Cover your legs, by Jove, Lest I Get A Boner

Via Feministe, an LA Times piece about the "comeback" of pantyhose that is one of the first news articles I've ever seen about the "comeback" of a particular clothing item that isn't a very vaguely veiled PR piece for some company who just happens to be a purveyor of the clothing item in question.

The shocker?

The [anti-bare-legs] mother-in-law might find solace in the fact that her views are supported by the president of the United States. One of his first actions upon taking office was to reinstate the White House dress code requiring, among other things, that women wear stockings in the West Wing. Exhibit A, Condoleezza Rice, the fashionable secretary of state.

That's right, ladies and gentlemen, the President thought it very important that women in the office cover their bare, exposed, slatternly legs, I'm sure in some barely-concealed-misogyny attempt to increase "profeesionalism" in the West Wing. Because we all know that professionalism requires that you not show any skin. Of course, professionalism also requires that you wear skirts, to show your legs, but they can't be bare! Heavens, no.

Back when I was a second-year law student, and a gajillion law firms came to my campus to interview students, we got a little talk from the career services office about dressing for interviews. They recommended warily that to "be on the safe side" we wear skirt suits, with pantyhose. Being a good sport, I purchased some pantyhose for the first time in years.

I wore it for approximately an hour, before taking them off after my very first interview. That shit is uncomfortable, yo. I wear opaque-type tights under my pants sometimes in the winter to stay warm, but flesh-toned pantyhose? In August? Holy fuck.

You know, after all this porn talk, I'm relieved to discover that if I want to get off, I can just turn on ABC news and drool over Katie Couric's brazenly barren legs, and rub one out. The slut.