Feminism and Appearance

In light of the discussion going on at Fashionable Academics blog, I wanted to point you to my comments there about feminism and clothing.  While one's appearance is not the be-all, end-all, I do think it signifies many things, including control over one's self and body, as well as the ability to control your image that you perform in the world.  I have written about this in previous posts, considering that I am given an increasingly narrowed instructions about what is considered professional dress as I enter deeper into the professional world.  This for me has provided one very tangible area in which my own ability to quirkily be myself has been subverted through my training.  And I have often felt the sting, not only of looking a certain way, but then acting in a way that conforms to the way I look, which then further informs the way I look, and on and on in a vicious cycle.  I often feel stripped of certain articles that might signify, in particularly to patients, but also to colleagues, my working class background.  I feel this is done purposefully because many things which I might feel are integral to this background are an affront to the exclusivity of the medical system, both in training of physicians and treatment of patients.  And I am constantly trying to work around it, because there is a certain shielding that comes from being distant from other through your manner of dress.  And physicians, more than any other profession I can think of, need to be very aware of personal, professional, physical, and emotional boundaries.   However I think this has caused the profession to continuously err on the side of distance, which I believe is just as great of an error.  This error creates lack of humanism, and lack of care and compassion in the name of safety, which is never safe.  Only by experiencing the full vulnerability can we be fully free.