From "What We Wear in the Underfunded University," by Shahidha Bari in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
My first question is: Plato orated in a toga?
The toga is the distinctive garment of ancient Rome (not Greece). And here's something interesting about it, from "SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome" (by Mary Beard*):
Everyday Roman clothing – tunics, cloaks and even occasionally trousers – was much more varied and colourful than this.** Togas, however, were the formal, national dress: Romans could define themselves as the gens togata, ‘the race that wears the toga’, while some contemporary outsiders occasionally laughed at this strange, cumbersome garment. And togas were white, with the addition of a purple border for anyone who held public office. In fact, the modern word ‘candidate’ derives from the Latin candidatus, which means ‘whitened’ and refers to the specially whitened togas that Romans wore during election campaigns, to impress the voters. In a world where status needed to be on show, the niceties of dress went even further: there was also a broad purple stripe on senators’ tunics, worn beneath the toga, and a slightly narrower one if you were the next rank down in Roman society, an ‘equestrian’ or ‘knight’, and special shoes for both ranks.So the modern word ‘candidate’ derives from the Latin candidatus, which means ‘whitened’.... Perhaps we should eschew the whiteness-infected word "candidate."
___________________
* Speaking of "beards in thought."
** "This" refers to Cesare Maccari's 1888 painting of something that happened in 63 BC (Cicero denounced Catiline to the Roman Senate):
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It's been my experience that people who are actually intelligent don't give any thought to how intelligent they are perceived to be by others. Doesn't mean they don't want to look nice, they just don't concern themselves with looking smart.
The toga was the suit and tie of its day.
Yes, appearance matters. Dressing well with proper grooming is visually pleasing to other people, and allows them to focus on what you are saying. It also shows respect for your audience.
So the modern word ‘candidate’ derives from the Latin candidatus, which means ‘whitened’.... Perhaps we should eschew the whiteness-infected word "candidate."
Or we could abandon our fixation on race driven by those who believe they are our moral betters.
Strike that, I just realized that is my white privilege. Some intelligent minorities do feel the need to demonstrate their smarts. But a white guy? No.
Maybe this explains the silly colored and collared robes and vests and weird hats the Roman Church rulers try to impress weak minded people by parading around in, as if God cares.
Like the ubiquitous scarf the professor wore in 'Good Will Hunting'?
Some have mocked Professor Gerald Lambeau’s fashion choice, and the fact that he wears it constantly, but Skarsgård doesn’t understand why. “It was not my idea, it was the costume designer’s idea,” he said. “But it was totally in line with mine because the first thing I said was, ‘I’m a college professor—no tweed.’ That was a condition because I wanted a rock and roll professor more than a tweed professor. I want a professor that f*cked his students. And I got it!”
Fun Fact:
Patrick O’Donnell, who says “bullshit” in a bar scene in “Good Will Hunting,” was actually the man behind the math equations used in the film. He, alongside John Mighton, who plays Gerald Lambeau’s assistant in the movie, created the equations and graphic theorems seen onscreen.
Van Sant met O’Donnell at a restaurant, oddly enough discovering that he was the head of the University of Toronto Mathematic Department. “We needed help with the problems and he hooked us up with John Mighton, who was Tom to [Stellan’s] Gerry,” he said.
As for Skarsgard, he admits he’s not at all like the mathematician he plays.
“[Mighton] actually tried to teach me and make me understand those things, but it was impossible,” Skarsgard joked. “I did the only thing I could: acted.”
And the there is Johnny Cash.
Other than as an excuse for a picture, I don't get how this article is worth blogging. It's all throat clearing and pop-culture references.
Tertullian writes about how the toga is a symbol of Roman colonization. It's the dress of the oppressor, and Carthaginians should embrace again their traditional pallium.
There is an underfunded university?
The length of the toga seems somewhat dependent on women's fashions. That toga in the picture shows a plenitude of folds and proper Victorian modesty.. In the sword and sandal pictures I remember from my childhood, the toga was worn above the knee......,.The Scots wore kilts because there were many hilly streams to cross and wearing kilts was more practical than wet pant legs. Interesting little known fact that I offer to enrich your life.
Also, the elaborate outfits that Catholic priest wear are based on the clothing that wealthy Italian landowners wore in the fourth or five centuries.
So Althouse goes to Animal House and everybody is drunk off their ass and Althouse says, "Excuse me! This is a Greek fraternity, and you're all wearing togas! You're doing it all wrong."
And so they turn the music off and the movie's over.
