I am in no way a religious person, but if you are, and your religion requires you to wear a yarmulke, a turban, a burqa, or a big hammer of Thor on a thong, I think that you should be allowed to, and frankly, I don't care if you do. In fact, as a geek, I have a certain professional respect for people who decide to stand up and show who they are - if that means that they wear something to indicate their religion, fine with me. My only request to the followers of any particular religion is that they extend the same courtesy, respect the fact that I'm not eager to join their faith, and not attempt to proselytize their value system to me.
Sadly, there will always be people who will make their decision about others based on what they are wearing, especially if it somehow disagrees with their particular narrowminded view of the world about what's right, what's normal. But the idea of institutionalizing that process, of making it a workplace requirement that you can't express your religious beliefs in the fashion (no pun intended) required by the tenets of your faith, that's wrong - that's the first step on a slippery slope, mes vieux.
I feel that people like me are somewhere on that slope, and the happy folks behind the Charter will eventually want to work their way down to us. The path that I have chosen to follow doesn't require that I wear anything to demonstrate my commitment, but there are still times when I don the vestments required by the tenets - well, the Tennant, actually, at least up to a couple of years ago - of my chosen area of worship. Sooner or later, the Charter people will realize that geeks may be equally suspect, and then the posters will look like this:
The elder Trudeau once said that there's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation - I'd like to think that it doesn't have any business in our closets, either.
- Sid 
Intolerance for visible minorities will probably strike the yoga crowd long before it finds its way into the geek population....yogis can be spotted a block away: blissed-out looking hippies (for the most part) wearing capri pants and carrying a large rolled-up colourful mat over one shoulder.
ReplyDeleteAnn Perkins: Do you have any history of mental illness in your family?
ReplyDeleteRon Swanson: I have an uncle who does yoga.
- Parks and Recreation.
Under the circumstances, I am reluctant to become involved in a discussion about the stereotypes surrounding any particular group. That being said, I think that people in geek-themed t-shirts are more likely to be targets of intolerance than women in yoga pants. Sadly, those women may still find themselves the target of unwanted interest, but not necessarily intolerance.
- Sid