Women’s dress code in the workplace have become talk of the town especially on social media following by the incident where women aren’t being allowed to wear glasses by various employers in Japan.
Women in a variety of workplaces across Japan, including receptions at department stores and showrooms to hospitality staff and nurses at beauty clinics, have been banned from wearing glasses.
Reasons range from glasses allegedly making women look cold, unfriendly, unfeminine, or too intelligent.
Kyoto University of Foreign Studies sociology professor Kumiko Nemoto found the given reasons absurd, noting that such ideas reflected “old, traditional Japanese” mentality.
“The reasons why women are not supposed to wear glasses… really don’t make sense. It’s all about gender. It’s pretty discriminatory,” she was quoted by the BBC as saying.
It was not clear whether the so-called “bans” were based on company policies, or rather reflected what was socially accepted practice in those workplaces.
But the topic has led to heated debates on social media and sparking a backlash.
#メガネ禁止 (Ban on Eyeglasses) is trending. It's about workplaces where women are made to wear contacts for better appearance. This reminds me of #KuToo movement against "obligatory high heels". No more item-by-item debates. Let's go comprehensive with #Dont_Tell_Us_What_To_Wear
— Yuuki (@ore_english) November 6, 2019
The hashtag “メガネ禁止 (glasses are forbidden)” has been popular in Japan and the topic continued to attract tweets on Friday.
Source : Business Insider | BBC