Hubert Schwyzer, who taught me a great deal about Kant, also occasionally talked about his days as a graduate student at Berkeley in the 60s. Among his other stories, he reported that a great change in fashion happened at that time. When he started, all the professors wore ties. By about halfway through his time there, he said you could tell a professor's political views by whether he wore a tie or not. By the time he left Berkeley, no professors were wearing ties.
Schwyzer is, sadly, no longer with us, and the story he told was of a time before I was born. I am thus rather mystified by this piece. Admittedly, it's about jeans rather than ties, but it's still the same fashion war that his side lost almost half a century ago. Isn't it time to concede defeat?
(I should perhaps add that I have no objection to people dressing up. I just object to it being mandatory, as well as its use to reinforce gender roles, which seems to be something Will considers a feature rather than a bug).
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