Parliamentary dress code exists for a reason

Re: Pellerin: Men need to step up to help us fight toxic masculinity, Aug. 24

In Pellerin’s article, she outlines how “toxic masculinity makes certain men treat women as inferior to them.” She raises an important issue of how men can help in the fight of male violence against women and specifically, female politicians.

Pellerin goes on to say male toxicity is at the root of the recent “aggressive criticism” against Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner for wearing a sleeveless white dress in the House of Commons. Since, according to Pellerin, it was “evidently too much for some men to handle”, Rempel Garner — being “the gutsy woman that she is” — reacted by buying the same dress in red.

The wearing of the sleeveless dress in the House of Commons has nothing to do with male toxicity. There is an appropriate dress code for all members of Parliament, and it applies equally to females as well as males. It might be more comfortable for male MPs to remove their jackets and wear more comfortable short-sleeved shirts during the summer, but they don’t. There should not be a different set of rules whereby men have to adhere to a traditional dress code and women can just wear what they want. It has nothing to do with sexist attitudes or women’s choices being curtailed. It is out of respect and decorum that the dress code exists, and it is the same in the court system and any other formal ceremonial setting.

Although sometimes (to use her words) she is dismissed as a “no-fun sourpuss old bag,” I would take a milder approach in saying Pellerin appears to be unable to be objective when it comes to gender issues.

Maureen Gaudet, Ottawa