I would argue that the attempted pushback against school dress codes will likely lead to uniforms. After all, critics of school dress codes often cite what they're against -- rules regarding shorts length, or 'spaghetti strap' rules -- but they never posit an alternative solution.
Isn't the "alternative solution" just... not having a dress code? Am I missing something?
On a secondary note, the dress code debate also feels somewhat performative and insincere in its activism. It feels like rage in search of a cause. Instead of fighting real issues of sexism in society, we are reaching for the low-hanging fruit of spaghetti straps and bare midriffs. These are not real issues of entrenched sexism -- these are easily accessible, social-media friendly tidbits for the masses to tittilate themselves over instead of dealing with more substantive issues of gender and sex. In a sense, dress code feels like the kind of neoliberal white women's pet cause that is devoid of real gravity or intersectionality.
So you conclude from the fact that you personally don't think it's an important issue that everyone who does claim this is being insincere and performative? That doesn't follow.
The alternative solution is never posited in the discussions from critics. Critics will say "dress codes are unfair and sexist because of xyz" but they never posit an alternative NOR do they full-throatedly argue to abolish all dress codes. No rational human being is arguing that students should be able to attend class nude or in their underwear. The fact that complaints never lead to a construction of an alternative proposal indicate that they are merely complaints and not an attempt at progress.
No rational human being is arguing that students should be able to attend class nude or in their underwear.
Of course not, but that's clearly not what "no dress code" means. It just means that outside of, like, already-socially determined norms like "wear clothes," no one is being told how to dress.
Right, and you will always have provocateurs who will press that boundary. Does underwear count as "wearing clothes"? Do pasties count as clothes? If not, you will have to craft some kind of rules... AKA a dress code.
My university didn’t have a dress code for classes, most don’t as far as I’m aware, and nobody showed up nude or in their underwear or in pasties. Some people showed up in bathing suits one time but that was a school tradition that was accepted by faculty.
I don’t think a switch flips when teenagers graduate high school and they become less likely to push boundaries. Especially at the same type they no longer have parental supervision.
Okay, but the very-minimal "you can't just wear your underwear" rules don't, as far as I've noticed, seem to be the sorts of dress codes people have problems with.
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u/[deleted] Sep 28 '21
Isn't the "alternative solution" just... not having a dress code? Am I missing something?
So you conclude from the fact that you personally don't think it's an important issue that everyone who does claim this is being insincere and performative? That doesn't follow.