Stuyvesant High School is considered one of New York City's top public high schools, but some of the students there think a recently imposed dress code is just dumb.
The New York Post reports that about 100 students decided to protest the code, which bans girls from exposing their shoulders, midriffs, lower backs, bras and underwear, by having a "Slutty Wednesday," during which they intentionally broke the conservative dress standards.
"We work our asses off here, and school is about learning. Clothing is not important," ninth-grader Lucy Greider told the Post. Greider says she's been brought into the office 10 times this year for violating the dress code, which was introduced last fall. "A lot of the classrooms don't have a/c's and when it is 80 degrees outside and it is really hot, it's perfectly OK to show a little skin."
A 2010 poll by the National Center for Education Statistics found that about 57 percent of public schools enforce some kind of dress code. In addition, 19 percent of public schools require school uniforms, a 12 percent increase over the previous decade.
Dress codes, including school uniforms, often drift in and out of the public debate. However, more restrictive dress codes are usually reserved for private school systems. In 1996, President Bill Clinton stirred up controversy when he had the Department of Education distribute manuals to all of the nation's 16,000 school districts on how they could legally enforce school uniform policies without violating the First Amendment.
source, with video.
edit: all right, mea culpa for not posting this article, which explains the really shitty sexism and sizeism that this policy enforces....which is why the students adopted the term "slutty wednesday" in the first place. i hope this will clarify things/chasten some of you.
The New York Post reports that about 100 students decided to protest the code, which bans girls from exposing their shoulders, midriffs, lower backs, bras and underwear, by having a "Slutty Wednesday," during which they intentionally broke the conservative dress standards.
"We work our asses off here, and school is about learning. Clothing is not important," ninth-grader Lucy Greider told the Post. Greider says she's been brought into the office 10 times this year for violating the dress code, which was introduced last fall. "A lot of the classrooms don't have a/c's and when it is 80 degrees outside and it is really hot, it's perfectly OK to show a little skin."
A 2010 poll by the National Center for Education Statistics found that about 57 percent of public schools enforce some kind of dress code. In addition, 19 percent of public schools require school uniforms, a 12 percent increase over the previous decade.
Dress codes, including school uniforms, often drift in and out of the public debate. However, more restrictive dress codes are usually reserved for private school systems. In 1996, President Bill Clinton stirred up controversy when he had the Department of Education distribute manuals to all of the nation's 16,000 school districts on how they could legally enforce school uniform policies without violating the First Amendment.
source, with video.
edit: all right, mea culpa for not posting this article, which explains the really shitty sexism and sizeism that this policy enforces....which is why the students adopted the term "slutty wednesday" in the first place. i hope this will clarify things/chasten some of you.
my school's dress code basically barred us from wearing shorts. it's hot in canada sometimes, come on now.
This really isn't that tough of a school policy unless there are rules I'm not aware of. I went to school in two different districts over my high school years, and one of them had rules similar to this and the other had rules even stricter that dictated hair color, shoelace color, shirt designs, etc., so I don't see why this is seen as strict.
The real problem is that there are classrooms without AC. I'd say that should really be the focus as there shouldn't be classes without AC. Plus, I'm feeling a little weird by students protesting and calling it "Slutty Wednesday", but I can't pinpoint why and it might just be me. IDK.
Hm, come to think of it...most of the rules we had for the boys had a tendency to single out fashion that would be more common among black students.
I have yet to find a thick-strapped tank that works for me.
I was working in a middle school and I was appalled at how the teachers spoke about the dress code behind students' backs. Mind you, only the dress codes for girls, of course. *sigh* While I'm not a huge fan of dress codes, my view is just, okay, I don't really care what you wear outside of school, it's your body, just know that this outfit isn't appropriate for school (or doesn't fit what somebody has deemed "appropriate," but as a student teacher I never wanted to say in front of other teachers that dress codes are arbitrary) but it might be fine elsewhere. The other teachers, though ... they frequently had discussions about the dress code for girls (mostly because the administration hadn't clearly defined what length of shorts were allowed) and UGH, the discussions were filled with such slut-shaming. JFC, it's a school without AC, can you not make assumptions that every girl who wears short shorts is doing so to look sexy? And even if they are, it's not your business.
It was so fucking sickening and I didn't really know what to do, being a student teacher, so I was always just like "I don't have any problem with how they dress, as long as they know those clothes are better left for places other than school." :|
JFC, obviously slut-shaming is horrible at any age, but considering this was a middle school it was really horrifying to hear things like "We might need to remind the students about the dress code, I'm seeing a lot of girls wearing slutty shorts today" about 12-14 year olds. :|
Edited at 2012-06-07 08:06 pm (UTC)
I mean, I get not wanting to see peoples underwear or bellies hanging out, but it gets hot in the summer! Let them wear tank tops and shorts for pete's sake!
I got in trouble a lot in high school for violating the "shorts shall not be shorter than your finger tips" rule simply because I'm 5'9" and it's hard to find shorts that long!
*fistbump of solidarity* Ah, the baggy shorts I sometimes ended up wearing because "normal" ones were so damn short on my six-foot frame. There really needed to be more clothes for tall girls, for srs.
Minus the shoulders part (which I am assuming would ban tank tops) I really don't see why this is unreasonable. From what I have seen working in various school districts, these rules seem to be the norm.