Ditto Jupiter, "underfunded" is a bit hard to take. Mismanaged is the word.
Genghis Khan and his hordes were said to have introduced the wearing of pants. Beau Brummell was the first man to wear underwear.
Plato most likely would have worn an Ionian Chiton.
Ah, folks, I think the point Althouse is making is that Plato was an Ancient Greek, and he would have been wearing a himation over a chiton. Not a Roman toga.
"Perhaps we should eschew the whiteness-infected word "candidate."" Perhaps we should eschew the whiteness-infected use of English.
Although we frequently are told not judge by appearances, I disagree. Clothes provide a set of signals that are highly informative. Not everyone puts the effort in and that is also a signal, even if unintentional. Of all the things in our world, clothing is one of the few that we individually have a great deal of control over and therefore our choices say something about us.
"The Scots wore kilts because there were many hilly streams to cross and wearing kilts was more practical than wet pant legs."
Oddly enough, the Celts didn't wear kilts, they wore trousers. Sometimes going as high as the knee! Lots more cold than streams to deal with. Kilts can be breezy.
The English took away Scottish pants when they took away their lands and language.
If you rambled away 16 posts in a row on Roman culture or events, with only the subliminal of subliminalities to korean rockets, floodplain mapping, senatorial wrangling, the fate of graveyard plaques in a time of damnatio memoriae, million dollar chariot (bike-ish) trails, and philosophical doublespeak, i would guess the over/under before there is a mention of shorts, Dylan or Trump in the commentariat is 7.
I did not know there were Roman trousers. So thats news to me.
Underfunded university?
One of Mormonism's most distinguished scholars* explained it at the start of one of the best lectures I've ever heard on the difference between Leadership and Management , given at Brigham Young University back in 1983. Though framed in Mormonism's worldview, structures and context, well worth one's time.
*Hugh Nibley, PhD 1938 U. Cal. Berkeley, summa cum laude
Sometimes, when you are credentialed but know nothing, you have to lead others to believe you know something through trickery.
But when you're Einstein, it doesn't matter what you wear.
Interesting note regarding the whiteness of the candidates' togas. The Romans hadn't discovered chlorine bleach, but they had discovered that cow's urine (which contains ammonia) could whiten linen garments. So the whiter the candidate's toga, the more likely he reeked of cow urine.
How long, even also, Cataline, will you continue to abuse our patience?
- remembered opening
Candid used to mean whitewash, now it means the opposite.
"The toga was the suit and tie of its day."
Very true - and politicians are the group I see mostly wearing ties these days with their suits, though even that is changing. Which is a bummer for me, with maybe 200 or so, mostly silk, ties I my collection. And, of course, I wear a tie maybe once or twice a year anymore, or even one of my several dozen suits.
We did wear togas for Latin Club initiations in HS. I got myself elected president there by promising orgies. As if The stern, gray haired, Mrs. Knutson would have allowed such.
Bruce, is a one-man orgy an oxymoron, or just a moron?
Big Mike said...
"Interesting note regarding the whiteness of the candidates' togas. The Romans hadn't discovered chlorine bleach, but they had discovered that cow's urine (which contains ammonia) could whiten linen garments. So the whiter the candidate's toga, the more likely he reeked of cow urine."
Or human urine:
Practical Ways Romans Used Human Urine and Feces in Daily Life
"When left out too long, urine decomposes into ammonia, which is a great cleaning product that takes out stains easily. Roman authors like Catullus attest to people using both human and animal urine as a mouth rinse that helped whiten their teeth."
"The ammonia in urine was also used to clean togas in a place called a fullery. The first stage of cleaning involved men jumping up and down on the togas in large vats with urine inside, like living washing machine agitators, while the second stage often included dirt or ash. Both helped dissolve grease that accumulated on the togas and made them bright again."
"Although human waste was used in a wide variety of ways in ancient Rome, it’s not clear exactly how it was gathered. Latrines—both public and private—were undoubtedly useful for amassing a combination of urine and feces, but would not have worked for tanners, who needed unadulterated urine. It is clear that the collection of waste wasn’t free. The emperor Vespasian levied a tax on urine around 70 CE. Reportedly, when his son Titus expressed disgust at the tax, Vespasian retorted, "pecunia non olet"—"money doesn’t stink." His tax was so famous that his name is still used today as a general term for public urinals (vespasiennes in French and vespasiani in Italian)."
http://mentalfloss.com/article/76994/6-practical-ways-romans-used-human-urine-and-feces-daily-life
For Senators they sure have a lack of purple on their togae.
