Contrariwise: First I Came for Your Ties

In the March/April 2023 issue of The Saturday Evening Post, I wrote a piece that got under the skin of a lot of people. I suggested that it was time to kill the necktie. My opinion was based partly on a lifelong dislike of wearing an uncomfortable piece of cloth that serves no real function, and partly on the realities of how work and workplaces were changing post-COVID.

Certain websites and social media channels love to pontificate on how men dress, identifying suit jackets and dress shirts as the only means to achieve “true masculinity” and job effectiveness. And to that I say … who cares? No one’s clothes decide who they are as a person.

And if Washington, D.C., proves anything, it’s that you certainly can’t equate competence with the wearing of suits and ties.

This topic reared its head to me recently when one website that arbitrates manliness (it’s even in their name) went on about “men dressing like boys” and seemed particularly angry about graphic tees. As a noted wearer of graphic tees, I can say that at no time has my wearing of a band or comic book shirt affected how I performed my duties as a father, husband, editor, writer, or feeder of the cat. If I happen to be struggling with writing on a particular day, it’s not going to be because I’m wearing a Marvel tee instead of a button-up and a suit jacket.

I also find the idea funny that wearing a T-shirt that connects to an interest or social identity indicates some kind of failure. There’s never a suggestion that someone wearing sports apparel has something wrong with them. That’s a long-time double-standard that I touched on in a Contrariwise in 2023: “Why Don’t Sports Fans Know They’re Geeks?”

That’s right; your Mahomes jersey does not place you higher on the evolutionary chain than a guy in a Superman T-shirt.

Every point I want to make can be summed up with one line of dialogue from Boogie Nights delivered by Luis Guzmán: “Wear what you dig.” In a world that can be pretty hard to live in and that contains plenty of unpleasantness, a dude wearing a shirt and shorts to go about his day is the least of anyone’s worries.

This article is featured in the November/December 2025 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Subscribe to the magazine for more art, inspiring stories, fiction, humor, and features from our archives.