Facing the dress code
Marilyn Monroe and her world-renowned mole. [source]
I made it through my visit to the junior high more or less unscathed. The principal did begin to ask me to remove my facial piercing (I have had a monroe for the past 3 years) lest I violate the dress code, but I said I would have to go back to the piercing studio to have it re-set. He then let it slide on grounds that I would only be there for the first hour of classes. I almost offered to put a Band-Aid on it, only because a Band-Aid on my face would be so much more distracting than a diamond stud.
I have never been a big fan of junior high and high school dress codes. When I was younger, this was because the dress code prevented me from dying my hair pink, but now that I am older it is largely because of the way that they work to reinforce standards of beauty and gender and various other things that make me squirm. I have yet to read through one of these codes that isn’t based on deeply entrenched idea of gender-appropriate dressing, and I think that often the codes help train students to be judgmental weasels about things ranging from facial piercings to short skirts. Dress codes enforce a limited level of sameness while simultaneously working to stigmatize rejections of sameness. The most commonly enforced aspect of dress codes seems to be the rules governing the lengths of shorts and skirts, and those particular rules further police girls’ sexuality and provide ammo for teenagers eager to label female classmates as sluts.
Maybe girls shouldn’t be wearing short shorts to class, but, maybe boys should learn how to not freak out any time they can see an extra inch of thigh. Frankly, I think the latter issue is more troubling, as it’s anchored in a set of cultural beliefs about boys and men not being able to control themselves, and women having to serve as the foundation for the sexual morality of an entire society.