Edited at 2012-06-07 08:21 pm (UTC)
I think the questionable part would be, as others have pointed out, if there are no similar rules for male students. THAT would bother me more than not being allowed to wear spaghetti straps or whatever.
source
It's not just a question of the specific restrictions. The school is being shaming and inconsistent and the burden is falling entirely on the girls.
That said, I don't think there's anything wrong with a reasonable dress code that applies equally to all. Personally, I don't really want to see *anyone's* underwear or butt crack in a school/work setting.
I'm not sure how much this dress code singles people out and doesn't seem too unfair (except the shoulders). I think it will disproportionately hit the girls, but largely because these aren't styles boys commonly wear. It should apply equally though, even if it's clear that the dress code violations are probably not going to come from the boys
I feel like this article is more worth a read. It's the students in their own words:
I’m not sure what it is about me that causes me to become the administration’s target girl. Not all my friends have the same problem; few girls I know get called out as frequently as I do, and of course boys barely have to acknowledge the existence of a dress code at all. Perhaps this simply stems from some sort of miscommunication about the rules of the dress code. One day I came in wearing a jean skirt that actually extended beyond my fingertips (I had checked!) and, although wary of being called out, I was not totally surprised to be stopped anyway. What did surprise me was being informed that it wasn’t enough for the skirt to simply reach past my fingertips (à la the rules as stated in the student planner), it had to “go well past.” When I complained, indignant, that they just didn’t make dresses or skirts long enough to pass – not for teenagers, anyway – I was advised to “think knees,” or just wear pants. I was released with a warning, and left feeling like I’d been called out for wearing a bikini top to school, or a garter belt. It was an unpleasant, shaming experience.
With that being said, there definitely does seem to be something wrong and it isn't the dress code itself. It's the shits who run the school and actively shame the female students. It doesn't seem to be the dress code they are protesting so much as the mistreatment they receive from faculty and staff and the bullshit way the rules are so unevenly applied. The way those in power are treating them is fucked up and I'm glad they are taking a stand against it!
I also think that any dress code which has stricter rules for girls than boys is full of shit. Fight the power, kids. Also see what you can do about getting the escalators to run consistently.
And I know hot, born and raised in the deep South...110F in the shade and the damn A/C crapped out sometime in November and it's now blazing hot in April with 4 weeks left in school.
And number three, this is one of the top public schools in the nation and definitely the top one in the city. The kids who go to these schools, on average, have very involved parents and are far more likely to be upper-income than parents at most NYC schools.
And number four, why does showing your underwear - inadvertently or not - mean that you don't have respect for yourself? Why does the way a women dresses have to translate into how she feels about herself instead of just how she wants to look?
but maybe that's my bitterness over how everything associated with the football program at my high school got a pass when no one else did.
Seriously though, if there are issues with selective and/or inconsistent enforcement or the dress code really only addresses what girls wear then yeah, that's fucked up.
But the dress code itself sounds perfectly reasonable to me. It's less strict than the one I had at my high school where shorts were only allowed in September, May and June and they had to fall no more than three inches from the top of the knee cap. Skirts had to be the same length and yes, it's a pain in the ass to find shorts and skirts that long in the juniors department but somehow we all managed. It's been a long time but I seem to remember sleeveless tops being banned entirely.
The point is not about the specific tenets of the dress code, but the fact that this dress code (and dress codes in general) seeks to police the sexuality of the girls and are usually unevenly enforced - much more strictly for girls, lenient for boys. What is wrong with seeing the slip f a bra strap or a a shoulder under a tank top? The issue is not whether there is a right to wear tank tops, and that's a ridiculous argument. The question is whether it even makes sense and is doing anything worthwhile to ban tank tops in school - and for what? Because some teenage boy is going to pop a boner because he sees a shoulder?
That said: I have no big issue with the girls (or boys) wearing no-sleeve shirts. Or shorts/dresses/skirts that are shorter than at the knee. I do have an issue with booty shorts, low riding pants, and low-cut shirts that show bras or too much skin being worn at school. Showing too much skin is school is a big no for me. Mostly because I see school as a job: and you wouldn't show your underwear at your place of work. Children: if you wouldn't wear it at a professional job/funeral/family picture - don't wear it to school.
Yeah, all that stopped after some strongly worded phone calls from parents and a, ahem, protest where some girls wore their brightest, most patterned bras over their shirts for a bit.
And it's annoying because no matter how ridiculous SHE was being, I was still incredibly embarrassed by the way she did that.
Our dress code was that we were to only wear collared shirts in school colors (red, white, grey, and blue) and they had to be solid. Undershirts also must be in solid school colors and they must be worn if the collared shirts will show cleavage but guys were allowed to leave their button-up shirts half open which really pissed me off because they were giving detention to girls for showing cleavage when they WERE BENDING OVER. It's like they wanted us to be in turtlenecks instead. Girls were not allowed to wear skirts and long shorts/capris (technically they had the fingertip rule but girls who were wearing those floor length skirts were always sent to the office for ~dress code violation~ same for girls who wore capris since they counted as ~shorts~). And guys were allowed to wear shorts ofc and the fingertip rule didn't apply to them (so many guys wore shorts that stopped mid-thigh).
Edited at 2012-06-07 11:42 pm (UTC)