With new buzz surrounding the St. Stephen’s dress code in the midst of policy crackdown (and talk of… uniforms?), we thought it was time to write an article about this issue. So we interviewed your friends and teachers to find out what people really think about this policy: their answers might surprise you.
Almost half of the students we surveyed do not think the dress code is altogether “strict.” However, many students believe that some parts are stricter than others, while others, especially girls, think it is “biased” or “weird.” One response hints at why this might be the case: “Men shouldn’t be allowed to dress code girls.” When interviewing faculty, there was some concern and awkwardness around male teachers dress-coding girls, and even a student pointed this out, claiming,“It’s uncomfortable for both the male teachers and the students.” It is clear that many students and teachers do not feel comfortable with this practice.
There is also a popular concern that the dress code is sexist. Part of this may have to do with who enforces the dress code, and it definitely has something to do with where women’s fashion is right now. If you walk into a store—even Target—you will be faced with a rack of cropped shirts. This is because retailers are marketing during a summer with record-breaking numbers and because many American consumers find them appealing, whether because of their style or the heat. Several girls inside and outside of our survey are frustrated that the dress code is incongruent with the weather and what is being sold in stores. Many are concerned with the prohibition of crop tops, though several think the shorts policy is manageable. These concerns will probably only increase with the number of days of over 100-degree weather we have each year.
In terms of uniforms, most students vehemently oppose them, claiming they “would leave” or calling for teachers to also be uniformed. Some who have had to wear uniforms before coming to St. Stephen’s “hated having to wear the same clothes every day” without having much time to “dress how [they] want,” while others think there is a disconnect between the notion that uniforms help students focus when they actually do the opposite. “We’d have a better school experience if everyone could just wear what they felt most confident in.”
Vivian Chatterjee, 11th day, is particularly concerned that the dress code is a distraction: “The argument that simply taking ‘gendered language’ out of the school dress code is enough to scrub the generations of sexism and body shaming caked onto the policy, intentionally ignores the actual problem. The fact that I’m writing this right now speaks to the asymmetrical effects of dress code on fem-presenting people. I should be doing my History homework or studying for the Chemistry II quiz that I have tomorrow, or I should be preparing slides for an alliance space chapel talk, but instead I’m writing this critique. My focus on the dress code has begun to take priority over things in my life that actually matter. Dress code is a patriarchal tactic used to distract fem-presenting students from their studies and extracurriculars through placing emphasis on appearance, creating distrustful relationships with teachers, and forcing us to write essays on its behalf at ten o’clock at night. Instead of waking up and pulling on whatever makes us feel comfortable, we now have to wake up and think about what makes you comfortable. I spent the week after my first dress code violation wondering which of my teachers had chosen to write me up.”
Chatterjee believes that the school’s resources would be better served elsewhere: “I would love to see the dedication you use when hunting down an inch of midriff turned towards finding more teachers who identify as queer or people of colour. This institution claims to strive for diversity, equity and inclusion, but its actions do not deliver. This school raised us on the anti-establishment notions of Catcher in the Rye and the reform spirit of the Progressive Movement, but it doesn’t believe we would use those ideas and years of debates and essay writing to pull their policies into question.”
Faculty are more mixed when it comes to evaluating how strict the dress code is than students. Only about a fourth of the teachers surveyed thought the dress code was too strict. Most agreed that it was just right. “I think it’s fine as is,” one said. Another said, “It’s time to get rid of the dress code. It leans itself to be genderist because it’s nearly always about punitive actions toward our students who dress in a more feminine way.” When asked about this difference in ideas among students and faculty, Mr. Doig said, “The dress code is not perfect, and there are problems with the dress code, especially with regard to consistency in enforcement. There are also some cultural issues with the dress code. We are a diverse community, so coming up with a dress code that satisfies everybody’s idea of what dress is culturally appropriate for school is not an easy thing to do.”
When asked what the purpose of the dress code in a school like St. Stephen’s is, there were two responses from the students. They either thought that the goal of the dress code was to “ensure professionalism” and to be “respectful” in a school environment or that it was to prevent the “sexualization” of students. In contrast to the student responses, the faculty responses to this question of purpose were more consistent, however, confusion still remains. One teacher responded, “I’m not entirely sure [of the purpose of dress code]. Perhaps to conform to societal norms at schools like ours?” The point of dress code is “to establish reasonable standards of appearance appropriate to a community of children and adults engaged in academic work” said another teacher, and this seems to be the consensus among faculty.
Concerns exist among students regarding the evolution of dress code over the years. “I feel like it’s gotten’ stricter,” one said. While this is technically untrue, as the dress code was rewritten a few years ago to contain fewer restrictions, faculty and students alike acknowledge the changes in dress code that have led to the belief that the dress code itself has become more strict. “I think it’s being enforced more,” said Mrs. Gibbs. “The problem lies in accountability. There is a discrepancy between faculty/administration that hold students accountable and those that do not. When lack of consistency across the administration and faculty to enforce the rules happens, it makes those that enforce it feel and look like the ‘bad guys’” said another teacher. Inconsistency in enforcement, lack of communication about the purpose of dress code, as well as what appears to be a recent increase in enforcement of dress code seem to be at the root of the problem of the miscommunication of the issues surrounding this controversial topic between the administration and students.