Sig, it isn't an ancient photo you know.
traditionalguy said:
"Maybe this explains the silly colored and collared robes and vests and weird hats the Roman Church rulers try to impress weak minded people by parading around in, as if God cares."
Being a Roman, and (I suppose) used to such things, they don't strike me as silly or weird, though perhaps I'm just weak-minded. The truth is, priests wear vestments during the liturgy (and only during the liturgy) to celebrate the occasion. We decorate our churches with statues and our altars with candles; we decorate our priests with vestments. We try to give God our best. Mary didn't ask whether Christ cared if she poured perfume on his feet and wiped them with her hair.
Outside of mass, priests are generally tidy but not what you'd call elegant, unless you call a well-worn, short-sleeved black shirt with a Roman collar elegant. Also, in my experience, I've found that priests who get cute / informal with their vestments are likely to be stuck on themselves. It's not hard to see the connection.
You could make similar remarks about university faculty wearing silly robes and weird hats at graduation, i.e., that they're trying to impress weak-minded students and family members. Actually, though, it's a way of honoring the occasion and showing respect. It also symbolizes continuity with the past, that is, tradition, which plays an important role in academic disciplines.
As for every-day attire (which academic regalia evolved from, but no matter), I went to grad school at a fairly prestigious research institution, where the undergrads were often viewed as nuisances, and faculty dressed in holey tee shirts, North Face gear, and Birkenstocks with socks. (I'm in math. I used to play a game on the elevators, trying to guess the discipline of each professor I saw, whether they were math, physics, or astronomy, based only on their attire. I almost always guessed right.) The school where I'm now a professor is focused on teaching and service, and not what you'd call prestigious. But the faculty, despite being paid considerably less, dresses much more formally. I think it's partly a measure of our respect for our students and what we do in the classroom. Big researchers often view that sort of thing with suspicion, because to them it's just a way of padding an unimpressive CV.
I'd also like to point out that formal attire and expensive attire have a significant intersection, but are not the same sets.
our status as bona fide intellectuals
The author is not an intellectual: "Shahidha Bari is a senior lecturer in English at Queen Mary University of London and is writing a book on the philosophy of dress."
Jupiter said...There is an underfunded university?
Nobody goes there because it's too crowded.
"...the Underfunded University...
Apparently not underfunded enough.
we stroke manicured beards in thought, carry bulging book bags to demonstrate commitment, and wield Moleskine notebooks when inspiration strikes.
Who, pray tell, is 'we'?
Mr Wibble said...The toga was the suit and tie of its day.
It's probably closer to say the toga was the elaborate coat and tails/black tie dress of the day. With a full toga you really need the help of at least one other person to get into the thing (probably better to have 2 helpers/slaves) and a couple of people to assist you in getting around. It is large and cumbersome, deliberately so: part of the cachet of the thing is in the fact that it's difficult to wear so only a well-off person could so burden themselves, etc.
You can think of it both as a peacock's tail and as a non-tanned complexion (from the time when the well-to-do eschewed tans since that's what common laborers had)--difficult to don, expensive to maintain, and purposefully restrictive in a way that necessitates the kind of assistance only the well-off could afford.
Fashion!
I like tweed jackets with elbow patches.
Its my winter wear.
Also corduroy slacks.
These really aren't expensive unless one wants to get absurdly impractical, and they last almost forever.
It doesn't cost much to look professorial.
I think the irony was that here was someone talking about using dress to appear knowledgeable and sophisticated -- but then the example given was so messed-up and poorly thought through that it revealed sloppiness and ignorance instead.
Toga apart, was Plato even an orator?
We did wear togas for Latin Club initiations in HS. I got myself elected president there by promising orgies. As if The stern, gray haired, Mrs. Knutson would have allowed such.
It depends on when you went to HS. And I'm willing to bet Mrs. Knutson had her own past...
Raphael Ordoñez
I am afraid that our Traditionalguy is anti-Papist, almost KKK-ish in his pronouncements against the Church of Rome. I believe he is an adherent of the faith that felt it necessary to remove statuary, altars and other adornments of the English churches rather like the current bunch removes Confederate statues. It did not work then and it does not work now. That particular strain of Christianity does not find it necessary to kneel in church..
The toga was not a popular garment. Augustus had to actually create a law to force citizens to wear the toga in the Roman Forum.
There something about this in that book by Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind.
