jquery fade in adding inline style to span

When using the fadeIn for a hidden span element, jquery adds display:inline to the inline styles. I understand why it does this because by default a span is a inline element although how do I set it to always display:block;

I have to use a <span> because:

开发者_运维技巧
• It is inside an <a>
• It needs to validate XHTML Strict
• Needs to work in IE6

You can use .animate() instead of .fadeIn(), which (I think) won't change the display property while animating.