I'm also not talking about a company full of adolescent brats who refuse to conform to any situation because it cramps their _style_. And I am. That's where I see Panurge's revolution (not the dotcom one) leading, the danger of freak culture taking over the workplace - not the danger of letting a few people with green hair in the office, but the danger of giving people the idea that working in the office is a giant game of freak the mundanes and of showing the management that you can damn well look like, sound like, or act like whatever you want because, man, the WORKERS should own the means of production. Where did I say any of this?  (Except for the part about owning the means of production

True, but the code for haircuts is a little more relaxed. It's partly about neatness and cleanliness - no dreads, no matted, nasty, unwashed hair, no ass-length Biblical hair and beards that will get caught in copiers and faxes And the Lord hath delivered him into my hands! So it's bad to have hair caught in a photocopier, when the hair will rip out easily enough, but perfectly okay to get a necktie caught in the same machine that WON'T BREAK AWAY LIKE A CLIP-ON MIGHT? OSHA'll love that arguement.

Notice that this conversation has been *entirely* among *men*.  *Women* don't have this problem to nearly the same degree, and it's largely because The, Um, *Man* has an *extremely* specific idea of what a man is and is threatened to death that some other idea might supplant it. I'm trying to stay the fuck out of it, 'cause I can get volatile on the issue. Basically, at least you guys can black and white the issue into something as simple as wearing a tie versus not wearing a tie. But if you have the bad luck to be born a girl and want to make it in an office type environment, you'd better be skilled with the entire code. High heels. Pantyhose. Skirt that doesn't emphasize your butt too much.  Nice blouse.  Tasteful jewelry. Makeup. I can't do it.  I can halfway fake it, but I'm never going to be a corporate whore.  There's something my classmates learned at four that I never got and I just can't pull it off.  Good thing I prefer jobs that require creativity anyway, eh? k

But if I invite you into my house and say I'll pay you to do work for me, then you play by my rules or you go home. Just because you show up here and start working in MY house doesn't mean all of a sudden you own the place - you're a guest in my house and that's all you'll ever be; you may own the product of your labor but the house you do it in is mine and always will be mine. My house, my rules. Your house, your rules. The worker doesn't own shit, the manager doesn't own shit, the OWNER owns the means of production. Anything else is nothing but piracy. I'm really antifeudalist myself, but I'm not sure I want to get into it with you. k

It's not that freaks might take over, Panurge. I am a freak, remember? I feel much more comfortable in the company of freaks than among my coworkers. the fear is that the freaks won't be able to stop being freaks in the office and start being workers. The point is, though, that being a freak doesn't necessarily have anything to do with one's ability to be a worker.  I don't like other people's fear running my life. k

I've listened to the same music, and held down the same jobs, just as long as any of you, and I understand the trap just as well. When you speak of choices that I don't have, I begin to doubt your understanding.