Wiki: Clothing in Ancient Greece
Wiki: Chiton (clothing)
Wiki: Himation
Wiki: Chlamys
Both Plato and Socrates served as soldiers, so they probably wore some combination of those during their lives. That'd be my guess, anyway.
Bari's essay is, as one might anticipate, both plonking and egotistical.
But it did provide me with one genuine laugh:
"Where did you get them?" a student keenly inquired of my owlishly oversized plastic glasses the other day. "1986," I replied.
SPQR is a very good book.
I've always liked skin-tight leather breeches and a codpiece.
"Apparently the students sat and watched in silent horror for the 20 minutes it took for security to arrive with a pair of scissors."
Not a single student in the entire college class had a pocket-knife or a pair of scissors? Nobody had the wherewithal to run to a nearby office for a pair of scissors, but had to wait 20 minutes for official authority to arrive and administer the simple task of cutting a jacket?
And the writer is concerned about the sartorial and "power" issues rather than the complete helplessness of all involved in that anecdote?
Leather boots are still the style for manly footwear
Beads and Roman sandals won't be seen...
I second gblanch that SPQR is a very good book--well-written, not at all ponderous (especially given the topic), and full of interesting details and analysis. Highly recommended.
Having spent the last 42 years working on a university campus, I find it difficult to generalize about faculty dress patterns.
There are always the few who wear sandals and dress boho. There is an incredible amount of variation in dress patterns.
The only clear pattern I noticed is that faculty in the business college tended to dress professionally and at least semi-formally. I do think that students pay better attention to faculty that dress professionally. Graduate students are a different story. They tend to wear whatever they can afford when teaching.
I think the posted article is at least a bit pretentious.
Professor Bari is writing a book on the philosophy of dress? She is no doubt unaware that Herr Professor Diogenes Tuefelsdrockh has anticipated her by 150 years.
PatHMV said...
"Apparently the students sat and watched in silent horror for the 20 minutes it took for security to arrive with a pair of scissors."
Not a single student in the entire college class had a pocket-knife or a pair of scissors
I worked HVAC on a college campus. Some of the classrooms were in older buildings with no AC. Got a trouble call one day for one of the classrooms. Two of us went to answer. And opened the heavy window for them. Apparently with a male professor and 8 male students in the room, they couldn't muster the knowledge needed that said two people were needed to open an old wide heavy window. There were also female students in the room, and unlike on television and in movies, they couldn't open the window with their superior strength and knowledge.
Socrates's wife Xanthippe once hid his cloak so he couldn't go out and philosophize with the boys ("Honey, I swear, we just talk about epistemological and metaphysical paradoxes!"). Socrates went out naked.
"what we wear — an age-old tradition beginning with Plato"
That seems to be untrue as well. Really, it wasn't until Plato that anyone paid attention to a lecturer's clothing?
Folks should start wearing white to protest antifa who wear back. Including a white handkerchief over the face.
Maybe this explains the silly colored and collared robes and vests and weird hats the Roman Church rulers try to impress weak minded people by parading around in, as if God cares.
--traditionalguy
It doesn't. The vestments worn during celebrations of the Eucharist by priests and bishops of the Western rite of the Church that Jesus founded are from a later period of Roman history. Is that your gripe, "traditionalguy", that they're not ancient enough for you? If so, you'd be happier attending services among Catholic Maronite or Catholic Byzantine worshipers.
Anyway, traditionalguy, if you have a problem with accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord, Savior, and King, and because He is the King of Kings to show honor to the king's ministers because that shows honor to the king, then why do you feel you have to hassle and mock those of us who do?
Isn't the most interesting anecdote about a toga the story of Cincinnatus? He was plowing his field (while wearing a simple tunic) when messengers from the senate arrived from Rome to ask him to take command of the state in a crisis. Before he received them, and in order that he could receive them properly, he had his wife bring him his toga. Thus attired, he could attend to the state's business. This was the man who was so 'centered' that he gave up his dictatorial powers early, once he'd delivered the state from danger, and returned to his plow.
Shahidha Bari really means to denounce the whole idea of rigorous intellectual testing of ideas. Her point is that since academia is really the expression of political power (untrue), a direct political assertion is a necessary act to overwhelm and undermine the authority of the universities. Her idea, like the postmodernist totalitarians, is to destroy intellectual order itself to replace it with raw coercive power.
Her ignorance of who wore what when should be the least of our concerns.
I thought Gibbon remarked that the Senate, and Emperor, wore togas as a nod to Greek democracy. Anyway.
Plato didn't "orate" either.
"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society." -- Mark Twain
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