Clothes dissimulate

I lived most of my life as a professor. But, for some deep-rooted psychology that I never bothered to inquire into, I disliked being taken for a professor that I was and enjoyed being. Was it false modesty, pride in reverse, or a certain inclination to be level with my students? In any case, I took pleasure in proving that I could be a professor without looking like one, and did so successfully. At times I was facetious; on those occasions of college business, when faculty members sat in a circle with non-college visitors and went around introducing themselves, I would announce myself as “a college employee.” In everyday teaching, I used to take great care to avoid any indication in the way I dressed and behaved that would suggest I was a professor. I didn’t wear suits, with pants or skirts; I wore dresses. I preferred shifts to shirt-dresses, fluffy blouses to dress shirts. I wore skirts, maxi or mini rather than midi -- flared, pleated, gathered, or straight; and I was partial to miniskirts because they made me look less distinguished. I eschewed the hem below the knee because it gave me a look of a mature woman. Habit dies hard, and after retirement I still go around in a maxi or a mini. No one suspects I was a professor, and no one is quite convinced when I say I was one, and perversely I chuckle to myself. Clothes make the man, we say; they also dissemble the wearer. When I ride a crowded bus or subway, I am often offered a seat if I am wearing a maxi. If I am wearing a mini, no one ever offers me a seat. It is debatable which is better -- to be seen as a youngish- looking elderly or a wasted younger woman. I wear ankle lengths at the opera; but I prefer short skirts most of the time. The reason is simply practical. I don’t like the skirt hem brushing the floor, going up and down the subway stairs and getting on and off a bus, but, above all, getting it all over the place in public facilities. I can wear a midi on occasion, of course; but I don’t want to. Ultimately I don’t care much for clothing that constricts; I like it short, open, and light -- minimal. If maxi lengths became a fashion among the young, I'd never be offered a seat, I'm sure.