figures!) :loveya:

I hope you weren't sending a hidden message.....:-(

I'm a fashion anarchist. I tend to regard what passes as 'fashion' (in clothing) as slavish and codependent. I abhor dirt and rocks (make-up and jewelry) and eschew artificial scents of any kind. I obsessively prefer natural fibers, mostly cotton, and avoid anything that's not wash'n'wear. I wear Birkenstocks because I have sciatica and because I want my feet to be healthy with toes free to wriggle or press. I avoid places/events with "dress codes" like the plague. Utter insanity. I value personal hygiene above all - showered and scrubbed - but have no sweat or soil phobias of any kind. I think the way most women dress ("up") is totally idiotic. Totally. To each his or her own. :shrug: Clothes don't make the person!

When I'm out walkin' I strut my stuff man, I'm so strung out
I'm high as a kite I just might stop to check you out

Out here in Los Angeles, I attend a number of events which would certainly be considered "progressive", if not uber progressive and I must tell you that there are events where people are dressed down, and there are events where people are dressed to the nines, and then there are events where dress is somewhere in between both extremes.

I don't have my tuxedos for nothing. I wouldn't be caught dead at many, what you would call, "progressive", yet formal "black tie" events in Los Angeles without one. And, of course, there are fund raising events for all sorts of great progressive causes which common sense would dictate, at the minimum, a suit or sports coat, for a guy. And then, there are just as many events where one would feel comfortable and "fit in" wearing jeans and sneakers.

in a Tux or even a Navy Jacket over a dress shirt in the "Progressives."

Sadly...one must sort of look....RADICAL....

It's dreadful for one who is a LEFTY like ME...but likes to look good. And, than one should apologize for trying to look good and put good food out on the table for events and not just swig beer out of the bottle or look for better than "chicken out of the Kentucky Fried Bucket...is sort of hard to deal with.

I think that I am very strange. :shrug:

Would love to do the Tux thing...but it just doesn't exist on the Progressive Level here. It's sad. I don't know how we can bridge the gap on this. And, believe me...there's nothing more that I hate more than "Fluffed up Society Events where one does the Botox/Viagra thing." I guess that's why Liddy Dole rules in NC...but our Dems like our DINO Govenor Mike Easley might have events where the Botox/Spa Crowd in Tuxes are invited...but no matter how much money one gives to Dems here, if one is a Progressive one is out with the "Bucket Chicken Crowd" in a parking lot...where one doesn't really fit in ...if one doesn't dress WAYYYYYYYY DOWWWWWWN... and not talk about anything at all...

I've been to quite a few Democratic events here in NC and it is the norm that people dress nicely at these events.

Even at anti-War events I've attended, there were people there dressed in whatever way they normally dressed (ie, grannies, middle-aged guys, teen-agers).


If you are saying that wearing "neat clothes" makes you look less like a "progressive Dem" then I say you are FULL of it.

about "Progressive Democratic" Events. There "IS" a difference...before you trash my head off about my post and why I have a right to say it.

Peace! :-)'s Terminology....lets get it straight before you attack.

I found that once I gave up all that fitting in crap that people actually took me seriously. My oddness brought enough attention that I could talk and then my words worked for me.

Seriously, dress up, wear your heels (ouch) and jewelry and be your own cool self.

always tells me I should trick the republicans by dressing like them, and then infiltrate them from within (like LBJ did, he says...).

would never go to vote at the polls or shop in the grocery store without a proper shirt and a dress jacket! We could never show up around him without something he considered proper...and he's now in a nursing home wearing "sweat pants" because it's easier on the nursing help...but he hates it and want's "proper pajamas." So...maybe it was my upbringing that I'm so "uptight" about what I wear.

I dressed UP, BIG TIME, and was the first to give Helen a warm embrace.

I've never found that "progressives" demand some kind of dress protocal, ever. There's always a 'spoiler' who wants to denigrate, for whatever weird reason,...the nature of being among a wide spectrum of people, I guess. But, SO WHAT?!?!

And like all other puritans, they can't sleep well if they think someone somewhere is having fun.

To those Puritan Progressives, if you like eating out at nice restaurants, or talk about a politician being attractive, or care about your clothes, you're a problem.

Your job is to teach them they can be progressive AND have fun.

I've not seen any such "dress code" for a Dem or liberal function. Other posts on this thread seem to contradict your assertion as well. Do you think perhaps you have painted Progressives and Dems with too broad a brush, hmmmm???? :shrug:

thread before you "popped off at me?" :shrug:

and the rest of the post does NOT portray a "tongue in cheek" or in any way contradict that you are in fact accusing Progressives/Dems as a group of grunge fashion Nazism. So I am basically disagreeing with you.

newspapers or on the tv news when attending bush protests. Why should it bother you, I'm sure it doesn't bother the others? Progressive is a mindset not a dress code.

I owned a contemporary clothing store in a gallery district during the late 80's up until the last election. I was at the height of hippness for a long time, but as we grow older and wiser, what is really important becomes more apparent.

;)

I've noticed in the latest Media Pix they cut off the stars and try to make her look "normal." :rofl:

I've been to SOCIALIST meetings where people are "dressed up," along with people dressing in jeans and T-shirts, and lots of people in between.

