Heads up, here it comes!
I live in a high-rise, and I work from home. I’ll be honest with you; there are days when I don’t get out of my pajamas until my noon workout. And why not? I’m not going anywhere. What’s the harm?
On occasion, I’ve even considered taking the trash down to the basement in my PJs. But I don’t. Why? Two reasons: I’m not that lazy, and I have some self-respect.
If you’ve ever been... well outside, you’ll know that this view is not universal. At some point, I don’t know when, people, mostly women as far as I can tell, decided that wearing pajamas outside was acceptable. Not a quick run outside to get the mail either, we’re talking about going to the store and, God help us, getting on an airplane.
This trend once again came to my attention with this tweet.
The discussion that followed was absurd.
Caption: Pajamas are meant for warehouse activities? Is OSHA aware of this?
Caption: Now wearing pajamas in public is a political statement?
I do not wish to turn this into a political debate, so I will resist the temptation to ask, “is there any type of bad behavior that the Left won’t defend?”
Caption: Why are you asking me?
I’ll stop yelling at clouds when they start acting their age... uh... or something like that.
Instead of talking about how dressing well is a sign of fascism – but what isn’t? – I’ll turn to the comment that I think encapsulates the issue:
If it isn’t shameful to wear pajamas outside, how can taking a picture of people doing this be worthy of criticism?
The answer is, because deep down, even people defending the practice know that it’s worthy of scorn. The only acceptable reason for wearing pajamas outside is that you’re a child going to a drive-in movie – yes, I’m that old - or your house is on fire.
Which brings us to my point – yes, it took a while to get here. I hope you enjoyed the journey – social norms matter and shame is a useful tool for enforcing them.
If you post a picture of me sitting on a bench reading a book, I’m going to wonder why you don’t have something better to do.
If you post a picture of me at a store while I’m wearing pajamas, I’m going to be embarrassed. Or at least I should. Which is why...
Shame is good.
Or at least it serves a useful purpose.
Somewhere in all the “don’t fat-shame me” rhetoric and efforts to “destigmatize” drug use, “sex work,” polyamory, and pornography, we’ve lost sight of that.
Tolerance is good. To a point. We must remember that what you tolerate, you perpetuate.
The concept of “the slippery slope,” while much derided, is obvious to anyone who’s been alive longer than 10 minutes.
The world won’t end because some people don’t know how to dress like adults. However, there’s a reason that we find ourselves here, and there’s no reason to think it won’t get worse if we permit it.
There is some indication that people are getting fed up with people who don’t understand the concept of public spaces and the type of behavior that isn’t permitted.
Recently, United Airlines stated that it plans to boot passengers who refuse to use headphones on planes. It’s a good first step, but we need to do more.
“See something, say something.”
“See something, say something” was meant to prevent terrorism but has expanded well beyond that to include workplace safety, sexual violence, and a myriad of other activities.
Could we extend it to “bad behavior?”
Officially? Probably not. There are no fashion police to report to, and if there were, they’d probably look something like this:
No, we’re better off handling this ourselves. What I’m proposing is more old school. Dirty looks and scorn. Let’s bring back shame. And ridicule.
Keep posting those pictures online. If we embarrass the guilty parties enough, maybe they’ll decide that the 30 seconds they save by avoiding adult clothes isn’t worth it.
Be careful, though. The last thing you want is to be filmed getting in a fight with someone wearing pajamas at Costco.
After all, how would that look?
Phil is a freelance writer, Canadian Navy veteran, and classical liberal. He has lived and worked in both Canada and the United States and currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he writes on politics, individual rights, free speech, and anything else that catches his fancy.
As you may have picked up from this article, he’s now trying his hand at humor. You can find some of what he finds funny here
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Shame is a necessary physiological function, and one of our 10 core emotions. I have a whole video series on it, but here's the shortcut to shame and guilt.
https://www.zephyrwellness.org/media/2021/2/12/emotional-functioning/#shame
Fun article! However, I didn't know that PJs in public was a liberal trend. My very liberal young adult daughter finds the trend lame and stupid (and would probably not be caught wearing PJs in public even if the house WAS on fire). I also find it ridiculous. It's odd that you see it mostly limited to women - I actually see more young men doing it. However, if we are talking about demographic groups, I think it is almost exclusively white people under 45 who do it. Finally, I don't think it's something worth shaming. Yes, most of them are just being slobs. But you may end up taking a picture of a frantic mom who had to urgently drive to a pharmacy to pick up her sick kid's meds and electrolytes. Kinda not worth it. I'd save shaming for truly shameful things - like men entering female spaces or women cheering such men.