I remember being in elementary school. I remember being sent to the principal’s office a lot for not doing my home work. I remember trading Pokemon cards outside the boy’s bathroom in secret so that my teacher didn’t take all of our cards away. I remember being told that we weren’t allowed to play on the jungle gym until we had walked ten laps around the track… and on that note, I also remember the way my mom exclaimed, “They make the prisoners at Phillips walk laps during their break time, too. Are our children on the same level as convicts, now?” I remember writing a paper to one of my teachers explaining why we should be allowed to go to recess because it allowed us a chance to get out of the classroom and play, use our imaginations, and “boldly go where no kid had gone before.” I don’t remember ever getting in trouble for what I was wearing.
Then middle school rolled around. Kids were learning about drugs and gangs and sex, and suddenly no outfit was appropriate. Every pair of shorts I wore was too short. I couldn’t wear red more than twice a week, and never in a row. Kids who tried to dye their hair would be suspended. I seem to remember, though, that the prettier girls never got called out for their short skirts. No one got called out for dying their hair platinum blonde. Only the kids who didn’t identify with the ‘popular’ kids… And God forbid anyone ever wear a hat to school…
While in high school, the rules slackened a little, the ever present fear of ‘gang-attire’ or ‘provocative-styles’ swelled to a breaking point. Gothic, Punk, Gangsta (not to be confused with actual gang members) kids were no longer targeted by the crackdowns on the dress code, but again, the preppy, popular kids always managed to get away with more than the kids who weren’t. I’m not really sure why.
I suppose one might argue that because the preppy, popular kids were active in their communities, acedemically superior, and socially cooperative, they were permitted the occasional slip up. But here’s the rub: at my high school, the preppy, popular kids were in the middle range, college prep track. The kids in the honors program, actively involved in the arts, sciences, or Advanced Placement, tended toward more unique sttyles of dress. For some, it was the Gothic style. For some, that artsy, hipster style. For others, a strange amalgome of what was coming into style and what had lost its appeal five years ago. This tended to include shirts that were too short and showed off the navel, black leather and latex, strange piercings, and oversized clothes. I imagine the gangsta kids who had neither popularity nor grades to save them experienced a living hell every time they got singled out by a teacher. There was no way to appeal any repremand that a teacher laid down.
I got a warning once for when one of my bra straps slid down my shoulder. Maybe it’s just me, but that tends to happen too often for me to be constantly shrugging or tugging at the damned things. Usually I ignore them, safe in the knowledge that a peice of fabric covered elastic isn’t very tittilating.
I know in part the fact that students are constantly swimming in hormones and social pressures to conform or be different can make designing dress codes difficult. Changing fashions also have a great deal to do with the complexities of designing a dress code. The shortening of hemlines on skirts and shorts exemplify this. For the most part, deciding that keeping hems to the end of one’s fingers is probably the safest way to go. The girls hate it, of course. God knows I did. Why? Was i trying to tittilate my male classmates or teachers and cause a distraction? Pfft. No. I hated the rule because nobody sold shorts or skirts for girls my age and size that went all the way to my finger tips.
All I’m trying to say is that teachers need to be a little bit more concious and a little less reactionary to students’ styles of dress. That, or they need to be universally reactionary. Kids shouldn’t get free passes on low necklines, high hemlines, or torn clothing for being more attractive or socially acceptable. An official warning was not neccessay to get me to adjust my bra strap; all the teacher needed to do was ask me to fix it. Had the teacher been a woman, she might have even been able to suggest I go to the bathroom and adjust the length of the strap so it was less likely to slip. I saw other girls wearing those practically see-through white cotton tees with bright pink or purple bras underneath, with not even a raised eyebrow of protest from teachers. I heard rumors of girls wearing white pants and black thongs and getting no repremand from male principals or teachers, even when female teachers protested.
I don’t like the double standard.
In any case, I think the best deterrent for kids, especially girls, who want to dress in such a way is to point out the double standard. Oh, not by telling anyone that preppy clothes can get away with shorter hemlines and showing off their underwear… No, by having the fatest, oldest, most unlikable male teacher say what one of my math teachers said to my class on the first day of eigth grade.
“You may think the only people looking at y’all’s legs and whatnot are your classmates. But you’re wrong. Think about it, ladies, some of y’all’s teachers are men. And men, as a rule, are gonna look. I’m gonna look. So when you get dressed in the morning, I want you to think to yourselves: do I really want Mr. S looking at me when I’m wearing this outfit? If the answer is “no,” I suggest you change clothes.”
None of the girls in my class ever got called out on account of the dress code that year, I can tell you that.