Strange.

Koko, I'm not calling you a liar or anything, so please don't take it that way. I'm just saying that this must be a weird rogue group you're trying to work with, because I've worked with Democratic and Socialist organizations for years, and I have NEVER known anyone to look down on anyone for dress. I've had old ladies in pearls stand next to young stoner types, next to Soccer Moms in Eddie Bauer, next to Comic Book Guy in flip flops and a Hawaii shirt, next to poor Hispanic immigrants in thrift shop wear, next to Goth kids, next to country folks in paydays, next to oh-so-hip college kids, next to Granola Unitarians, next to women in power suits, etc.

In NC, I lived in Fayetteville, Wilmington, and Greensboro, over a 17 year period.

n/t

Peace! and :-)'s to you Lex.... You didn't read my OP did you?

You said, ""Progressive and Other Dems" just don't get those of us who don't want to look like 70's Hippies"

I say that's just a groundless Rush Limbaugh-esque stereotype.

a "put down" of a drastic nature...wouldn't you say? :shrug:

Where do you get off with that?

evening to you too!

:D.

Limbaugh likes to say that Dems are all just a bunch of hippies in torn sweatshirts.

Sound familiar?

but assume he's still into that "Feminazi" stuff. :-)'s

But the things Franken plays to show what a jerk Limbaugh is--amazing. Making broad brush strokes like "democrats dress like hippies" and stuff like that.

will you offer me Champaigne? :eyes:

You are giving me such a hard time on this post...and since they moved it to the Lounge...I'm not doing "serious" anymore, like I would if this were still up in General Discussion Forum where I don't get into bantering.

Do you think I'm trashing you or Progressives or something?

reads, to me, especially in light of what so many have posted on this thread.

Since you've called me out to "read your original post" twice now, what about it is supposed to make me stop disagreeing with the sentiment posted? There is no label on it saying "humor" or whatever.

in that you differed...

be what you aren't understanding. I can go to regular Democratic Functions here and not have a problem. It's my "home base in philosophy of the PROGRESSIVES where what one wears seems to be important.

I was very clear that I was talking about "Progressives" and not Mainstream Dems, in my OP though. :shrug:

and tree dont look too dem. looks way too much like a repug house...... yup. we even have a flag flyin, sssshhhhhh dont tell anyone. our little secret

Are you saying that a group of people TOLD YOU they thought you were dresssed inappropriately? Or you just imagined that they were thinking that?

:-)'s and Peace to you.....Personal Observation...

It's a waste of time paranoid because most people really don't care that much. :P

Shoot, I wear a button-down shirt when I go camping. I do wear jeans, though. Sometimes.

On edit:
I'm not even all that horribly uptight. I just like to have a little, tiny shred of class when necessary, and don't particularly like t-shirts.

they sound pretty superficial to me.

A little makeup, a nice tight sweater, some high heels -- nothing wrong with that.

it's the ideals and thoughts you have that are important. Clothing is artificial and you never know who is lurking behind those 'one of a kind' outfits.

Those things just creep me out!

People always dress as they want others to see them. But clothes are an extension of your speech and expression, they should reflect who you are, not who you want to be. If you want to dress in holiday sweaters and heels (not at the same time!) go ahead. Don't worry about not looking like the people around you.

For the record, I randomly wear a white tux to school.

:-)'s

whether I lived in a blue or a red area.

on a week ago and Holiday Sweaters were near the top of the list.:7

Seriously, I did watch some if it, I was bored. A least I learned that VPL was the top Fashion Mistake.:wow:

Party? Maybe my jeans with the holes in the knees? Would "Glamour" approve of that if I need to meet my State Legislators at that Party?

Maybe they would just think I was too cool? Or, a person like Abramoff who just doesn't give a Fuck as long as I can put money in their pockets? Like maybe I have "Old Family Money" and just like to wear "Bush Sucks" T-Shirts.

:eyes:

me, I thought it was funny - I didn't even know what VPL was and now that I do know - have no clue why I should care.

:shrug: Whatever...I was just replying to you in fun...okay?

Visible Panty Line.

really notice at a Progressive Meeting. :D Or, maybe at a traditional Dem Meeting...but those Repugs might just throw me down on the ground about it...PANTY LINES!!!!

Thanks for the clue in on this. :-)'s

that says "FUCK BUSH...BUSH SUCKS" on it.

I went to the big DC rally and march in September. For the pre-party I wore a sweater twinset and skirt. For the march I wore a sweater and skort, and for the after party I wore another sweater twinset and skirt. As to the other participants I saw a wide variety of attire from t-shirts and jeans to blouses and skirts. There definitely was no indication of a "dress code".

We all dress snazzy for the holidays!

I never wear hemp, personally. Sure its fun to smoke and all, but useless as a fashion statement...

I used to feel weird about going places dressed in a suit and tie. When I became more comfortable with myself, amazingly, so did everyone else. I stopped seeing the dirty looks and stopped hearing the snide comments. It was just like magic ;-)

Clothes may make a statement, but really, what does a "liberal" look like? It's the outlook on life, how one treats others, etc...not what choice of clothing you make each day in my opinion.

Also, I wear makeup when I go out. It's personal preference is all. That's how I look at it anyway.