CBC Radio panel on banning mandatory neckties
Last week I was invited by CBC Radio’s The Current to take part in a panel discussion about the necktie. It was in response to a mayor in California who is attempting to end mandatory necktie use in government offices. His reasoning centres on gender roles and health: that men shouldn’t be forced to wear something women don’t have to, and that neckties cut off circulation to the brain.
My fellow panellists were Lucy Rycroft-Smith, a British writer and teacher who switched her wardrobe to menswear, and David Bernstein, the head of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and an anti-tie campaigner. I’m not sure if the CBC producers were hoping for sparks to fly, but the discussion was considered, intelligent and balanced, something sorely lacking from most debates today. (I’m looking at you, Twitter).
You can listen to the entire piece here, embedded just under the first image. The panel begins around the ten minute mark. There is also a full transcript of the discussion.
2 Comments
Forrest
August 14, 2018 at 11:05 am
scorchedearth
January 30, 2019 at 11:12 am
Those folks up in Lancaster are a bit daft. Wind blows all the time causing depression. Cutting off oxygen to brain is absurd. Making neckties optional is one thing. Banning is another.
It figures that someone from California would be leading the charge to degrade menswear further. You can pry my tie from my cold, dead hands.