It is probably not a surprise for anybody to read that Donald Trump is, according to sources who blabbed to Axios, a man who is interested in whether people "look the part".
That this comes from a man who is one gust of wind away from a bad hair day (and let's not even talk about his hue) should perhaps be a little skew-whiff. But we know it isn't, because as Jess Cartner Morley noted when examining Hillary Clinton's battle with fashion during the presidential campaign, men are held to different standards when it comes to style.
This is where Steve Bannon fits in, and we'll get to that later. Anyway, it's even less surprising that Trump also apparently likes the women who work for him to "dress like women". This means looking "neat and orderly", but it also means that women who worked for him – even in the not very glamorous job of schlepping along to doorknock on people's homes and convince them to vote for Trump – felt pressure to wear dresses to "impress Trump". A fairly tall order it must be said, given Trump once declared Heidi Klum to no longer be a "10".
Given that one of Trump's jobs was owning the Miss Universe beauty pageant where the literal purpose is to judge women on how well they fit into ascribed (and stringent) standards of appearance, this is again, not surprising. And it must be said that Trump is also rather opinionated on how the men who work for him dress and was said to be very unimpressed with the cut of his press secretary Sean Spicer's suit on his first press conference, but pleased with Mitt Romney's jawline and general Senatorial aesthetic.
The real kicker is that it's not just the President of the United States who has opinions on how women "should" dress (what a funny sentence that was to write). It's Barry over in accounts in your office who's grumbled about "girls" not dressing appropriately in the office. It's the temping agency that sends you home because you weren't wearing high heels. It's reports that suggest that there really ought to be tougher laws on sexist dress codes in the office.
It's comments on Theresa May's love for fashion and baring her knees (over the age of 60!), and Hillary Clinton attracting criticism whether she wore a hair scrunchy or Armani. And of course it's easy to say that clothes don't matter when a white pantsuit can say so much, or that studies suggest that women who wear makeup are seen as more competent.
This is where we get to Steve Bannon. Bannon, whose style of dress and grooming could perhaps be summed up as, hmm, slapdash, is said to be the only person exempt from Trump's dress code. According to Axios' source, Steve is "cavalier almost" about the way he dresses. Including ditching the tie (and, notably, a wide tie which is apparently Trump's preference).
As Cartner-Moley writes of Clinton's impossible fashion task during the presidential campaign:
"Looking presentable and appropriate will pass muster for a man, but we expect more of women. To paraphrase Ginger Rogers, women in politics have to do what the men do, but backwards in high heels and while wearing on-trend yet age-appropriate clothes, patriotically flying the flag for their country's top design talent and without spending extravagantly."
The same could be said of any woman who has stood in front of her wardrobe and thought about what kind of message she is planning on sending out to the world with what she chooses to wear, and whether that message is "appropriate". All before Steve Bannon has even thought about getting up for his morning bowl of oatmeal with gin and rusty nails.
Imagine then, women having the luxury to be cavalier about their appearances without it pulling into question the person they are in the world. Why, we might just even have the audacity to apply for a job that we were clearly not qualified for.