Father's Day: Time To Accessorize

(CBS)  Bad news for one Father's Day gift-giving tradition: The Men's Dress Furnishings Association, a trade group of necktie manufacturers, says it's shutting down, due to slumping demand. Obviously these hapless haberdashers didn't consult with our Contributor Ben Stein:

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You see this lovely silken thing around my neck? It's called a necktie.

When I was a lad and a younger man, men wore these to show they did not work with picks and shovels and pitchforks.

Ties were a symbol of white collar status, although even some workmen wore them under their leather aprons.

If you had on a necktie, it showed you had some sense of organization, some sense of dignity about yourself.

Even schoolboys wore them. At fabulous boarding schools like Cardigan Mountain in New Hampshire, where my handsome son went, boys still wear them. It showed, to use a word that you rarely hear, class.

Now, I read in The Wall Street Journal, on the front page, if you please, that men don't wear neckties any longer unless they are in subservient posts.

This will probably come as a bit of a surprise to Senators McCain and Obama, as well as to President Bush. They generally wear neckties, at least on TV.

It will probably come as a shock to all of the network newscasters and the late night talk show hosts. They're the coolest guys on the planet, and they wear neckties.

But never mind. The Journal says only 6% of men wear neckties to work, and the necktie is being run down by history.

I hereby quote my late great friend Bill Buckley and say, I am going to stand in front of the train of sartorial history and shout, "STOP!"

The necktie is a sign of a man who is there to work, not to play. It's what a man who takes his responsibilities seriously wears. Men who want to look and act like small children dress like small children, or surfers, or hoboes, or something.

Plus, the necktie covers over a little part of one's paunchy stomach. And it just generally makes a man look better, smarter.

My fellow men: stop dressing like children. Start dressing like grownups and acting like grownups. The necktie is a start.

Kids, it's the perfect time of year to get your dads a necktie. Get with the program, before we become a nation of open-collared slackers.

I mean it. Right now. And then straighten up your room.

[kiltedlass]

I must respectfully disagree with Mr. Stein. How dare you say that if a man, by not wearing a tie, is somehow saying he is not an adult? My father worked at WSMR testing missiles for 30 years. When conducting rail tests, they were routinely out in the southern New Mexico/West Texas sun in the middle of summer....where it routinely gets over 100F. If these men had been out there in shirts and ties, they would have been passing out from heat stroke on a regular basis.

Let''s also not forget a lot of professions out there where wearing a necktie would be a safety hazard. Would you have men endangering their lives just because of your ridiculous notion of what grown men wear?

[mikereed1947]

Someone has to answer Ben Stein''s commentary in praise of that indefensible affiliation that has been forced on males by habit and an establishment culture of conformity. That affliction is the necktie. I
am close to Ben''s age, only three years younger, and I work in a profession (engineering) that for years required the wearing of neckties. I never liked ties nor did I like having to pay for something that was so completely useless. Now there are studies that (1) point to tight neckties as a cause of glaucoma, (2) that have shown that doctor''s neckties are breeding grounds for disease and infection, and (3) that even the slightest pressure on the sides of the neck may have an effect on the flow of blood to the brain. This latter problem is said to have
an effect on cognitive abilities - this may explain why Ben can''t see the truth about neckties.

That Ben and others have accepted this fashion affectation as an outward sign of professionalism is very odd. For people who value reason and logic to accept a fashion accessory as a symbol of professionalism and competence is truly amazing. Would Ben be as supportive if the fashion
accessory chosen for this honored role had been the knee breeches that were so popular with our ancestors?

[akiconoclast]

Kudos to Ben Stein: I am going to speak against the grain here. I live in a part of the country that REALLY doesn''t like neckties (Alaska). I also must confess that I always like Ben Stein, especially when he is prodding the status quo. ("Bueller? Bueller?"). Another comment here said it best: get a thicker skin. The necktie is one of the only adornments that a fellow can wear with any individuality. I started wearing neckties about twenty years ago when I found myself in meetings with Air Force officers and I felt like "an open-collared slacker". People ascribe too much and, at the same time, too little importance to neckties. Whether you like it or not, a necktie indicates a certain seriousness of purpose. This is not to say that anyone who chooses not to wear a tie is any less worthy, or of a lower class. Those days are gone, thankfully. Three cheers for Ben Stein; may he continue with his humorous editorials. Please keep him on the program.

[dfziggy]

I agree that Ben Stein is ruining Sunday Morning. Perhaps the reason the tie is becoming less popular is because there is now less focus in our culture on distinguishing class boundaries- Old Boys Club Ben wants to maintain those boundaries, and sees the devaluation of the tie as a threat to his classist way of life. The tie is not a sign of hard work, it is a sign of pomp and privilege- which Ben cares about much more than work ethic.

[skidmarkcat]

redwallabbe1 - CBS''s Sunday Morning is a show I enjoyed with my father and continue to enjoy with my son. It''s a show that has always had a sort of uplifting, great-start-to-the-day element. Loaded with stories of rich, poor, healthy, ill, etc I always come away loving that show. Ben Stein for the first time in my decades of watching dirtied it. He pointed a finger at those unadorned with a tie and the working class and defined them pretty much as ditch-diggers and children. Ben Stein is a (place numerous expetives HERE). It is entirely because his comments were nested in this platform that all of us feel the need to give voice (or text as it may be) to our feelingS...BEN STEIN IS RUINING SUNDAY MORNING!!!!

[gpdahl083]

I don''t wear a tie. I work hard and take my job very seriously.
Ben Stein''s comments are really starting to annoy me. He is forever spouting elitist ***. He is a typical rich guy who thinks money makes you better than others.
Some of the best people I have known in my life never had much money and seldom wore ties.
Get rid of this self-absorbed blow-hard with his dull voice and bored expression.

[nightsky45202003]

Ben Stein, you truly a a snob & a jerk. Men who didn''t wear ties all the time made this country great.The ones who continue to work hard,raise decent families & succeed in all areas..Without wearing a tie to do it.None of our words will change your mind,or your snobbish,boorish attitude.. BUT I do hope that one day your life & the continuation of it depends on someone who has never worn a tie.

[nightsky45202003]

Ben Stein, you truly a a snob & a jerk. Men who didn''t wear ties all the time made this country great.The ones who continue to work hard,raise decent families & succeed in all areas..Without wearing a tie to do it.None of our words will change your mind,or your snobbish,boorish attitude.. BUT I do hope that one day your life & the continuation of it depends on someone who has never worn a tie.

[redwallabbe1]

Is everyone writing from the same talking points? It certainly seems so. I guess when someone challenges the "status quo" (darwinism), they can expect to attacked even when they talk about innocuous subjects like neckties. Commentors here need to stop being offended and get a thicker skin, none of you sound as though you are in fact blue collar workers or even the tee-shirt clad cyber-entrepeneurs.

[jetsetdog]

What an ***!