When yoga pants are outlawed....

[Gob]

Montana lawmaker is seeking to strengthen the state's indecent exposure law, in part because he hates seeing yoga pants worn in public.


Rep. David Moore on Tuesday introduced House Bill 365 in the House Judiciary Committee in response to a group of naked bicyclists who rolled through Missoula in August. The proposal would expand indecent exposure law to include any nipple exposure, including men's, and any garment that 'gives the appearance or simulates' a person's buttocks, genitals, pelvic area or female nipple. The Republican from Missoula said tight-fitting beige clothing could be considered indecent exposure under his proposal.

'Yoga pants should be illegal in public anyway,' Moore said after the hearing.

Moore said he wouldn't have a problem with people being arrested for wearing provocative clothing but that he'd trust law enforcement officials to use their discretion. He couldn't be sure whether police would act on that provision or if Montana residents would challenge it. 'I don't have a crystal ball,' Moore said. Moore and Walt Hill, a retired professor in Missoula, initiated the drafting of HB 365 after the Bare as you Dare bicycle event outraged some residents last summer. Fearing that denying organizers an event permit would breach free speech, city officials allowed participants, many of them completely nude, to ride through downtown Missoula on August 17, 2014. 'I want Montana to be known as a decent state where people can live within the security of laws and protect their children and associates from degrading and indecent practices,' Hill said Tuesday in support of the measure. 'I believe this bill is written preserving that reputation.'

[BoSoxGal]

I was hoping you wouldn't see that, Gob.

Did we make the Daily Mail?!?!



Welcome to TeaParty wingnut Montana!

[Gob]

You made the mail!!

[Econoline]

Ah, yes. The party of "less government" again.

Perhaps Mr. Moore would be more comfortable if, say...women covered themselves from head to toe with only their eyes visible?

[Guinevere]

Nutters.

If yoga pants went away Id have nothing to wear on the weekends and be quite grumpy.

[Gob]

Certainly make visiting the gym more of a chore....

[Guinevere]

Not to mention yoga class...but you know - it's so offensive to religion anyway might as well ban them as well.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Some should be banned, that's for sure. And carrying babies in backpacks

[BoSoxGal]

Why should that be illegal, when it's perfectly legal to go out in public like this?:



Double standards are bullshit!

[BoSoxGal]

FYI, this is how we started the session, before the session even started:

Montana Dress Code Has Female Legislators Sporting New Look: Clenched Jaws
By JACK HEALY DEC. 13, 2014


Jenny Eck, a Democratic Montana representative, said the new guidelines allowed peers “to look me up and down and comment on what I’m wearing.” Credit Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times

Montana has never been known as a black-tie place. Governors wear cowboy boots and bolo ties, and people joke that a tuxedo is a pair of black jeans and a sport coat. But this winter, when lawmakers arrive at the State Capitol, they will have to abide by a new dress code: No more jeans. No casual Fridays. And female lawmakers “should be sensitive to skirt lengths and necklines.”

Republican leaders who approved the guidelines say they are simply trying to bring a businesslike formality to a State Legislature of ranchers, farmers and business owners that meets for only four months every other year. But the dress code has set off a torrent of online mockery, and is being pilloried by Democratic women as a sexist anachronism straight from the days of buggies and spittoons.

“The sergeant-at-arms could be standing there with a ruler, measuring hemlines and cleavage,” said Jenny Eck, a Democratic House member.

Ms. Eck said she was leaving a health care forum in Helena, the capital, on Monday when one of her Republican colleagues peered at her and told her that he was glad to see she was dressed appropriately.

“It just creates this ability to scrutinize women,” Ms. Eck said. “It makes it acceptable for someone who’s supposed to be my peer and my equal to look me up and down and comment on what I’m wearing. That doesn’t feel right.”

About a third of the state legislatures in the country had written rules for how lawmakers, staff members and visitors were supposed to dress when they were on the statehouse floor, according to a 2006 survey by the National Conference of State Legislatures, the most recent nationwide look at the issue. Others had unwritten codes for what not to wear.

