I agree with you, faithfool– I totally agree with putting the real you out there, I just would think it was silly if someone purposely amped up the unatractiveness as a ‘litmus test’.
That must make you very popular!
Gotcha ya. As usual, I didn’t word my original reply very well. I swear I blame it on the fact that I’m all giddy about tomorrow (and surgery! eek!). So in that light, if someone actually went out of their way to be unattractive at first meeting, yes, that’d be extremely immature and just plain wrong.
Silly you! You know that’s not what I meant. I should’ve included that I bring a whip when it’s just the retainer. 
(Replying under husband’s name)
Excuse me, but how many teachers do you know? I’m a teacher, in kindergarten no less, and all the teachers I work with here in So Cal DO NOT dress like country bumpkins. You must have grown up in the Midwest or something…educated in a one room schoolhouse…to be making such blatant generalizations about a whole group of professionals. Sorry, just my $.02.
As a data point in the opposite direction, I attended public school in the Los Angeles area for thirteen years (K-12) and at my schools there were indeed a number of women who dressed in the way that’s being discussed in this thread. It wasn’t all of them, and the percentage of teachers who dressed like that decreased as the students got older, but enough of them fit the description that when I read the various comments about “schoolteacher fashions” here I got rather nostalgic. I still remember the smell of my kindergarten teacher’s perfume, and the way the other kindergarten teacher wore jeans under her jumpers.
Not a one-room schoolhouse either. My elementary school has roughly seven hundred students in attendence; there are 1200 at my middle school and 2700 at my high school, according to the stats I see on the internet (I believe the population at my high school has dropped since I graduated, I seem to recall a headcount of over three thousand).
So while not all teachers dress poorly, those who do are not by any means restricted to the midwest.
[amateur shrink]I think what elmwood is complaining about is not her taste in clothes, or that elementary-school teachers tend to dress that way, but that she seemed teacherish to the point where she seemed de-sexualized.[/amateur shrink]
Elmwood, tell me if I’m wrong.
Robin
You’re quite right. If she was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, she might not look “sexy,” but she’d still seem more “sexualized” than if she wore teacher clothes.
Since WhyNot was kind enough to show us a jumper, what would be a “dickie”? I don’t think that’s a term I want to risk googling at work.
Teachers around here tend to wear canguros, which are like that jumper, with a big pocket on the front (hence the “kangaroo” name); they’re called canguro whether they’re pants or dress. Would the pants version be a “dickie”?
A dickie is a false collar that’s worn under a sweater or sweatshirt to give the appearance of wearing a turtleneck or shirt with a collar. I’ve had a few of the turtleneck sort; I worked for a company that allowed sweatshirts, but you had to wear a turtleneck or collar underneath.
To some people, they’re more comfortable than an actual shirt.
Robin
scotandrsn’s wife, please sign up under your own username if you wish to participate. Thanks.
…
wow
I don’t think I’ve ever seen those.
I now know a word in English that I have no idea how to translate to Spanish.
Well yes, actually, I am from the Midwest, as is my mother. Is that a problem for you? :dubious: (Sorry, I know that’s not really **scotandrsn **and I should ignore the post, but I get just as pissed off at Regionalism - if that’s a word - as Racism.)
If it’s a phenomenon that’s widespread enough for The Onion to poke fun of, then it’s a real phenomenon, not just us yokels here in Chicagoland with haystems in our mouths.
Here’s a picture of a dickie. When you live here in the Midwest where there’re actual seasons (unlike So Cal), and your school doesn’t have air conditioning, you can be cooler by wearing a dickie instead of full shirtsleeves. Not that I condone their wear on a date, but I understand why they’re practical in a hot classroom full of sweaty preteens.
I wear different clothes and makeup at work than I do when I go to a coffee place to meet a man for the first time. I want to project a different image, so I rearrange my image. I want to think of myself differently on a date than I do at work. I know that I am me no matter what I choose to adorn myself with, but I also know that a first impression is everything. I make those important first impressions sometimes 10 times a day at work, gaining the confidence of total strangers: I have to look the part.
I at one time arranged to meet a man for coffee who showed up in baggy sweatpants and a wrinkled T shirt. Was that the best he could do? I wasn’t expecting a suit at 10 am just for coffee, but come on! I might have looked past the just-crawled-here-for-caffeine look had he put any effort into the conversation, but now my memory is only stirred by his appearance that day.
Married 4 years to a school nurse. One who believed that there was a classy thrift store.
Run.
The fashion-blindness may extend to other elements of life that might make you uncomfortable.
BTW, elmwood, what did you wear?
Hmm, I’m guessing you haven’t done a lot of thrift shopping if you think there isn’t.
I don’t get young women wearing the schoolteacher look. I see them at my daughter’s school and it makes me all self-conscious about what I am wearing, like I am some sort of wild child. lol. Just because you have kids doesn’t mean you have to give up on your looks, more women should know that.
I knew I’d get in trouble with that statement.
Actually, I’ve shopped at more thrift stores in more states than you’ve had hot meals. 
I was young and poor once.
I was half jokingly referring to a total lack of fashion awareness and a pathological belief that there is essentially no difference between inner-city Akron Goodwills and upper-level department store clothes.
So, Purd, how does your wife feel about you enjoying her clothes when she is not wearing them?
My wife is a high school english teacher, and widely noted for her keen fashion sense. Had I not known she was a teacher before our first date, I never would have guessed (well, not from what she was wearing, anyhow). That said, she has instructed me to have her down painlessly should she ever be seen wearing an applique-ed, embroidered, cross-stiched or sequined cardigan of any sort.
I have to say I can’t blame the OP. Some people like certain looks, but I hate the old when you turn a certain age you must look dowdy idea.
Though the outfit described; a decorated shirt with oddly colored pants is the official uniform of health care workers.
Who IS the audience for tops with cats on them?
She’s cool with it, but I hate having to shave my legs.