Change Your World Week Winter 2022 (Archived)

It always seems like dress codes are getting someone in trouble. From the 1970s at the height of the Vietnam war when anti-war protesters would wear arm bands with peace signs on them, to express their frustration with the way the government was handling the situation; all the way to as recent as the 9th of March 2022 where a 8th grader in Grosse Pointe Farms was told not to return to school due to how her hair had been styled in cornrow braids. While at the time of writing this, young Elsa Kassab has been allowed back into Saint Paul’s Catholic School in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan this will undoubtedly have a negative affect on her for the rest of her life. Her  head wasn’t even full of the braids, it was four short braids and were told that the school’s dress code did not allow for “extreme hairstyles.” All across the country and even the world dresscodes noticeably target girls or feminine presenting individuals more than they do the masculine counterpart. That’s not to say masculine people do not experience it, but the numbers are there. However, is there perhaps a reason for these dresscodes to be enforced in such a way? Here we will display both the pros and cons of a dress code, and allow for you the reader to determine what you think about dress codes.
 

Generally, dress code is understood as a written and expected standard of attire. However it’s not a universal constant of what a dress code is. Often people will hear the word business casual, and know what that usually infers. A plain either polo or button up shirt, clean jeans, and nice shoes, maybe some simple jewelry. Business professional is a suit and tie, a pant suit, a suit jacket and a pencil skirt. However if we look at an electrician's attire their dress code vastly differs-steel toe boots replace shiny loafers and high heels, a safety harness for your suit jacket, and a hard hat to cover your head rather than hairspray and bobby pins. A dress code changes depending on where you go, and some people could argue who you are. But what are the true pros of this system?

Most often the cited benefits of a dress code are as follows:

• Restricts conflicts including, gang violence, and segregation.

  • Often in gangs they are possibly identified by wearing specific colors, and limiting what students can and cannot wear it prevents tension.

• Limits the time taken to prepare for school

  • When you don't have to wake up and worry about how you look and how you’ll dress every day it lessens the amount of time spent getting dressed for school

• May promote a sense of security. 

  • Often dress codes limit the ability to show off who’s better off and who’s less fortunate. When all you are allowed to wear is a khaki skirt and a white polo, it’s harder for you to feel excluded on the basis of clothes.

• It's easier to spot those who aren't complying with the rules and intruders on property.

  • If your students and/or staff are required to dress a certain way, seeing someone out of the attire code would immediately put attention on them, and possibly curtail any possible issues.   

While the pros are noticeable and incredibly useful, we must also state the cons of the argument with dress codes.

• Destroys any social barriers

  • If students all look the same psychologically, students with disabilities or needs can be overlooked or even disregarded.

• Form of discipline and shaming

  • In some schools, when a dress code violation occurs, some schools have shirts or outfits meant for the student to wear so their peers know they broke the dress code. Or in most cases students will be pulled from class and sent back home to change clothes.

• Can cause issues with one's own self image 

  • Often coming from the disciplining and shaming, students have self esteem and worth issues after these incidents with being told off by adults for wearing tank tops or shorts that are “too short.”

• Racial and sexist standards.

  • Racially, often black students are told to fix their hair for being “too distracting” or to not braid their hair because it's “too extreme.” 

  • According to the First Coast News some public records accessed by the site says 83% of dress code violations are directed at girls, and men are less likely to be coded at all.

But what do you think? Are dress codes fair? Or do they need serious reform? Here are the opinions of our writers.

    “In my personal opinion I can see both the pros and cons, but am mostly on the side of dress code reform. I was in catholic school for most of my life and found myself that once I was allowed to dress myself I was still under the feeling of ridicule from having shorts shorter than my fingers and anywhere above my knee. I would regularly be denied the chance to change after church on days in the single digits, where I had to wear a skirt no matter the weather. Meanwhile in high school I would regularly be dress coded for shorts and shirts deemed inappropriate and distracting, and if I was really going around ‘like that.’ Uniforms need reforms to suit the needs of its student body. A photo I have provided is of me and my sisters from when we attended a school with a rigid uniform policy. It was August at the time, but every Friday we would dress like this with little to no opportunity to change."

“Personally, I think dress codes are appropriate to an extent. However, there is a time and a place to enforce them. Schools seem to target women for the most part and that is not fair. Women should not have to restrict themselves or their creativity to accommodate the impulses of men, and vice versa. There should be a reform and some education about the effects of it have been. The psychological impacts should be taken seriously.”

“I believe dress codes are useful in certain situations. With that being said I also believe that children and teens alike should be able to express themselves in some form of fashion. Having some restrictions is fair in certain settings like schools, jobs, and in public seems reasonable. To conclude I believe that anyone should be able to express themselves but they should also respect the boundaries of certain settings, and that certain restrictions in those settings should be eased back.”

Tell us your own thoughts!
 

Bibliography

Carey, Henry F. “Dress Codes.” Dress Codes, https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1208/dress-codes.

Shields, Author: Leah. “Public Records Show More Dress Code Violations for Female Students in St. Johns County Schools.” Firstcoastnews.com, 12 Apr. 2021, https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/entertainment/television/programs/gmj/public-records-disproportionate-dress-code-violations-female-students-st-johns-county-schools/77-a2bd2163-f28d-427b-9815-7e9b8b5c8cd1.

Wilson-Levin, Jenna. “Opinion: How Dress Codes Affect Students.” The Mustang, 10 Feb. 2022, https://www.sdamustang.com/opinions/2021/11/05/opinion-how-dress-codes-affect-students/.