Most simply called for business attire, but some were quite particular, according to the survey. New Jersey asked state senators to wear suits, not sport coats. Pennsylvania let House members take off their jackets on the floor, but they had to put them on again to speak. Women in Ohio could not wear sleeveless shirts, but short sleeves were fine. In Georgia, suit coats for men and “dignified dress” for women were expected.

Things do ease up at the week’s end. Oregon lets Senate pages wear navy polos on Fridays, and lawmakers in Hawaii are allowed to wear Hawaiian shirts on Aloha Fridays.

Montana’s one-page list of fashion guidelines (officials say they are not formal rules) were handed down Dec. 5 in what Representative Keith Regier, the House Republican majority leader, said was a response to questions from newly elected lawmakers about what to wear on the floor.

“We do hold decorum at a high standard,” Mr. Regier said. “What we’re saying is: Be appropriate in what you wear. Don’t wear something that could be a distraction from the legislative process.”

The seven-point list covers men’s attire, calling for a suit or a jacket and tie, dress slacks and shirt, and “dress shoes or dress boots.” But the guidelines for women are a little longer and more detailed, and had many female lawmakers rolling their eyes. The list includes what kinds of footwear they should avoid (flip-flops, tennis shoes and open-toe sandals), declares that leggings are not considered dress pants, and encourages modesty on skirt lengths and necklines.

Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main story
“It’s like something out of ‘Mad Men,’” said Representative Ellie Hill, a Democrat from Missoula, referring to a television drama set in the 1960s. “The whole thing is totally sexist and bizarre and unnecessary.”

The Cowgirl Blog, a liberal Montana political website, said the new dress guidelines were the latest in a series of tone-deaf and insensitive remarks by male public officials. The other recent offenses include remarks by Mr. Regier comparing women with pregnant cattle, regarding a bill that would criminalize offenses involving the death of an unborn child, and an elected judge’s remarks that blamed a teenager whose teacher had been convicted of raping her.

Representative Carolyn Pease-Lopez, a Democrat, said she was in a committee meeting when a male colleague leaned over and told her he loved her perfume, and that he wanted to buy a bottle for his girlfriend. “The way he said it is what gave me the creeps,” she said.

But Lindsey Grovom, the chief clerk who worked with House leaders to develop the new attire guidelines that Republicans ultimately proposed, said she had been taken aback by the uproar. She said there was nothing overtly or covertly sexist about asking for professional attire from elected representatives. In fact, before this blew up, she said, her biggest concern had been the decision to scrap Montana’s tradition of allowing jeans during Saturday-morning sessions.

I knew we'd make national news this session, because 'we' elected another crop of right wing nutters - but many wonderful progressive legislators, too. Montana is soundly purple and struggling for the future path - crazy, or sanity.


eta: I've been very pleased with my experience of living here, until the recent past when I moved to this town only 35 miles from the State Capitol. I assumed it would be more progressive here than the Hi-Line, but I was much dismayed to find myself in a right-wing Tea Party nutter enclave just a stone's throw from Helena. Luckily there are more and more progressive, artistic, educated people moving to this rural area every year - the gorgeous setting, low taxes and low cost of living make it very attractive, especially considering the close proximity to Helena and Bozeman - but in the meantime, I experienced the greatest sexism of my career in this jurisdiction. In my first days in office, I had crusty old ranchers walking into the office and introducing themselves with outright declarations of their unhappiness over my being a woman. It's surreal to me how closely 2015 can coexist with people stuck in 1960.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Why should that be illegal, when it's perfectly legal to go out in public like this?:



Double standards are bullshit!

I agree. That's why (a) I don't go swimming and (ii) if I do, I wear a t-shirt (and never get it wet!). Man-boobs should be illegal... or rather, letting them be seen in public should be.

[rubato]

Why should that be illegal, when it's perfectly legal to go out in public like this?:



Double standards are bullshit!

but he's VERY rich and VERY white and those rules have always been different.


If the Koch brothers conceived a desire to walk naked down main street it would not be an option, it would be mandatory.

yrs,
rubato

[Joe Guy]

Why should that be illegal, when it's perfectly legal to go out in public like this?:

[Jack Nicholson photo]

Double standards are bullshit!

This one is too easy...

You can't handle the truth!!