‘Shut up Karen’: LA Times writer sweatpants-shames locked-down Americans during pandemic & gets roasted
Sniffing that Americans working from home should “dress like the adult you’re getting paid to be” rather than prioritize comfort over office dress code, a Los Angeles Times writer got a digital spanking for his skewed priorities.
Adam Tschorn, deputy fashion editor at the Times, took on the Herculean task of imposing sartorial order on his housebound readership on Friday, attempting to shame them into upholding his arbitrary style standards while they worked in coronavirus-imposed isolation. It didn’t go well.
love that the @latimes is getting ratio’d for writing one of the most egregious articles of quarantine yet pic.twitter.com/Lzwcz7uTt7
— Stewart Poindexter (@supstew) April 17, 2020
Insisting on the importance of “ritual,” Tschorn proudly declared he “won’t even consider punching the virtual time clock” until he’s “showered, shaved and fully dressed. This includes shoes – especially shoes – even if I don’t intend to leave the house,” he bragged, before insisting everyone else follow his example out of “respect” for their bosses and co-workers.
Weird that people at the @latimes are apparently pointing the camera at their crotches so people can see their pants. Out here, we usually point the camera AT OUR FACES so nobody can see what we're wearing below, but maybe that's my east coast Zoom bias talking? 😀
— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) April 17, 2020
Leaving aside the question of who can see one’s shoes (or pants, for that matter) during even the most strenuous Zoom meeting, the internet rushed to see who exactly had the gall to shame their fashion choices in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. The answer surprised more than a few people, and critics had a field day shredding the writer’s own fashion choices.
This is the guy who's telling people to dress like adults btw pic.twitter.com/AmVE2GJLrm
— Laker Film Room (@LakerFilmRoom) April 17, 2020
Some attempted armchair psychoanalysis of the self-styled Grand Inquisitor of Fashion, questioning his relationship with reality…
And in a situation that is not under control, that they have no power over. They cannot control or stop a pandemic. And they won’t admit their coping mechanism is different from others. That’s it. How they feel “in control” differs. Leaning into status quo gives them comfort.
— 🆃🆁🆄🅳🆈 (@thetrudz) April 17, 2020
because apparently, it takes a global pandemic to stop forcing people to get dressed, do their hair & put on makeup for a video call that could have been an email. These are the same people who clock watch everyone in the office to see if they're late coming in or late from break
— KD (@Fly_Sistah) April 17, 2020
…as well as that of the paper which published him.
"Journalism is struggling everywhere, but we at the Los Angeles Times will not waiver. We will not falter. We will hold the line. The people *must* be condescended to about how they dress in their own homes in the midst of a once-in-a-century disaster."
— Chris Franklin (@Campster) April 17, 2020
— Stefan Smith (@TheStefanSmith) April 17, 2020
Others had less patience for the oddly attired clothing cop. “You can pry my sweatpants from my cold dead legs,” snarled one user, only for another to correct: “*warm dead legs.”
“Part of being an adult is not letting some snotty-ass columnist tell you how to dress,” another observed.
He's putting people on blast for how they dress while struggling to work from home in environments that often include children and other obstacles that make it more difficult in unprecedented timesA day after the LAT shuttered 3 local newspapersWhile dressed like that
— Laker Film Room (@LakerFilmRoom) April 17, 2020
— call gunna if you want you a birkin (@KiaSpeaks) April 17, 2020
Even the Times appeared to realize it had read the room wrong, following up the unpopular piece with several tweets poking fun at its own writer.
Um, we read this story while wearing basketball shorts https://t.co/3yyKVWp14p
— L.A. Times Sports (@latimessports) April 17, 2020
⚡️ “An LA Times writer said not to WFH in sweats. It didn't go well.”https://t.co/LBIHAClaXx
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) April 17, 2020
The Times announced on Thursday it was furloughing non-editorial employees for 16 weeks and imposing pay cuts of up to 15 percent due to plummeting ad revenue triggered by the pandemic shutdowns. But will those furloughed employees be wearing pants at home? That is the important question.
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