156 Dress code

Dress Codes

TIME magazine this past week had a tiny two-sentence factoid about a Saudi woman arrested for wearing a mini-skirt. A video of this went viral. Let’s add to this that public schools will open soon. In August, in the heat! 

What kinds of dress code issues will be making the headlines? I predict that there will national parental outrage when the parents get called at work because the daughter’s shorts are too short or that the son’s t-shirt has a graphic that might “disrupt the educational process.” These scenarios will be a continuation of the past few years.

Then, let’s look at shopping. I talked to a friend whose daughter is in middle school. Shopping has become a trial. The jeans and slacks are mainly lower than waist high; the shirts often end above the belly button. NO, NO, NO say the school dress codes. 

Her complaint was justified when I just opened this week’s New York magazine. Inside the front cover is a two-page Macy’s ad of school clothes featuring six students leaning against lockers. The first has on a floral dress WELL above the knees with cutout shoulders and a deep v-neck. Nope, this won’t work. The next two students are boys – one with jeans and denim jacket, the other with a two-piece sweat suit looking outfit. 

The next is a girl with ripped jeans. Some schools may okay this, others not. It may depend upon where the rips and tears are located. The next is another girl with denim shorts that end at the hip (yes, the hip) and a crop top with belly button showing. The final student is a boy with Bermuda length shorts and a button shirt with his sleeves rolled up. Very appropriate, very preppy. I see three boys with dress code approved clothes and two girls with NON-approved outfits and one girl whose jeans are “iffy.”

The next issue that arose last spring in any number of schools across the nation was that of sexual discrimination. Still looking at the Macy’s ad, I think school dress codes disproportionately affect girls. Far more girls are cited for dress code violations than boys. Boys wearing hats seems to slide by the administration, but hoodies apparently “indicate gang behavior.” “Still more than 90% of the code violations are girls.” (US.blastingnews/2017/05) 

Paraphrasing a conversation with one student in this article, a freshman girl complained that [you] can read the label on boys’ underwear their pants are so low, but [she] got sent home for a cut-out shoulder blouse.

I ask this question: What is the true purpose of dress codes? One administrator in the above article posited that girls’ clothing distracted boys from paying attention in class. [Oh, my, where is HR??] Dress codes appear to be sexist. 

It seems to me that the codes are demeaning boys by schools thinking a bare shoulder is more interesting than class; it certainly demeans girls who get suspended for wearing current fashions. 

Local dress codes are in line with the national policies. Basically, all say that any clothing (or lack thereof) that distracts from learning is a no-no. What are parents to do? And clothes are not cheap.

Get ready for students and their parents to continue to stand up, be counted, and ask questions. One mother, a Dr. Pearlman, wrote a letter to the school principal and invited said principal to come shopping with them to find code-adhering clothing. A few protests took place at the end of the last school year with large groups of students getting suspended. (NPR/4/6/14/Anatomy-of-a-dress-code) 

The answer to this issue MAY BE SCHOOL UNIFORMS. Yes, my friends, this writer is reversing her thoughts of five years ago. Then I would have said loudly and assertively that selecting clothing is part of growing up, of expressing individuality, and is a civil right. Well, I may have changed my mind.

The cartoons helped.

As a regular substitute teacher, I look forward to seeing what will be happening in the heat of August. Well, I look forward to it in an impish, perverse sort of way.

On a more professional and higher level thinking plane, I recommended to you one of my favorite authors. Alexander McCall Smith, past professor of medical law with twelve honorary doctorates, author of over 100 books and articles, writes two popular series: The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (set in Botswana) and 44 Scotland Street (featuring recurring characters). It is in the latest Scotland Street title about the education of precocious young Bertie that I found the following passage. One of the adult characters says to her friend:

“We need bank managers to dress like bank managers….We need dentists who wear blue jackets buttoned up at the front. We need head waiters in white jackets. We need people who occupy roles and wear the clothing to prove it. It’s a form of social reassurance. It represents order, and we need order. We don’t need chaos and confusion. In short, we need civilization, and if you chip away at any of its pillars, in the name of informality…you weaken the underpinnings….” (p. 106)






So, savvy readers, we would love to know what you think! Are we preaching to the choir?

Should we continue to leave it to dress codes to monitor our children and their clothing purchases, okaying some and not others? What about the statistics by gender? What are some solutions? Certainly, school uniforms are one answer.

We hope to hear from you. 

Stay cool, Glenne