Dress Codes in Schools

The Current Situation

 Whether documented and enforced or not, there is a social construct that creates expectations for how people dress in our culture.  Additionally, these expectations are heavily based on a binary gender system.  Schools are environments that shape the future, educating children and youth and preparing them for life in the real world.  Many workplaces require staff to adhere to a dress code, wearing all back in restaurants, dressing “business-casual” at a law firm and wearing uniforms as policemen and firefighters.  Some of these rules have practical and safety-based reasoning while others are society’s way of giving identity to various occupations.

 With feminism on the rise, promoting equality of all genders and forms of self expression, implications and ideas revolving dress codes have come into question.  Some schools have stricter control on how their students dress, demanding students to wear either the “boy” uniform or the “girl” uniform”.  Other schools have allowed students to wear a variety of styles of clothing with certain guidelines and parameters.  However, society is now questioning whether these dress codes are based on an out-dated and sexist culture, further instilling patriarchy and the oppression of women in our society or if there is a true social and biological need for dress codes in schools.

Sexist Messages in Dress Codes

In recent years, instances of girls being sent home for violations of their schools’ dress codes have become popular new stories. These stories have shed light on the potential patriarchy undertones in dress codes. Girls being sent home symbolizes a barrier on the right to education, an issue that many girls around the world still struggle with. Arguing that revealing clothing can act as a distraction for male students places the blame on female students. There is debate on whether or not our society has adopted a “victim-shaming” culture where rape and sexual assault victims are criticized for “asking for it”. Similarly, blaming female students for their male counterparts’ behaviour may reinforce a patriarchal structure that formulates rules based on the needs of males. For example, Tessa Wisloh was reprimanded for wearing “a sleeveless shirt under a zip-up jacket”. (Gillman, 2015) Her school district’s dress code stated that “shirts and blouses must be long enough to remain tucked in at all times with no skin visible” and that “dresses must not have a plunging neckline and that spaghetti straps, tank tops, muscle shirts and shirts with cut off sleeves are all banned” (Hernando County School District, 2015). Though its rules are not explicitly gender specific, its instruction towards females is implied in the fact that dresses are generally worn by females. Similarly, a high school student in Kentucky was sent home for an exposed collarbone. When confronted by her mother, “the rule was being defended as a means of preventing male students from being distracted”. (Lewis, 2015)

The Role of Media

The need for dress codes may stem from years of over-sexualization of women’s bodies in mainstream media.  Their portrayal of women’s bodies in a certain light easily reaches millions of students through magazines, TV, billboard ads, and posters. Raby explained in her study on secondary school dress codes that “North American culture in which female raunch is now celebrated in the false belief that it is a liberating and powerful progression of feminism. Rather than stigma, sluttiness in high school brings stardom; girls learn that to get attention from boys they need to perform themselves as sexy. Yet, this is not really sexual empowerment or liberation, Levy argued, but instead it is absorption into a consumerist, sexist culture” (Raby, 2010)  To reverse a hypersexualized culture may take an incredibly long time, which could make dress codes necessary in the meantime.  One can also argue that the response of adolescent males to pay attention to female bodies is purely biological and that dress codes compensate for this natural phenomenon.

Justification of Dress Codes

The extent of the effect of dress codes on students and society is explained by Pomerantz in her article “Cleavage in a Tank Top: Bodily Prohibition and the Discourses of School Dress Codes”,  she explains that “Codifying the body through text allows the school to create social categories that leave their mark not just on the student('s) body, but also on the formation of gender and sexuality.” (Pomerantz, 2007) This promotes the stigmatization of demeaning words used to describe women who choose to dress or act a certain way.  As illustrated in her article, dress codes have been justified by 3 main arguments.  The first one describes the idea of a “feminine duty to the school” where girls are responsible to suppress male urges by dressing conservatively.  The second one sees girls wearing revealing clothes as actively trying to put male students at risk of committing crimes and acting upon urges rather than a mere form of personal expression.  The last argument describes the school’s responsibility to regulate how girls dress in the interest of their personal safety.  Pomerantz points out the apparent contradiction in these arguments where on one hand, girls are seen as incapable of protecting themselves and on the other, are responsible for “upholding her school’s moral community” and the behaviour of male students.

  Adhering to these dress codes may allow “boys and men [to] more actively create social space and their own dominant positions while girls uncritically reproduce their own subordination.” (Raby, 2009). Regardless of intention, it is unclear whether dress codes ultimately protect male and female students or if they reinforce harmful sexist attitudes.

References Gillman, Ollie. "Father's Fury as His High School Student Daughter, 17, Is given an 'inappropriate Dress' Warning by Her Teacher for Wearing This Sleeveless Shirt under a Zip-up Jacket ." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 10 Sept. 2015. Web. 10 Nov. 2016.

Lewis, Ashley. "Female Student Gets Reprimanded for Showing Her Collarbone." NY Daily News. N.p., 17 Aug. 2015. Web. 25 Nov. 2016.

Pomerantz, Shauna. "Cleavage in a Tank Top: Bodily Prohibition and the Discourses of School Dress Codes." Alberta Journal of Educational Research 53.4 (2007): 373-86. ProQuest. Web. 25 Nov. 2016.

Raby, R. ""Tank Tops Are Ok but I Don't Want to See Her Thong": Girls' Engagements With Secondary School Dress Codes." Youth & Society 41.3 (2009): 333-56. Web.

Smith, Natalie. "Eliminating Gender Stereotypes In Public School Dress Codes: The Necessity Of Respecting Personal Preference." Journal Of Law & Education 41.1 (2012): 251-259. Education Source. Web. 25 Nov. 2016.