Dress Codes and Sexism

Well, growing up in private schools, I was subjected to dress code enforcement.

1. Wear a belt with shorts and pants.

2. Tuck said shirt in.

3. Shorts and skirts must reach the knee.

4. Short or long sleeved polo of a solid color. Any color.

I didn't take issue with any of that. I even got check for my shorts and got sent home. I knew the rules. I went against them. Consequences.

On jeans day we still had to wear out solid color polo, so tops weren't really an issue.

Public schools are generally more lenient. But if there are rules set in place, and deemed appropriate for that age group (I'm referring to grade school, not college) I think they should be followed and there should be consequences for not following them.


If that school notified kids of what was not acceptable to wear for yearbook pictures, and the kids disregarded it, that's on the kids. Sometimes you just have to go along with rules (especially being a minor)

Now, college is a whole different ball of wax. These are adults. Unless you're at a tiny Baptist college, I can't imagine it being an issue. (I went to a tiny Baptist college and it wasn't an issue).

For me, it all depends on the age group we're talking about.

 

my daughter goes to a private christian school and the dress code seems legit even all the way up through the high school.
the public school system where i live seems more strict than my daughters school.

when i was in high school we did not have a dress code and i got suspended for wearing a confederate soldiers shirt to school, and i live in the south. that makes no damn since. it almost takes away each kids freedom of expression, but i do understand that some kids can get carried away with it

 

Ralphie, was it a shirt styled like a plain blouse that a confederate soldier might have worn under his uniform coat? Or was it a shirt with a big rebel flag on it? Because there is a big difference.

 

it was a dixie outfitters shirt. something like this i dont remember exactly what shirt it was but i had alot of them and i still own quite a few.

 

Interesting, Ralphie.

Personally, I would expect that clothing that made overtly political statements would be out of place, so maybe that was the point your teacher was making?

In my own schooldays, we had uniform - long dark grey or black trousers or below the knee skirts, white or grey button up shirts or blouses, a school tie, a pale grey v-neck jumper or cardigan, and a black blazer.

Oddly enough, it was written to be gender neutral (unintentionally) until a girl started coming to school in trousers. The rule was immediately posted in a letter home that girls had to wear the skirt/blouse/cardigan version of the rule.

A group of older boys, seeing the hypocrisy of this, and realising that no mirror provision had been put in place for male students decided (after encouragement from a person not unknown to you all) to come to school in skirts.

The head teacher immediately had them all in his office, tried to discipline them, and insisted that they had broken the rules. On finding that the students had in fact been well advised by someone who had actually taken the time to read the rules (he hadn't), it was realised that they had not broken any rule.

In due course, the rule was reverted back to the previous gender neutral version, the couple of female students who cycled to school went back to trousers, and everyone got on with their life.

It's no great surprise that I ended up in a job where the interpretation and implementation of rules is key is it?

 

When I was in high school, we would constantly cite Tinker v. Des Moines School District.

In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court held that high school students could not be suspended for wearing a black armband to protest the Vietnam War.

 

i understand that, but remember where i live, and the heritage. but i see where some can say recisism, but kids were wearing the malcolm X shirts.

 

My former Catholic high school now requires girls to wear pants or shorts under their skirts because too many wear hiking up their skirts wearing thongs.

GOD DAMN IT I WAS BORN TOO SOON.

 

If we had a dress code in school it wasn't enforced. My Coca-cola / Cocaine logo'd T-shirt was never questioned. Short shorts were very popular (ahh, the memories).

Corporate wear was pretty much reverse discrimination. Blue or grey suits, conservative ties for men, with "we don't have a clue" for women.

 

When I started my current job, the pre-existing employee dress code was extremely detailed, referring to specific fabrics and cuts, shoe styles, etc.

It was almost 100% about women's clothes. Admittedly, more than 90% of the staff was/is female.

There was constant simmering resentment over the fact that thin, attractive women were given more leeway, and some of them pushed the envelope.

I got rid of the detailed dress code and replaced it with a general statement about dressing appropriately.

 

When we look at dress codes, we should also look at the underlying social mores that support them. In business, those codes reflect the fact that women have more leeway to dress in ways that society restricts men from. Men are just as forbidden from wearing revealing clothing in the workplace. It's just that it's less acceptable for men to do it in the first place. In a professional office environment, you won't see guys wearing tank tops or cut-offs, for instance. If you do, it's a cinch that they're aren't going anywhere in that company.

So, really, where is the sexism? I think it starts with the way that we, as a culture, view and treat women. That goes hand in hand with a pervasive societal attitude that "boys will be boys." That's used as an excuse for a whole host of transgressions, just because a woman looks hot.

So you have one part of the system that says to women, go ahead and display your sexuality, but not too much. Because those boys won't be able to control themselves around you. We need to work at chipping away at the real root causes before anything sensible will ever happen.

 

My wife's school made it mandatory closed toe for all teachers.

 

There was a certain lack of professionalism in many teachers dress that needed to be addressed. One aspect of which was sandals and flip flops (on both genders). Rather than having to make a judgement call on what qualified and what didn't, it was easier to just have everyone wear closed toe shoes.

 

Dress codes might be sexist in that they are directed more at clothing worn by females, but IMO there are many more ways for a female to dress inappropriately than a male. I've been close to several people, males & females, in management positions, including school directors. A very large percentage of their "inappropriate dress" issues were with females.

If a dress codes sets guidelines for the way females dress, I see no reason why it shouldn't cover (pun) male attire as well. It there a difference between a tight blouse on female, and a fitted dress shirt on a male? Tight pants on a woman verses tight pants on a guy? If anything, tight pants on a guy will be more revealing than on a woman.

I'll throw in the biology argument. Even with evolution, human males are wired for frequent mating, human females are wired to attract males. While that can be argued, a simple fact is females go through a lot more effort to make themselves attractive than do males.

 

In general, I tend to be opposed to dress codes. What constitutes appropriate wear varies tremendously from situation to situation, and in general, my feeling is that school-- be it elementary, middle, high, or college-- is trying enough for a kid, they don't need the crap of dealing with arbitrary rules about what they can and can't wear. Fine, you don't want them to show up liable for indecent exposure, but so long as the naughty bits are covered, I would want pretty minimal rules. I can understand not wanting swear words on t-shirts, or restricting gang wear in ghetto schools. But if you're going to demand that a shitload of arbitrary "decency" or "propriety" rules are enforced, then you should have school uniforms-- a policy I dislike, but at least it's consistent, it removes the need for "checks," and the kids don't have to worry about choosing suitable clothes to fit the school rules. Kids are kids: their job at school should be to learn. If they can best do that while wearing jeans, or cutoffs, or bermuda shorts, or t-shirts, or spaghetti-strap blouses, or miniskirts, or whatever-- fine.

I don't like dress codes at work, either, except for the vague kind. Everyone knows, for example, if you work in a law office, you need to show up in a suit. If you work in finance, you should show up dressed to the nines, because they seem to use suits as penis extensions, like the way they use expensive cars. By the same token, if you're working in a computer repair shop, jeans ought to be okay. Obviously, there are a lot of places where the dress code is much fuzzier, which is why I have always asked, if I am in doubt. If I've been through an interview process for a job, and didn't see any male employees around, I'll ask the woman interviewing me, "What do men tend to wear around here?" So far that's never steered me wrong. It just takes common sense. And if your employees are so lacking in common sense that they can't figure out appropriate attire without a detailed dress code, then your company has bigger problems than clothing.