Missouri Republicans have run on and advocated for the right to have big, burly guns. Strap whatever you want on your side. Want to buy weaponry? Absolutely. You can run entire ads just based around you shooting a gun to try and get people to love you. The right to guns? It’s the Missouri way, they say! When it comes to arms, though, it just so happens that one kind of arms scares Republicans enough that they are prepared to regulate it. I know, I know, regulating arms never works. You see, the arms Republicans want to regulate are the bare arms being shown by women legislators on the Missouri House floor. That’s right. We’re talking about a dress code.
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In a discussion that makes you wonder exactly what era representatives come from, Missouri State Democratic Rep. Raychel Proudie points out that “there are times to have your name said, to be recognized, this is not one of those things. There are a lot of serious things that are in this rules package that I think we should be debating, but instead, we are fighting again for a women’s right to choose something and this time it is how she covers herself and how she does from the interpretation of someone who has no background in fashion.”
SNAP.
I doubt many Missouri residents imagined that the opening of the state House would begin with a fight on open arms, but that is exactly what is happening in Missouri, as Republicans are demanding that women not show bare arms and instead they have to cover up, because I guess they are afraid of bare skin? Or is it that they just dislike the idea of seeing someone dressed appropriately in a style they don’t like or couldn’t pull off themselves?
Speaking to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Rep. Peter Merideth laid out what new, stringent rules look like in a dress code: “I know some governments require women to wear things over their face, but here, oh it’s OK because we’re just talking about how many layers they have to have over their shoulders.”
Cool. So we should be pleased that we’re not living under Iran’s laws, I guess. I never realized how brave so many of us are that we do not faint at the site of bare arms. Apparently, more state houses need fainting couches. In the end, though, I think we can all survive knowing that the worst travesty of decorum in any Republican-controlled state house is rarely a fashion-related one.
