Is the school dress code sexist?
Spaghetti straps. Short skirts. Midriff-exposing tops. Bare backs. Excessive cleavage.
Across Canada, school dress codes prohibit all young people from wearing a wide range of clothing that may be seen as inappropriate or a distraction towards others learning ability. More girls and young woman are upset at foul rules set at schools that they say unfairly targets their wardrobes. This is why 17 year old Lauren Wiggins took a stand against "unjust standards" after she received detention for wearing a full length halter dress that school officials considered "inappropriate" and a "sexual distraction."
In past years, many schools have begun to restrict girls clothing to prevent 'distracting' male peers. This problem sends the wrong message to both genders, social researchers say, painting girls as shameful seductresses that must be contained and boys as aggressors unable to control their primal urges.
See what Shauna Pomerantz, a Brock university child and youth studies associate professor and author of Girl's, Style and School Identities: Dressing the Part had to indicate.
"It's demeaning to girls because it teaches them that their bodies are contaminated, distracting and evil. It's demeaning to boys because it teaches them that they don't know how to take responsibility for their actions.
The schools want the students to churn out good citizens so young women are expected to be nice, clean and polite and dress the part. They want girls that look like quintessential good girl Taylor Swift and not the more sexually provocative Miley Cyrus.
People get anxious when girls' style shifts, Pomerantz says, pegging the advert of the school dress code debate to around the rise of the Spice Girls and pop stars like Britney Spears. The early 2000s era of sexualized celebrity prompted marketers to hear low-rise jeans and crop tops to tween people.
"When schools crack down on girls' dress I think they're doing this out of fear and out of control ," says Pomerantz. "If we can control girls, then we can control sexual behaviour."
"Most dress codes are just designed to try to keep the focus on the learning and not focus on someone's body that may or may not be showing, or their undergarments or other things." Says Greg Ingersill, the superintendent of Anglophone East School District, which is also Wiggins's Harrison Trimble High School in Moncton, New Brunswick.
It's distracting to all genders when students see someone wearing something unexpected at school, he says, like pants hanging below a boy's buttocks.
Harrison Trimble High School dedicated a section of the code to "excessively revealing clothing, which includes shirts that expose backs and midriffs
Schools' codes of conduct often target girls' clothing and bodies in ways they don't address those of boys, says Rebecca Raby, the chair of Brock University's child and youth studies program. They refer to skirt lengths and cleavage exposure. Rarely boys are sent home for wearing tight muscle shirts and distracting girls, she shows. Pomerantz says it's a "very narrow and somewhat insulting" mould to fit young men into. It places the blame and unwanted attention on females who often dress for reasons other than to impress young men.
"The message is unbelievably negative" she declares. "Boys are aggressive, boys are out of control. Boys don't know how to think. Boys are disrespectful."
Nothing will change without education.
Pomerantz nor Raby argue that dress codes should be executed, both say schools should include students in outgoing discussions about clothing rules. Pomerantz also suggests that school studies should cover discussions about respect,sexual harassment and rape. "Girls are held responsible for anything bad that might happen to them because they were wearing spaghetti straps or short shorts or showing their cleavage or showing their tummies," Pomerantz speaks up. "If you don't talk to boys about how to respect girls' bodies, absolutely nothing will change."