“Men in gray suits” refers to powerful, faceless people who control important matters behind the scenes. As feminist ideas influenced language, they became simply “gray suits” and are now genderless and disembodied. Suits are often symbols of power and authority figures with money. The phrase may have originated from the rebellion against formal attire by the post-World War II generation.
The expression “men in gray suits” or “grey suits” usually refers to powerful people who operate behind the scenes. This phrase is often used to describe faceless and almost secretive people who control politics, business or other important matters without drawing attention to themselves. The expression is usually meant to evoke suspicion or fear of the puppeteers who anonymously and without accountability pull the strings.
Over the years, as feminist ideas have influenced language, men in gray suits have become, quite simply, gray suits. A gray suit could be the bank officer denying a loan, or a government official announcing a change in tax law that would benefit only the very wealthy. Over time, it became less and less necessary for them to wear gray. The current generation of dresses have become not only genderless and faceless, but disembodied to the point of being omnipresent ghosts with no physical presence.
Suits, because they are associated with formal wear and uniformity, are often symbols of power. They are also often associated with people who have enough money to dress well. Because of these associations, a suit is often used as a metaphor for a faceless authority figure, usually with money. In this context the person may be referred to simply as “a dress”, usually derisively.
The expression men in gray suits may have its origins in the mid-20th century, when the post-World War II generation came of age and rebelled against the social and political norms of their parents’ generation. In the United States especially, flower children, hippies, and other baboom teens often rejected their parents’ ideas about proper clothing. The younger generation preferred jeans and casual clothes over the more formal attire their parents deemed appropriate. The older generation, and its authority figures, therefore, were dressed up because they wore suits while the younger ones rejected that generation’s dress codes.
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