"University Frump"

Another phrase/idea I've stolen from Tom McCambridge. Perfect. I saw plenty of displays of university frump at the NCTE Conference in Las Vegas this weekend.

Yes, Las Vegas. Even Sherman Alexie made jokes about English teachers in Las Vegas as he gave his talk at the Secondary Section Luncheon. Besides our name badges, here's how you could tell us apart from other visitors: the preponderance of long skirts, bulky sweaters, hunched posture due to full tote-bags, and awake-ness at early hours of the morning. We've got coffee cups in our hands, not cocktails. We wear low-heeled shoes.

At the same time, I hope I didn't look too frumpy. I've always enjoyed taking care of my appearance. I love doing my nails. I wear makeup every day. If I know there are holes in my clothes, I do not wear them out. Mmmm-hmmm. You know who you are!

There is a clear bias among college faculty against those who dress well. The implication is that if you take time on your appearance, you must be either not devoting enough time to your studying/grading and/or you must be a shallow and materialistic person.

Sometimes I think that it's just that some people like playing with clothes and makeup and some people don't. Period. If you don't, that's fine, but don't try to make up a moral reason why you don't and then use it to look down on others.

But maybe there's more to it. As a highly sensitive person, I have always been sensitive to my environment. Is not my body part of my environment? I like feeling colorful and polished. It keeps my mood up. Just as I might be depressed by grungy orange carpet (WHS, I'm talking to you), I'd also be depressed by grungy yellow fingernails. I'm extremely detail-oriented. Why is it so surprising that a person who can spot a missing period in an MLA citation from a mile away would be similarly irked by a scuff on her shoe?

I think the thinking is that we professorly introverts live life in the mind. I think it was in Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk that he said that professors see their bodies as useful only for transporting their heads from place to place. There's of course the Western body-mind dichotomy. But if God gave us bodies, we're probably not supposed to ignore them. I also reject the materialist accusation; people have been adorning themselves since the beginning of time, long before our consumerist age.

I think Susan Cain (Quiet) and Temple Grandin (Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism) are instructive on this point. Both of them trace the introvert's caution and attention to detail back to our animal ancestors. One of them pointed out that if a deer doesn't remember the last place it saw a lion, it will be devoured. This may explain why some people are so attuned to physical details. It was necessary for our survival for a long time. Any small change in the environment could signal danger. In current times in an affluent country, where we don't face survival-threatening danger every day, the meticulousness of highly sensitive people marks them as odd. In a society that values people looking relaxed and having fun at all times, meticulous people get branded as "anal" or "OCD."