Dear Editor,
I am happy that Ms Joyce Jonas has aired the issue of what constitutes proper or improper dress in the public offices of Guyana. It is not just the GPO where the ridiculousness of “the dress code” reigns and I would like to add my own experiences with it.
The first ever encounter with the code was at the Georgetown Public Library where a buxom female security guard blocked my entrance because, according to her, my dress had “fine straps.” She herself was busting out all over from her too-tight uniform and was giving the public more than little peeks at her undergarments. But never mind.
The other experiences were at the Office at the President when I was the manager of GTV. One day, I had to attend a meeting at the OP and I set off for the meeting in a smart business-like frock. But it had no sleeves and the guards told me I could not enter the compound. I used the guard hut’s phone and called the person I was going to meet. He sent out a man’s jacket for me. I threw it on, left the guard hut, then promptly took it off and went to my meeting. Hey, but the rules were met!
The other experience was also at the OP. A female official from the South African Broadcasting Corp was visiting and we headed off for a meeting one morning with the President. The official was dressed for the Caribbean tropics in a pretty and business-like frock. It had no sleeves. But guess what happened? She was let in by the guards with smiles all around and with not a murmur about her sleeveless dress.
I was left to conclude that the guards knew full well the ridiculousness of the dress code and were not prepared to embarrass themselves before a visitor. But us, the Guyanese public, they gleefully push around. If you question or argue they tell you that is not dem mek the rules. The power they have been given to wield over us!
So, who did? Who sat down with whom and made up a dress code for the general public who go to state institutions to transact business? And why? When did the arms of female Guyanese become indecent or improper body parts? (I believe that men in short pants and tank tops are also given the heave-ho at state institutions so the discrimination is an equal opportunity one.)
And why, in a country where our illiteracy is daily evident, is the public library concerned about how we are dressed? They should be in the frontlines of state institutions welcoming anyone and everyone no matter how they are dressed.
I wore the same dress that was so summarily rejected by the Georgetown Public Library to the Museum of Metropolitan Art in Manhattan. I could have worn that dress to any library, licensing office, or any state institution in the United States, Canada, or Europe and nowhere would it have been considered improper. In those developed countries, state institutions are people friendly and user friendly because they are very aware that they exist because of taxpayers’ dollars and that they are there to serve the public no matter how dressed or undressed they think the public is. In fact, it is not their business to so decide.
I had concluded that the dress code was a part of Guyana’s utter, utter backwardness but I now believe it is much more sinister than that. It was created to make sure we, the public, feel as uncomfortable as possible. The state institutions are often hot, sweltering places (except for the plush air-conditioned offices where dress codes are created) and during the hours and hours it takes to transact even the simplest bit of business, you are expected to sweat and suffer. The dress code is another way for those at the top to make sure you feel the full force of their authority.
Following the code does not make us idiotic. That belongs fully to those who created it. But it is cold comfort in a place where there are rules, codes, regulations and laws for us, and none for “them,” since they can choose to attend even the most formal ceremonies dressed anyhow they want.
Yours faithfully,
Ryhaan Shah
