At a meeting last year, drivers were told that shorts were not allowed."
They have given their blessing to the men wearing skirts however.< "To say anything else would be discrimination," Thomas Hedenius, the communications head, told the local Mitti newspaper, cited by the Local website. He added that the regulations were in place so staff looked presentable and tidy, adding that shorts appeared "more relaxed" than a skirt.
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34 comments:
Dang men are going to figure out that skirts are cooler than pants in the summertime. It would be great if we could all wear caftans all summer.
With a mesh banana hammock.
I don't quite get that. Plenty of uniforms have shorts, and they look neat and tidy. Postal carries, for example. It's discriminatory to allow women to wear a shorter article of clothing in hot weather.
Are these girly skirts or manly skirts?
Don't do it, Meade. Please, don't do it.
Wait, wait, maybe those skirts are just a halfway point to the train drivers final transformation....
Next, they're gonna be wearing kilts, and then, then, they're gonna be turnin' inta Scotsmen!
Greek fisherman's cap rule: If you aren't a Greek fisherman, don't wear one. If you aren't a Scotsman, don't even go near a kilt.
How about a longline panty?
Interesting that men in skirts is considered more 'presentable' than a men in neat shorts.
Oh, and the average July high in Stockholm is 72F. Ooooooh weeee! Gonna roast in those pants, fellas!
Shorts don't look neat on a man or a woman.
Skirts look neater than long pants too, of course, because there's not all that extra fabric outlining complicated body parts. It's just not customary for a man wear a skirt (except where it is). But it's certainly a sensible construction of a garment. There's nothing inherently feminine about it. Look at the Greeks and Romans. Look at Jesus: Ever see him in trousers/shorts (other than that special crucifixion garment one sees in paintings, which I doubt is how the condemned were in fact garbed).
According to Wikipedia, the Romans' crucifixion victims were naked. The "loincloth" in the paintings was to avoid depicting nakedness.
@My Pants
Oh, and the average July high in Stockholm is 72F. Ooooooh weeee! Gonna roast in those pants, fellas!
If you're Scandinavian, that's positively tropical!
When I use to visit my great-aunt in Nice, France in March or April, there would already be Scandinavians swimming or sunbathing --- topless! --- on the beach. There wouldn't be any Frenchman or Italians or much of anyone else, but the Scandinavians would be there.
I may not look great in them, but I love me a kilt. Especially in the summer. Doesn't matter if it's a tartan or a utility. They're nice, cool and comfortable.
They should look at our FeDex and UPS drivers here.
Ann, you probably don't like shorts on men because all of the guys up there are whiter than white. And quite frankly, ghostly legs in shorts are not very appealing (male or female).
But I do find it interesting that you are so passionate about it.
I Have Misplaced My Pants,
Oh, and the average July high in Stockholm is 72F. Ooooooh weeee! Gonna roast in those pants, fellas!
The linked article says that the cabin temperature can get up to 95F. I wouldn't want to be in trousers in that heat.
Have they ruled on culottes yet?
Is there an official Althousian position on the kilt?
Are linen pants for men unavailable in Stockholm?
Steve
Position is very important on the kilt. I'm betting Althouse has a preference for legs closed.
Shorts don't look neat on a man or a woman
When it is 112 degrees outside, as it was yesterday in the town we were visiting, I don't care if I look 'neat' or not. That 112 was just the air temperature. It was probably much hotter when you factor in the ambient heat from the asphalt, concrete and stone buildings.
Shorts certainly can look nice, or neat, depending on the fabric, the fit of the shorts and whether or not the person is not overweight and pasty as most people seem to be in the area of Madison, according the photos that Althouse has shared with us.
Today which was even hotter...I wore something worse than shorts. Peddle pushers made of a lightweight cotton fabric that were cut loose. Can we say CLOWN PANTS. But who cares. I was cool as you can be....in triple digit temperatures.
Kyle the UPS driver in Legally Blond certain looked damned neat to me.
