Breaking Dress Code
A while back I stumbled across a story about a student named Laura from one of the secondary schools in my community. The snapshot version is that a responsible, intelligent and involved student was sent home from school for wearing ripped jeans and a flowy tank top. Nothing out of the ordinary for a teenage girl.
In response to her school’s decision, the student staged a protest. In an interview with one newspaper she was quoted saying:
“They just said that what I was wearing was not appropriate for school and that I should not be able to be seen in school until I change,” said Anderson. “I went home and changed into regular jeans and a baggy t-shirt, but felt very sad about the incident and very degraded by the incident.”
Laura encouraged other students to replicate the outfit she wore when she was sent home — i.e. Jeans and a tank top — in protest. And before you assume that she’s just an angry, rebellious, “immature” teenager, take a look at this statement:
“My intention always was and always will be to make a positive change respectfully,”
“If we bash the entire dress code on Wednesday, that’s going to make us seem immature and rebellious.”
Laura’s decision to stage a protest was not simply about fighting a dress-code — It was about fighting inherently sexist policies within the school system that translate into the wider community. While many people praised these young women for their actions, some people wrote them off as immature and fighting for a “silly cause”. Some felt that dress-codes are not a big deal and students should suck it up. Some claimed that school, and their dress-codes, prepare people for the “professional world'“ and are therefore justified. Some even referred to these girls as ‘fake feminists’ or suggested that this fight isn’t one worth having. And some people even went so far as to suggest that “there is no hope for humanity” (cue eye roll…).
For those of you that view these types of fights as silly, I pose this question to you:
What did you fight for when you were in high school?
Better yet…
What are you fighting for right now?
Regardless of your opinion of the focus of this particular protest, let’s give this girl a hand for actually DOING something when she felt she was being treated unfairly in school. It doesn’t matter if your efforts start with cleaning the parks, feeding the hungry or encouraging your school to update their outdated dress code — the point is that young people are seeing things that they don’t feel are just, and they are doing something about it! This is not something to ridicule. This is something to celebrate.
But let me emphasize this…. this IS a fight worth having. And this battle is no small feat.
First of all… these kinds of dress-codes were an issue when my friends and I were in school and there are still issues with them. When I was younger my friends and I didn’t understand why it bothered us so much, but we knew that it wasn’t fair. We didn’t have the knowledge, language or the tools to understand the issue, let alone act on it.
But here’s the issue – these dress-codes imply that there is something inherently inappropriate about our shoulders, our legs and our bra straps. They imply that our body parts and the clothing we wear is “distracting” within an educational space. They also do not take into consideration the diversity of female bodies and the reality that some body parts can’t (and should not) be hidden from sight.
Perpetuating the idea that a girl’s tank-top, or her body in general, is “distracting” or inappropriate in some way creates the very foundation that leads to over-sexualizing females, victim-blaming and rape-culture within our society. This concept diminishes our bodies to nothing but our sexuality — can a body be sexual? Yes, obviously. But only when a person chooses to be sexual, then and only then is that body sexual. Not in the middle of a high school. Not in the middle of a classroom. And definitely not when a young girl is trying to learn. These kinds of outfits are not inappropriate, but the reaction to them is. When you interrupt a girls education and send her home because you don’t think she should be seen in a tank-top, you are teaching every student in that school that a girls education is less important than what you think she should be wearing.
Not only is it unproductive to perpetuate the over-sexualization of young girls because of their appearance or their choice of clothing, but it is even more unproductive to assume that boys (and male teachers) are unable to focus on their work simply because they can see a leg, a shoulder, a belly or a bra strap. This outdated approach to dress-codes is straight up insulting! First off, if boys actually are distracted by something so minuscule, they should be sent home. Secondly, are we really assuming that boys are nothing but their hormones? Are they unable to view girls as human beings, friends, peers? Are they unable to be productive members of the community because of a bra strap? Let’s give them a little more credit folks.
And what does ‘professional’ even mean?
Seriously though. What is appropriate in one profession may not be appropriate in another. Now I would never go so far as to argue that we should toss dress-codes out the window entirely. Almost everywhere you go is going to have some version of a dress-code, even if it’s something as simple as “no shirt, no shoes, no service”. But the day of this protest I went to work and more than one of my female colleagues, all of which are in leadership roles, were wearing outfits that exposed more skin than Laura — did this impact their work? No. Did it impact anyone else’s? No. Did it impact the respect people hold for them? No.
And yes, of course part of the purpose of school is to prepare young people for their future careers… but the key word being part.
Do you remember what it was like to be in high school? You are not just preparing for the “professional world”. High school is a time for self discovery, self exploration and believe it or not, it is supposed to be fun.
Someone asked me the other day what the youth scene was like in London. You know what my response was? We don’t have one. London, I love you, but you have next to nothing for young people. Now that’s not to say that there aren’t wonderful people and amazing organizations dedicated to empowering and celebrating youth, but let’s face it, youth are cast to the sidelines in our community. High school is their space. Let them be young, let them have fun, let them be who they want to be! They have the rest of their lives to be “professional”.
And in case you were wondering… “Feminism is the radical notion that women are people too”.
If someone is fighting to empower women, then yes, they are a feminist. End of story.
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What most young people involved in these kinds of movements are trying to accomplish is an updated dress-code that does not over-sexualize girls bodies by implying that a bra strap, shoulders, legs, etc. are “inappropriate”. They want to ensure that girls’ education stops being disrupted. And as I mentioned before, if a male student is so distracted by a bra strap… Send him home! That’s his issue, not hers (Although I do give boys more credit than this and really doubt that they are distracted). And finally, these young people want a say in something that affects them on a daily basis. You want to end political apathy among young people? Support them when they want to engage in policy decisions.
After reflecting on this situation and the way the community reacted I feel there are a few things I think we should all keep in mind:
We need to celebrate and support young people fighting for social change
Just because something isn’t relevant or important in your day to day life doesn’t mean that it does not have value
Boys and men are not walking hormones, despite what you may think
A person’s body is not sexual unless they choose to be sexual
And let’s not forget that at one point women were fighting for the right to wear pants, cut their hair short and even show a little ankle — I bet there were haters ripping on those girls too. But how would you feel today if they had given up that fight?
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“Don’t overdo it, dress code protesters urged”
“London student in jeans, tank top sent home for breaking dress code”
