Not uncommon to have alternative hairstyles.
Brief momentary notice at most. I worked with a guy that was a total doppelganger for Gimli, complete with thick braid that went most of the way down his back. And a beard that covered his neck and upper chest. Braided with some sort of yarn stuff. Hubby had a mohawked braid when we got married. I’ve never had to explain to hubby, though, why wearing his tshirt with a print of one of the pinup girls from the 1940’s on it to work MIGHT be inappropriate. I married a GROWN UP man. I wanted a husband, not someone to take to raise.
Wearing the shirt with scantily clad women is a different matter altogether. The minute he entered the press conference, every single hetero man in the room spent 10 or 15 seconds trying to figure out if the scantily clad women were wearing clothing, and based on the positions whether or not anything else was going on there...wait, what did he just say? Why are we here again? You get one chance to make a good first impression. This guy blew it.
Not different than a female spokesperson wearing a shirt that prints her breasts and no bra underneath. And then complains because no one listened to what she had to say. He made the whole press conference about his clothing, not his work.
And he didn’t do any of this ‘achievement’ alone. None of the background people got any recognition either. All because he had to ‘make a statement’, or couldn’t be bothered to think 3 extra seconds that morning and wear something grown up.
He didn’t even apologize for this in a manly grown up manner either.
It’s the casual workplace writ large.
And his haircut DID take the twitterverse over the mars landing. Women went gaga over it. Why would they objectify a man so?
Do a thought experiment of letting everything else remain the same but change the person’s gender from male to female.
Would any male supervisor dare to complain about her attire? At least, without a 3 day careful consultation of the corporate personnel manual and lengthy discussions with both his boss and HR. And even then, I wonder if he would be taking a big risk to say anything lest it be interpreted as sexual discrimination...