Sunday, November 8, 2009

dress is always code

Gender Gap = Generation Gap?

Can a Boy Wear a Skirt to School?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/fashion/08cross.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=fashion

Excerpts:

Dress code conflicts often reflect a generational divide, with students coming of age in a culture that is more accepting of ambiguity and difference than that of the adults who make the rules....

Dress is always code, particularly for teenagers eager to telegraph evolving identities. Each year, schools hope to quell disruption by prohibiting the latest styles that signify a gang affiliation, a sexual act or drug use.

But when officials want to discipline a student whose wardrobe expresses sexual orientation or gender variance, they must consider antidiscrimination policies, mental health factors, community standards and classroom distractions.....


When a principal asks a boy to leave his handbag at home, is the request an attempt to protect a student from harassment or harassment itself?...

“One day I heard a student say, ‘Man, there was a girl in the guy’s restroom, standing up using the urinal! What’s up with that?’ ” Mr. Grace recalled.

Bathrooms can be dangerous for transgender students. But the other student replied off-handedly, “That wasn’t a girl. That’s just Jack.”

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm curious as to where gender dress norms will be reterritorialized an in particular, what new creative singularities for gender await. A thousand tiny genders?

Kacie said...

"A thousand tiny genders"! I like that. interesting! I wonder if we will ever choose, granted that there is a choice, to stop our cat-pissing habits and be done with territorializng and normalizing.