Skintern

In American workplaces, a skintern is a summer intern, usually female, who dresses in clothing more revealing than that which is common for the field in question. The term is a portmanteau of skin and intern. It was first used in 2005 to describe certain such interns working in offices of members of the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C.; since then it has spread to other industries outside government and politics that also employ summer interns.

The phenomenon is sometimes a deliberate sartorial strategy, but more often is believed to result from ignorance of accepted professional dress standards. Professional women have often responded to skinterns by advising them on how to dress more professionally. Some feminists, however, have seen the term as yet another symptom of inherent sexism in the workplace, since it is so widely applied.

History

Around the turn of the 21st century, the congressional staffers who manage the intern programs in the United States House of Representatives began noticing that while most of the young women showed up for work in the same conservative professional attire that the staffers and members did, some chose more revealing clothing. Chad Pegram, a coordinator of Miami University of Ohio's intern program, recalls that when he took a group to lunch with one member of the state's congressional delegation, one young woman stood out by wearing "a skirt that was way too short" and flip-flops. "It reflected badly on her because everyone else looked great," he recalled. "She embarrassed herself."

Other staffers reported later that they had seen young women come in for internships wearing "gold stiletto heels, thigh-high boots [and] belly shirts" in addition to short skirts. Most male staffers did not mind, but female staffers, even those just a few years older, were often resentful. The scandal in which White House intern Monica Lewinsky's sexual affair with President Bill Clinton had led to his impeachment was fresh in in institutional memory, and some staffers and journalists wondered if the skimpily dressed young female interns were trying to emulate her.

In June 2005, as another group of summer interns began their weeks on Capitol Hill, Betsy Rothstein wrote an article about the phenomenon for The Hill. "We were talking about this at dinner the other night, about how some interns show up in some of the skimpiest clothing," she quoted an unnamed female press secretary as recalling. "One of the boys called them skinterns, which I thought was hilarious." This appears to have been the first recorded use of the term.

Another term came from an unidentified "female Republican aide," who claimed she kept and shared a list of "daily offenses" such as young women wearing metallic shoes and handbags as well as wifebeaters. "If you are going to wear stilettos or heels, no complaining about how they hurt. Interns need to learn to walk in them." She continued "My favorite term is the Saturday-night intern, one who always dresses like it is a Saturday night. They are all over."

When the Washington Times covered the phenomenon a year later, it used the shorter term. "They'’re known as 'skinterns,'" the paper wrote. "Those who think 'belly shirts' are career wear. If the devil wears Prada, the skinterns wear nada. As if Washington wasn't sweltering enough." It reported that the popular political blog Wonkette had started a "Hill Intern Hotties Contest" for both male and female interns. The article implied that the phenomenon was no longer restricted to just congressional offices but had migrated, like many former members of Congress, to lobbying firms on K Street.

Four years later, in 2010, the Baltimore Sun reported that private employers in its coverage area were dealing with skinterns. "Booty shorts. Thigh-grazing dresses. Flip-flops. Ripped jeans. Cleavage-baring tops. See-through skirts. Forgotten bras. Employers have seen it all—and wish they hadn't." Missy Martin, vice president of human resources at Ripken Baseball, told the Sun that interns were "showing up to work in bar clothes. Short skirts, tank tops and cleavage showing. It's like, 'Kids, do you realize you're not supposed to be dressed like you're going out to drink in Canton?'"

By the middle of the next decade, the skintern phenomenon had been observed in public and private offices around the country. Articles advising interns on how to dress appeared on popular websites in June, when most internships start. " ... [B]efore long, the annual summer parade of skinterns will begin," wrote Katherine Goldstein, editor of Vanity Fair's website, dropping the scare quotes in a 2013 Slate piece advising young women on how to dress in offices. At her former employer, she recalled, "[e]very June there would be a new batch, just as clueless about appropriate office attire as those from the year before. Think dresses so clingy they leave nothing to the imagination, tops worn without a bra and tied together with string, daisy dukes, sheer harem pants, and cleavage straight out of a men's magazine." The following year the Kansas City Star ran a similar piece, one of the first in a newspaper outside the large media markets of the Northeast.

A 2012 blog post by GlobaLinks Abroad suggested the phenomenon had spread overseas as well. For the organization, Monika Lutz advised young women headed for internships abroad to eschew "spaghetti straps, cleavage, short skirts, backless outfits or any combination of the above" if they did not want to be remembered as skinterns. "But men are not excluded from the fashion police's searchlight," she added. "They can be see sporting hoodies, flip flops, super baggy cargo pants, or some fresh-off-the-court sneakers, just to cite the most common occurrences." Similarly, in a 2013 piece giving dressing advice to interns in the Huffington Post, fashion journalist Lauren Rothman, while generally focused on issues specific to women, reminds those heading for Silicon Valley to "leave the hoodies and sweats to those who have already made their millions."