this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2024
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Staff at the DWP reportedly objected to the clothes of Saorsa-Amatheia Tweedale, a trans woman who co-chairs the LGBT+ Civil Service Network

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[–] LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 37 points 3 months ago

Ms Tweedale, 58, is said to wear low-cut black corsets, fishnet tights with high heels and a gothic choker with a pentagram when she attends the office

Based

[–] riskable@programming.dev 34 points 3 months ago (3 children)

There's a big problem here: Every kind of clothing is "fetish clothing" to someone.

[–] fakeman_pretendname 22 points 3 months ago

"Phwoar! Most of the people in this hospital are wearing nurse's uniforms! Kinky!"

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yeah a nice pair of jeans are absolutely a form of fetish gear and a traditional one no less

[–] GraniteM@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

There are people with a raincoat fetish.

[–] rah 28 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

"low-cut black corsets, fishnet tights with high heels and a gothic choker with a pentagram"

[–] dogsnest@lemmy.world 14 points 3 months ago

My friend would like to know where, exactly, this is, so a complaint may be filed.

[–] Wanderer@lemm.ee 17 points 3 months ago

Surely this goes without saying.

What's wrong with people nowadays? Standards are just dropping across the board

[–] Emperor 15 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

It does make me wonder if they know what fetish gear looks like but going by the photo of the Baroness, I doubt she'd recognised it if it walked up to her in the street and asked for her safe word.

Depending on the dress code, this is, at best, an HR issue but it seems like the Tory press are trying to make it the next front in the culture war. We should take a leaf out of the Democrat's playbook and refuse to engage them, as this is just weird.

[–] I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 14 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I feel like before I can form an opinion, I need to see the outfit in question. There is a description, but it's not very detailed and not exactly from a neutral source. As described though, it sounds like she was dressed like Dr. Frankenfurter, with a choker instead of a pearl necklace. Which... Yea, that's not a workplace outfit for a civil servant.

But then again, it could be tame as hell. I have no idea. Because despite writing an article about it, apparently a photo is just too much to expect from modern journalism.

[–] Streamwave 2 points 3 months ago

There really is no plausible ‘fetish outfit’ that could possibly under any circumstances be appropriate for work at the Civil Service.

[–] derpgon@programming.dev 2 points 3 months ago

It's probably about lingerie, bandage, butt plugs, etc.

[–] steeznson@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago (2 children)

One of my friends in the civil service said they have this kind of internal linkedin/facebook thing that virtually no one uses. However they have some kind of craigslist style functionality and she saw someone trying to sell used sex toys on there.

[–] echodot 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Is it Yammer because even the IT department refused to use it.

[–] steeznson@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

That name rings a bell but would need to double check with my friend. She said it was basically a ghost town with only a few really eccentric posts.

[–] kralk@lemm.ee 2 points 3 months ago

Mr skinner and Mrs krebapple were in the closet making babies and I saw the baby and it looked at me

[–] wren 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I don't have a telegraph account - someone summarise?

[–] atro_city@fedia.io 21 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Here's an archive of the page.

Ms Tweedale, 58, is said to wear low-cut black corsets, fishnet tights with high heels and a gothic choker with a pentagram when she attends the office.

She's trans and her attire led to a minister stating that kind of "fetish gear" cannot be worn at work. Others working with her say it's highly inappropriate and unprofessional. That's the gist of it.

[–] rah 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)

She's trans

Is that relevant?

[–] flamingos 17 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Apparently, as the Telegraph decided to give this nothingburger of a paragraph its own heading

Ms Tweedale previously prompted controversy in the department after she was singled out by civil servants who accused her of furthering the “chilling effect” of gender ideology.

[–] rah 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

the Telegraph

I was asking about OP's comment, not the Telegraph's article. Of course the Telegraph will include irrelevant detail in order to sensationalise (in their view) the story. Others repeating that irrelevant detail is questionable though.

[–] off_brand_@beehaw.org 11 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Well, the article itself dedicates a section to how she's been targeted for "gender ideology", which is dog whistle for "trans". Calling non-cis gender expression a "fetish" is another dog whistle. Those two points in combination make her trans-ness relevant, even if the author isn't going so far as to explicitly call out that this anti-trans behavior.

[–] palordrolap@kbin.run 5 points 3 months ago

Being trans does not give extra dress-code rights, and nor should it. None of the other women are allowed to dress that way, so why should she?

Now, if she wants to challenge the dress code for more esoteric modes to be allowed, that should be taken under consideration by whoever is in charge of that, but in the meantime, she should at least try to conform. Then if the decision was to go against her, she'd have the requisite conforming clothing already.

(Tangentially, there's an argument that gender non-conforming people might want to define other professional dress codes that don't strictly fit with male and female norms, but that's doesn't seem to be what's happening here.)

I understand that it's difficult for trans folk who deal with transphobics everywhere they turn and thus every discrimination could be transphobia, but this one seems pretty easy to test.

And I have to wonder how she'd react if she won the dress code change and other people, cis people, started dressing more like her.

[–] rah -1 points 3 months ago

the article

Again, I wasn't talking about the article.

[–] Emperor 9 points 3 months ago

I'll go one better. Here is the archive.

[–] kralk@lemm.ee 4 points 3 months ago
[–] Streamwave 2 points 3 months ago

I cannot believe this even needed to be clarified in the first place

[–] rah 1 points 3 months ago
[–] tombruzzo@lemm.ee -4 points 3 months ago

Good luck enforcing this. My regular belt is a hobble belt I bought from a fetish gear maker. I'd be in the office technically able to whip out a leather restraint at a moment's notice.

I hope people in her office start wearing their own freaky gear in solidarity