Fit To Be (neck)Tied...Or Knot

You've been following the negotiations between Iran and the US on Iran's nuclear program, right? Well, amid all the complexities, have you noticed one very obvious fact? In all photos of the US negotiators  - or, for that matter, the participants from the other so-called P5+1 nations -- the men are always wearing ties. But the Iranians never wear them.

Not once has the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif been seen with a tie. Does he even own a tie? Could he tie a tie if he had to? Does he know the difference between a four-in-hand and a Windsor knot? Probably knot, or not. But why not?

Here's why. Since the Islamist revolution that ousted the Shah of Iran in 1979, wearing neckties has been strictly prohibited in Iran. Ties have been made a convenient symbol for Western intrusion in the Middle East. So no ties allowed. Flowing mullah robes, yes. Turbans, yes. Turtlenecks, shirts buttoned all the way up, yes, yes. But ties, no.

In the United States also -- but for different reasons -- this is not exactly the golden age of ties. Along with the general Californication of American society, ties have come to seem old fashioned and constraining. Even in the most expensive restaurants and hotels, ties are no longer a requirement for an acceptably attired gentleman. Nor are they mandated for business meetings or presentations, especially in that fertile field of fashion known as Silicon Valley. As a matter of fact, nothing is really required anymore in terms of male attire, and I believe it was the exclusion of ties that started us down that slippery slope. 

And yet.... And yet...

There is still one venue where ties get the attention they deserve, and that's in our quadrennial ritual of debates among the presidential candidates. Believe me, the men in these events choose their ties carefully, and rightly so -- because the ties have a powerful effect on viewers' perceptions of those men.

But what about female candidates for president? Will they ever add ties to their arsenal of carefully constructed subliminal  effects? Or will women always be limited to a string of pearls? What would you think if Hillary Clinton entered a debate wearing a necktie? Don't say it can't happen. Trump happened, after all.

Here's an analysis of the recent Republican debates that gives proper attention to the tie factor: 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/08/makeover-montage-republican-candidates.html