Hats at the Rodeo

[happygrrl]

As a woman, I leave mine on, including the baseball hats (because I normally have my hair in a ponytail through the little platic thingy in the back).

[FlyingBaconMouse]

The outraged woman is using logic, but not tradition. Men remove their hats as a sign of respect, women don't.

POD. Even at my conservative parochial elementary school, girls who wore hats (for Spirit Week or whatever) could keep them on during the pledge(s--there were 3). And this was a place where you could get paddled for disrespect.

[PeterM]

The outraged woman is using logic, but not tradition. Men remove their hats as a sign of respect, women don't.

That's a very elegant way to put it. Me, I come down on the side of logic. If a woman's wearing a hat that's just as easy to remove as a man's hat, she should take it off. Just another subject where I think etiquette should update itself to apply to the real world, I guess. That said, this is far from the most pressing issue facing our society today, and it's not going to bother me if I see women leaving their hats on for the national anthem, any more than it would bother me to see men do the same.

[blarg314]

I would say that if a woman is wearing a traditional woman's hat, she can keep it on, but if she's wearing a more traditionally man-like hat (baseball cap, cowboy hat) it should be removed, both during the anthem, and while inside or at a church service.

[lmyrs]

I was at a football game this summer and I removed my hat during the anthem. The older man next to me said that women don't have to remove their hats. I replied that it was hardly a Sunday bonnet. I think that a woman wearing a decorative hat as part of a dressy outfit can leave it. Otherwise, it should come off. And I've also spent many years on the rodeo circuit and I've never seen a woman pin her cowboy hat to her head. They usually lose them when they're "coming home" on the barrel race.

I think that etiquette should be updated to reflect the fact that women aren't usually wearing the dressy, pinned on hats. My baseball cap or cowboy hat comes off just as easily as my husband's.

[diesel_darlin]

I was at a football game this summer and I removed my hat during the anthem. The older man next to me said that women don't have to remove their hats. I replied that it was hardly a Sunday bonnet. I think that a woman wearing a decorative hat as part of a dressy outfit can leave it. Otherwise, it should come off. And I've also spent many years on the rodeo circuit and I've never seen a woman pin her cowboy hat to her head. They usually lose them when they're "coming home" on the barrel race.

I think that etiquette should be updated to reflect the fact that women aren't usually wearing the dressy, pinned on hats. My baseball cap or cowboy hat comes off just as easily as my husband's.

This. I wear baseball caps quite a bit. I also wear cowboy hats, although not as often as I wear baseball caps.

I have had many people tell me that I do not have to take my cap/hat off during the National Anthem. I remove my cap/hat anyway, out of my personal respect.

I did learn a hard lesson at a racetrack once. Never perch your sunglasses on the bill of your baseball cap if you intend of removing it for the National Anthem, because it is a lonnnnnng walk down the hill that you have just flung them down. 

[MariaE]

The outraged woman is using logic, but not tradition. Men remove their hats as a sign of respect, women don't.

This, exactly. It was originally based partly on practicalities as PPs have mentioned, and partly on something Paul wrote in one of his letters that men should remove their headwear when praying, while women should cover their heads when praying - both things out of respect.

(Hope this is allowed, since I'm commenting on the cultural aspect of it, rather than the religious).

[GoTwins]

I would say that if a woman is wearing a traditional woman's hat, she can keep it on, but if she's wearing a more traditionally man-like hat (baseball cap, cowboy hat) it should be removed, both during the anthem, and while inside or at a church service.

I have long, slightly layered hair. When I wear a baseball cap, my hair is in a ponytail through the hole in the back and the layers are full of bobby pins to keep them neatly up inside my cap. I will not be taking the cap off in public for any reason.
And I have the utmost respect for my flag and national anthem. I just don't think I'm obligated to show the public a head full of bobby pins.

[Winterlight]

I would say that if a woman is wearing a traditional woman's hat, she can keep it on, but if she's wearing a more traditionally man-like hat (baseball cap, cowboy hat) it should be removed, both during the anthem, and while inside or at a church service.

That was Miss Manner's opinion as well.

[Onyx_TKD]

I would say that if a woman is wearing a traditional woman's hat, she can keep it on, but if she's wearing a more traditionally man-like hat (baseball cap, cowboy hat) it should be removed, both during the anthem, and while inside or at a church service.

That was Miss Manner's opinion as well.

Miss Manner has actually stated an interesting, qualified exception for cowboy hats worn indoors:

[A] person wearing a cowboy hat, along with a gray suit and lizard boots, in a city office building elevator, is not excused from removing his hat--no, not even if he is wearing the complete cowboy suit, with fringed jacket, jeans and spurs that he got for Christmas.

However, a genuine cowboy, wearing cowboy clothes and going about his cowboy business, does wear his hat everywhere.

In other words, it is not the had but the head that defines the man, oddly enough.

(bolding mine)

I assume the same exception would apply to rodeo competitors of any gender, wearing their rodeo clothes and going about their rodeo business. I don't think that particular rule would apply to the anthem, though. I believe Miss Manners has also referred to cowboys tipping their hats to ladies, i.e., the dispensation seems to be for wearing them in locations where other men would remove their hats, not for situations where the hats are briefly removed as a gesture of respect.