(tried to find a clip of him on youtube. failed)
It may be allowed to wear skirts, which is an insane policy, but I've worn long pants and boots and an armored vest in climates much more severe than Swedish summers and I guarantee that my reputation as a man is worth a lot more than not being allowed to wear shorts. I don't agree with Ann that they are never appropriate, but unless you're a lifeguard they are not appropriate at work.
What kind if men have the Vikings become?
DBQ,
When it is 112 degrees outside, as it was yesterday in the town we were visiting, I don't care if I look 'neat' or not.
Good Lord, where were you? I mean, I believe you; I once played an outdoor gig in Redding, which is more or less in your neck of the woods, and every time you stepped out of a car or a building you felt like you were walking into a blast furnace. Try playing accompaniment to a dance troupe in concert black in an outdoor concrete amphitheater ...
It's Sweden! How hot can it be? And you would rather wear a skirt than long pants? Oh my....
When my daughter was in school in the 80's and now with my grandaughter girls had to wear uniform dresses to school.
They all (as I understand it) wore shorts under the dresses. They were like gym shorts and it was to keep the boys from peeking. My granddaughter does it too.
I used to teach a course in Human Resource Management. One of my lectures was on women in the work place, affirmative action, comparable worth, "equal" pay and so on.
I once wore a dress to class to illustrate some point that I now forget. It was one of my wife's once size fits all, no sleeves, elastic around my chest holding it up and going down to about mid calf. I may have worn a T shirt under it but do not remember. I did have shorts on.
I found it amazingly comfortable. I would have worn it more except that I make an uglier woman than I do a man.
John Henry
When I use to visit my great-aunt in Nice, France in March or April, there would already be Scandinavians swimming or sunbathing --- topless! --- on the beach. There wouldn't be any Frenchman or Italians or much of anyone else, but the Scandinavians would be there.
Change Scandanivans to Canadians and strike the topless part and you have Myrtle Beach in March
Michelle--thanks for pointing that out and busting me for barely skimming the article : ) Clearly the solution is aircon! (Which maybe is impractical for some reason that was also contained in the article and I also missed in my failed reading comprehension.)
Wow! Up to 95 deg F in the cab. That's an average floor temp in a boiler house in winter, where I work. Summer temps? Higher. Considerably so. But, better then the engine room of a ship in the Persian Gulf in August. Been there, too.
Wouldn't be caught dead in a skirt in a boiler room, ship or shore. Loose skirt around rotating machinery? Bad things could happen quickly. Wouldn't wear shorts in one, either. Long pants are safer around machinery, especially HOT machinery.
Swede men don't wear plaid.
Because then it would be a kilt.
In Stockholm? Speaking as someone who lives in South Texas, how hot could it get in Stockholm?
I recently returned from Myanmar where male skirts are universally worn. The Burmese "longi" [more familiarly known in the West as a "sarong"] is a single large piece of fabric wrapped around the waist and held in place with a simple fold [for men] or belt [for women]. Naturally, my wife insisted that I try one on. I did, and it was quite comfortable, although I had to keep tightening the knot/fold holding it in place every few minutes. A simple safety pin, though, takes care of that problem. The biggest drawback -- no pockets.
Harold,
But we're talking Swedes here :-) Not people like you.
Re: clothing around hot machinery, I would hope that employers in the sort of work environments you describe would forbid clothing that was loose, and preferably find some uniform that was both reasonably flame-resistant and porous enough that their employees didn't roast to death. I know that I wouldn't venture into an environment where anything I might brush against might set my clothes on fire in a skirt. If I were there at all, it'd be in trousers, with the socks over the cuffs, and I'd be walking as carefully as a cat. But I wouldn't be there at all, because there's not enough money in the world to induce me to take a job where the ambient temperature is over human body temperature. Low 60s F for me.
Michelle,
It's not the heat that would get the skirt- it's the rotating machinery. Grabs hold, pulls it in, doesn't let go...
The end can be rather gruesome.
I've yet to see a picture of these "men" wearing skirts. Looks like the whole story is bogus, unless a picture is now worth a lot less than a thousand words.
A billion camera phones, now virtually worthless.
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